- 9th Day of 2013 / 356 Remaining
- 70 Days Until The First Day of Spring
- Sunrise:7:25
- Sunset:5:09
- 9 Hours 44 Minutes of Daylight
- Moon Rise:5:09am
- Moon Set:3:16pm
- Moon’s Phase: 6 %
- The Next Full Moon
- January 26 @ 8:40pm
- Full Wolf Moon
Amid the cold and deep snows of midwinter, the wolf packs howled hungrily outside Indian villages. Thus, the name for January’s full Moon. Sometimes it was also referred to as the Old Moon, or the Moon After Yule. Some called it the Full Snow Moon, but most tribes applied that name to the next Moon.
- Tides
- High: 9:14am/11:11pm
- Low: 2:50am/4:06pm
- Rainfall (measured July 1 – June 30)
- This Year:13.35
- Last Year:3.34
- Normal To Date:10.41
- Annual Seasonal Average:23.80
- Holidays
- National Static Electricity Day
- Play God Day
- National Apricot Day
- Martyr’s Day-Panama
- On This Day In …
- 1776 --- Thomas Paine publishes his pamphlet "Common Sense," setting forth his arguments in favor of American independence. Although little used today, pamphlets were an important medium for the spread of ideas in the 16th through 19th centuries.
- 1788 --- Beside a long tidal river or in American Indian-speak, Quinnehtukqut, is Connecticut, the state that entered the United States of America this day. Hartford, the capital of Connecticut ... and of the insurance industry ... boasts having the oldest newspaper, "Hartford Courant", which has been publishing since 1764. Many of the state’s symbols have been there as long, if not longer: state fossil: eubrontes giganteus; bird: American robin; flower: mountain laurel; tree: white oak; animal: sperm whale; mineral: garnet; shellfish: Eastern oyster; insect: praying mantis; hero: Nathan Hale. Other symbols came later: song: "Yankee Doodle" and ship: USS Nautilus. Nicknamed the Nutmeg State, Connecticut, the fifth state, also has an official designation: the Constitution State. Easy to figure out: In the 1630s, the English settlements along the tidal river gathered together to form the Connecticut Colony and wrote the first constitution in the new world, "Fundamental Orders". Connecticut’s motto: He who transplanted still sustains, or in Latin-speak: Qui transtulit sustinet.
- 1793 --- Jean-Pierre Blanchard made the first successful balloon flight in the United States. Blanchard’s balloon, filled with hydrogen, took off from Philadelphia, PA, soared to 5,800 feet and eventually wound up some 15 miles away, in Woodbury, New Jersey. President George Washington was in Philadelphia for the event, along with Thomas Jefferson, Henry Clay, Paul Revere, John Adams and other bigwigs. Just before takeoff, the President slipped Blanchard a note intended to allay the fears and suspicions of local farmers who saw Blanchard drop out of the sky
- 1848 --- The first commercial bank was established in San Francisco.
- 1937 --- The first issue of the periodical LOOK went on sale. The initial issue sold 700,000 copies and within a month, LOOK became a biweekly magazine.
- 1956 --- The first ‘Dear Abby’ column was published.
- 1965 --- The James Bond movie "Goldfinger," which features the suave British super-spy driving an Aston Martin Silver Birch DB5 sports car, opens in theaters across the U.S. Aston Martins would go on to appear in a number of other Bond films.Aston Martin's roots date back to 1913, when Robert Bamford and Lionel Martin formed a company in London to sell Singer cars. The following year, the men changed the name of their business to Aston Martin (in honor of Lionel Martin's successful performances at hill climb races at Aston Clinton in Buckinghamshire, England) and eventually began producing their own high-quality sports cars. By the 1920s, Aston Martin cars were racing in international competitions, including the French Grand Prix and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. In 1947, British industrialist David Brown bought Aston Martin and the next year launched the DB1 (the name comes from his initials). In 1959, an Aston Martin DBR1 took first place at the 24 Hours of Le Mans; the company also won the World Sports Car Championship that year. (Afterward, the company took a lengthy hiatus from racing, returning again in 2004.
- 1969 --- “I Heard It Through The Grapevine" by Marvin Gaye is #1 on the charts.
- 1969 --- The supersonic aeroplane Concorde made its first trial flight, at Bristol.
- 1972 --- Reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes, speaking to reporters by telephone from the Bahamas, said a purported biography of him by Clifford Irving was a fake. Irving and his wife had received a $750,000 advance from the McGraw-Hill publishing house for the book. Clifford Irving was eventually imprisoned and ordered to repay the advance, plus damages.
- 1972 --- In Hong Kong harbor, a fire breaks out aboard the Queen Elizabeth, and by the next morning the famous vessel lies in a wreck on the bottom of the sea floor. The RMS Queen Elizabeth, boasting a 200,000-horsepower engine and an elegant art deco style, made its public debut in 1946, leaving Southampton, England, on its first luxurious run across the Atlantic. However, before her days as a lavish passenger liner, the Queen Elizabeth steamed across the ocean for another purpose--as a transport vehicle during World War II. During the late 1930s, workers at a Scottish construction site began building a sea vessel for the Cunard Line ocean liner company that would be larger and more luxurious than anything the world had ever seen. However, the outbreak of World War II in 1939 prevented the completion of the Queen Elizabeth's finer points. The vessel was hastily made seaworthy for wartime service and was used as a transport vessel for the Allies, carrying massive amounts of supplies and several hundred thousand troops around the world until the war's end. After her retirement from the Cunard Line in 1968, the Queen Elizabeth was auctioned off to the highest bidder, eventually being purchased in 1970 by C.W. Tung, a Taiwanese shipping tycoon. Tung renamed the vessel Seawise University and began work on converting the ship into a learning center that would tour the world. However, in early 1972, as the mobile university neared completion, a fire destroyed the pride of the Cunard Line.
- 1977 --- Super Bowl XI (at Pasadena): Oakland Raiders 32, Minnesota Vikings 14. John Matuszak and the Raiders defense kept Vikings QB Fran Tarkenton busy all day. MVP: Raiders’ WR Fred Biletnikoff. Tickets: $20.00.
- 1986 --- Kodak got out of the instant camera business after 10 years. A nasty court battle didn’t go their way. The court claimed that Kodak copied Polaroid patents. Sixteen million camera owners were offered free stock, coupons or a replacement camera.
- 1987 --- The White House released a memorandum prepared for President Ronald Reagan in January 1986 that showed a definite link between U.S. arms sales to Iran and the release of American hostages in Lebanon.
- 2007 --- Steve Jobs unveils the iPhone—a touchscreen mobile phone with an iPod, camera and Web-browsing capabilities, among other features—at the Macworld convention in San Francisco. Jobs, dressed in his customary jeans and black mock turtleneck, called the iPhone a "revolutionary and magical product that is literally five years ahead of any other mobile phone." When it went on sale in the United States six months later, on June 29, amidst huge hype, thousands of customers lined up at Apple stores across the country to be among the first to purchase an iPhone.
- Birthdays
- Simone de Beauvoir
- Joseph B Strauss
- Judith Krantz
- Bart Starr
- Joan Baez
- Jimmy Page
- David Johansen
- Crystal Gayle
- Carrie Chapman Catt
- Richard M Nixon
- Gypsy Rose Lee
- Fernando Lamas
- Herbert Lom
- Bob Denver
- Gracie Fields
- Vilma Banky
- Chic Young
- Susannah York