- 46th Day of 2012 / 320 Remaining
- 34 Days Until Spring Begins
- Sunrise:7:00
- Sunset:5:49
- 10 Hr 49 Min
- Moon Rise:1:56am
- Moon Set:11:53am
- Moon’s Phase: 38 %
- The Next Full Moon
- March 8 @ 1:41 am
- Full Worm Moon
- Full Sap Moon
- Full Crust Moon
- Lenten Moon
As the temperature begins to warm and the ground begins to thaw, earthworm casts appear, heralding the return of the robins. The more northern tribes knew this Moon as the Full Crow Moon, when the cawing of crows signaled the end of winter; or the Full Crust Moon, because the snow cover becomes crusted from thawing by day and freezing at night. The Full Sap Moon, marking the time of tapping maple trees, is another variation. To the settlers, it was also known as the Lenten Moon, and was considered to be the last full Moon of winter.
- Tides
- High:4:22am/6:45pm
- Low:11:41am/11:18pm
- Rainfall
- This Year:6.76
- Last Year:12.85
- Normal To Date:14.97
- Annual Average: 22.28
- Holidays
- Remember the Maine Day
- Susan B. Anthony Day
- National Gumdrop Day
- Stop and Smell Your Compost Pile Day
- Mawlid Al Nabi-Islamic(Birthday of the Prophet Muhammad)
- National Day-Serbia
- Maple Leaf Day-Canada
- Rose Monday(Tarija)-Bolivia
- National Lamb Day-New Zealand
- Parinirvana (Mahayana)-Buddhism
- Lupercalia -
A very ancient, possibly pre-Roman pastoral festival, observed on February 13 through 15 to avert evil spirits and purify the city, releasing health and fertility. Lupercalia subsumed Februa, an earlier-origin spring cleansing ritual held on the same date, which gives the month of February its name.The name Lupercalia was believed in antiquity to evince some connection with the Ancient Greek festival of the Arcadian Lykaia (from Ancient Greek: λύκος — lukos, "wolf", Latin lupus) and the worship of Lycaean Pan, assumed to be a Greek equivalent to Faunus, as instituted by Evander. In Roman mythology, Lupercus is a god sometimes identified with the Roman god Faunus, who is the Roman equivalent of the Greek god Pan. Lupercus is the god of shepherds. His festival, celebrated on the anniversary of the founding of his temple on February 15, was called the Lupercalia. His priests wore goatskins. The historian Justin mentions an image of "the Lycaean god, whom the Greeks call Pan and the Romans Lupercus," nude save for the girdle of goatskin, which stood in the Lupercal, the cave where Romulus and Remus were suckled by a she-wolf. There, on the Ides of February (in February the ides is the 13th), a goat and a dog were sacrificed, and salt mealcakes prepared by the Vestal Virgins were burnt.
- On This Day In …
- 1758 --- Mustard, that tangy, yellow stuff made for hot dogs and hamburgers, was advertised for the first time in America. Who do you think was responsible for bringing mustard to the U.S.A.? No, not French’s, nor Grey Poupon. It was Benjamin Franklin. We wonder whether Ben preferred the yellow or the dark mustard -- and what he would have thought of the many uses of mustard in haute cuisine.
- 1764 --- The city of St. Louis was established.
- 1799 --- Printed ballots were authorized for use in elections in the State of Pennsylvania. Originally these ballots, which are still used in many smaller municipalities across the county, were called ‘vest-pocket tickets’. Why? Because the ballot ticket slid into a heavy-paper pocket which fit nicely in a vest pocket.
- 1842 --- Adhesive postage stamps were used for the first time by the City Dispatch Post (Office) in New York City.
- 1879 --- U.S. President Hayes signed a bill that allowed female attorneys to argue cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.
- 1903 --- Toy store owner and inventor Morris Michtom places two stuffed bears in his shop window, advertising them as Teddy bears. Michtom had earlier petitioned President Theodore Roosevelt for permission to use his nickname, Teddy. The president agreed and, before long, other toy manufacturers began turning out copies of Michtom's stuffed bears, which soon became a national childhood institution.
- 1932 --- George Burns and Gracie Allen debuted as regulars on The Guy Lombardo Show on CBS radio. The couple was so popular that soon, they would have their own Burns & Allen Show. George and Gracie continued on radio for 18 years before making the switch to TV. All in all, they were big hits for three decades.
