- 77th Day of 2015 288 Remaining
- Spring Begins in 2 Days
- Sunrise:7:14
- Sunset:7:20
- 12 Hours 6 Minutes
- Moon Rise:6:01pm
- Moon Set:5:43am
- Phase:
- Full Moon April 4 @ 5:07am
The name Full Pink Moon came from the herb moss pink, or wild ground phlox, which is one of the earliest widespread flowers of the spring. Other names for this month’s celestial body include the Full Sprouting Grass Moon, the Egg Moon, and among coastal tribes the Full Fish Moon, because this was the time that the shad swam upstream to spawn.
- Tides
- High:9:48am/10:47pm
- Low:3:43am/4:12pm
- Rainfall:
- This Year to Date:17.04
- Last Year:8.68
- Avg YTD:20.30
- Annual Avg:23.80
- Holidays
- Awkward Moments Day
- Forgive Mom And Dad Day
- Kick Butts Day
- National Biodiesel Day
- National Oatmeal Cookie Day
- National Sloppy Joe Day
- National Flag and Anthem Day-Aryba
- Men’s Day/Soldier’s Day-Mongolia
- On This Day
- 0037 --- The Roman Senate annuls Tiberius’ will and proclaims Caligula emperor.
- 1766 --- After four months of widespread protest in America, the British Parliament repeals the Stamp Act, a taxation measure enacted to raise revenues for a standing British army in America.
- 1834 --- In England, six agricultural laborers are sentenced to seven years of banishment to Australia’s New South Wales penal colony for their trade union activities. Public reaction throughout the country made the six into popular heroes, and in 1836, after continual agitation, the sentence against the so-called “Tolpuddle Martyrs” was finally remitted. Only one of the six returned to Tolpuddle; the rest emigrated to Canada, where one Tolpuddle Martyr–John Standfield–became mayor of his district. The popular movement surrounding the Tolpuddle controversy is generally regarded as the beginning of trade unionism in Great Britain.
- 1850 --- Henry Wells and William G. Fargo join with several other investors to launch their namesake business. The discovery of gold in California in 1849 prompted a huge spike in the demand for cross-country shipping. Wells and Fargo decided to take advantage of these great opportunities. In July 1852, their company shipped its first loads of freight from the East Coast to mining camps scattered around northern California.
- 1902 --- Enrico Caruso recorded 10 arias for the Gramophone Company. He was the first well-known performer to make a record.
- 1918 --- The first U.S. ocean-going concrete ship, the S.S. Faith, was launched in Oakland, California.
- 1922 --- Mohandas K. Gandhi was sentenced to six years in prison for civil disobedience in India. He served 2 years of the sentence.
- 1925 --- The worst tornado in U.S. history passes through eastern Missouri, southern Illinois, and southern Indiana, killing 695 people, injuring some 13,000 people, and causing $17 million in property damage. Known as the “Tri-State Tornado,” the deadly twister began its northeast track in Ellington, Missouri, but southern Illinois was the hardest hit. More than 500 of the total 695 people who perished were killed in southern Illinois, including 234 in Murphrysboro and 127 in West Frankfort.
- 1933 --- American automaker Studebaker, then heavily in debt, goes into receivership. The company’s president, Albert Erskine, resigned and later that year committed suicide. Studebaker eventually rebounded from its financial troubles, only to close its doors for the final time in 1966.
- 1937 --- Nearly 300 students in Texas are killed by an explosion of natural gas at their school. At 3:05 p.m. the 694 students and 40 teachers in attendance at the Consolidated School were looking forward to the final bell, which was to ring in 10 minutes. Instead, a huge and powerful explosion, which literally blew the roof off of the building, leveled the school. The blast was felt by people 40 miles away and killed most victims instantly. People rushed to the scene to pull out survivors; hundreds of injured students were hauled from the rubble. Miraculously, some students walked away unharmed
- 1940 --- Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini held a meeting at the Brenner Pass during which the Italian dictator agreed to join in Germany's war against France and Britain.
- 1950 --- In a surprise raid on the communist People’s Republic of China (PRC), military forces of the Nationalist Chinese government on Taiwan invade the mainland and capture the town of Sungmen. Because the United States supported the attack, it resulted in even deeper tensions and animosities between the U.S. and the PRC.
- 1954 --- RKO Pictures was sold for $23,489,478. It became the first motion picture studio to be owned by an individual. The person was Howard Hughes.
- 1962 --- France and the leaders of the Front de Liberation Nationale (FLN) sign a peace agreement to end the seven-year Algerian War, signaling the end of 130 years of colonial French rule in Algeria.
- 1965 --- Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov became the first man to spacewalk when he left the Voskhod II space capsule while in orbit around the Earth. He was outside the spacecraft for about 20 minutes.
- 1969 --- U.S. B-52 bombers are diverted from their targets in South Vietnam to attack suspected communist base camps and supply areas in Cambodia for the first time in the war. President Nixon approved the mission–formally designated Operation Breakfast–at a meeting of the National Security Council on March 15. This mission and subsequent B-52 strikes inside Cambodia became known as the “Menu” bombings. A total of 3,630 flights over Cambodia dropped 110,000 tons of bombs during a 14-month period through April 1970.
- 1977 --- The Clash's first single, "White Riot," was released.
- 1986 --- The U.S. Treasury Department announced that a clear, polyester thread was to be woven into bills in an effort to thwart counterfeiters.
- 1990 --- Thirteen paintings were stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. The value was $100 million making it the largest art robbery in history.
- 1992 --- Leona Hemsly was sentenced to 4 years in prison for tax evasion
- 1994 --- Four guns and 25 boxes of ammo were confiscated from Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain after his wife, Courtney Love, called police fearing he was going to commit suicide. He did commit suicide about 3 weeks later.
- 2000 --- The U.S. Postal Service issued a 20-cent stamped postcard that featured the historic Ryman Auditorium, the home of the Grand Ole Opry for more than 30 years.
- Birthdays
- Queen Latifah
- Edward Everett Horton
- Irene Cara
- Ernest Gallo
- Vanessa Williams
- Grover Cleveland (22nd and 24th President)
- Rudolph Diesel
- Bonnie Blair
- Neville Chamberlain
- Peter Graves
- George Plimpton
- John Updike
- Frederick de Klerk
- Charlie Pride
- John Updike