- 1933 --- Giuseppe Zangara shoots Anton Cermak, the mayor of Chicago, in Miami, Florida. Zangara's shots missed President-elect Franklin Roosevelt, who was with Cermak at the time. Cermak was seriously wounded and died on March 6. Immediately after Mayor Cermak died from the gunshot wounds, Zangara was indicted and arraigned for murder. He pled guilty and died in the electric chair on March 20, only two weeks after Cermak died. Today such a swift outcome would be practically unheard of, particularly where the death penalty is concerned.
- 1941 --- Duke Ellington and his orchestra recorded one of big band’s all time classics on this day. Take the "A" Train was recorded at Victor’s Hollywood studio and became the Duke’s signature song.
- 1946 --- Edith Houghton, age 33, was signed as a baseball scout by the Philadelphia Phillies; the first female scout in the major leagues.
- 1953 --- The first American to win the women’s world figure skating championship was 17-year-old Tenley Albright. She won the competition in Davos, Switzerland.
- 1954 --- Big Joe Turner recorded the original "Shake, Rattle & Roll".
- 1957 --- ‘The Banana Boat Song’ (Day-O) by Harry Belafonte is number one on the charts.
- 1965 --- In accordance with a formal proclamation by Queen Elizabeth II of England, a new Canadian national flag is raised above Parliament Hill in Ottawa, the capital of Canada. Beginning in 1610, Lower Canada, a new British colony, flew Great Britain's Union Jack, or Royal Union Flag. In 1763, as a result of the French and Indian Wars, France lost its sizable colonial possessions in Canada, and the Union Jack flew all across the wide territory of Canada. In 1867, the Dominion of Canada was established as a self-governing federation within the British Empire, and three years later a new flag, the Canadian Red Ensign, was adopted. The Red Ensign was a solid red flag with the Union Jack occupying the upper-left corner and a crest situated in the right portion of the flag. The search for a new national flag that would better represent an independent Canada began in earnest in 1925 when a committee of the Privy Council began to investigate possible designs. Later, in 1946, a select parliamentary committee was appointed with a similar mandate and examined more than 2,600 submissions. Agreement on a new design was not reached, and it was not until the 1960s, with the centennial of Canadian self-rule approaching, that the Canadian Parliament intensified its efforts to choose a new flag. In December 1964, Parliament voted to adopt a new design. Canada's national flag was to be red and white, the official colors of Canada as decided by King George V of Britain in 1921, with a stylized 11-point red maple leaf in its center. Queen Elizabeth II proclaimed February 15, 1965, as the day on which the new flag would be raised over Parliament Hill and adopted by all Canadians. Today, Canada's red maple leaf flag is one of the most recognizable national flags in the world.
- 1971 --- Britain and Ireland "decimalised" their currencies, making one pound equal to 100 new pence instead of 240 pence.
- 1976 --- Bette Midler bailed seven members of her entourage out of jail. They were arrested on cocaine and marijuana possession charges.
- 1986 --- Whitney Houston reached the #1 spot on the music charts. Her single, How Will I Know, replaced a song recorded by her first cousin, Dionne Warwick (That’s What Friends Are For). Whitney is the daughter of singer Cissy Houston. This day also saw Sade’s album Promise hit #1 in the U.S.
- 1999 --- Governor Jesse Ventura proclaimed Rolling Stones Day in Minnesota, and congratulated 55-year-old Keith Richards for being "still alive." Ventura once worked as a Rolling Stones bodyguard.
- 2002 --- U.S. President George W. Bush approved Nevada's Yucca Mountain as a site for long-term disposal of radioactive nuclear waste.
- 2004 --- Race driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the Daytona 500 on the same track where his father was killed three years earlier.
- Birthdays
- Galileo Galilei
- Susan B Anthony
- John Anderson
- Melissa Manchester
- Matt Groening
- Jane Seymour
- Henry Steinway
- John Barrymore
- Harold Arlen
- Roger Chaffee
- Cyrus Hall McCormick
- Charles Tiffany
- Cesar Romero
- Harvey Korman
- Marisa Berenson
- Chris Farley
- Emily May Young