- 86th Day of 2013 / 279 Remaining
- 86 Days Until The First Day of Summer
- Sunrise:7:00
- Sunset:7:29
- 12 Hours 29 Minutes of Daylight
- Moon Rise:8:16pm
- Moon Set:6:58am
- Full Moon
- March 27 @ 2:30am
- Full Worm Moon
- Full Crust Moon
- Full Lenten Moon
- Full Crow Moon
- Full Sap 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:11:47am/11:52pm
- Low:5:30am/5:35pm
- Rainfall (measured July 1 – June 30)
- This Year:14.73
- Last Year:11.85
- Normal To Date:21.09
- Annual Seasonal Average:23.80
- Holidays
- Skyscraper Day
- Education and Sharing Day
- Quirky Country Music Song Titles Day
- National Spanish Paella Day
- Summer Daylight Savings Time-Europe
- Summer Time-United Kingdom
- Evacuation Day-Angola
- Mount Arafat Day-Kuwait
- On This Day In …
- 1513 --- Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon sighted Florida.
- 1794 --- The U.S. Congress and President Washington authorized the creation of the U.S. Navy.
- 1839 --- The University of Oregon defeats The Ohio State University 46–33 on this day in 1939 to win the first-ever NCAA men’s basketball tournament. The Final Four, as the tournament became known, has grown exponentially in size and popularity since 1939. By 2005, college basketball had become the most popular sporting event among gamblers, after the Super Bowl. The majority of that betting takes place at tournament time, when Las Vegas, the internet and office pools around the country see action from sports enthusiasts and once-a-year gamblers alike.
- 1860 --- The device which, officially, is a “covered gimlet screw with a ‘T’ handle” or, corkscrew, was patented by M. L. Byrn of New York City.
- 1866 --- U.S. President Andrew Johnson vetoed the civil rights bill, which later became the 14th amendment.
- 1912 --- Helen Taft, wife of President William Taft, and the Viscountess Chinda, wife of the Japanese ambassador, plant two Yoshina cherry trees on the northern bank of the Potomac River, near the Jefferson Memorial. The event was held in celebration of a gift, by the Japanese government, of 3,020 cherry trees to the U.S. government. The planting of Japanese cherry trees along the Potomac was first proposed by socialite Eliza Scidmore, who raised money for the endeavor. Helen Taft had lived in Japan while her husband was president of the Philippine Commission, and knowing the beauty of cherry blossoms she embraced Scidmore's idea. After learning of the first lady's interest, the Japanese consul in New York suggested making a gift of the trees to the U.S. government from the city of Tokyo. In January 1910, 2,000 Japanese cherry trees arrived in Washington from Japan but had fallen prey to disease during the journey. In response, a private Japanese citizen donated the funds to transport a new batch of trees, and 3,020 specimens were taken from the famous collection on the bank of the Arakawa River in Adachi Ward, a suburb of Tokyo. In March 1912, the trees arrived in Washington, and on March 27 the first two trees were planted along the Potomac River's Tidal Basin in a formal ceremony. The rest of the trees were then planted along the basin, in East Potomac Park, and on the White House grounds.
- 1917 --- The Seattle Metropolitans, of the Pacific Coast League of Canada, defeated the Montreal Canadiens and became the first U.S. hockey team to win the Stanley Cup.
- 1945 --- Ella Fitzgerald and the Delta Rhythm Boys recorded "It’s Only a Paper Moon."
- 1946 --- Four-month long strikes at both General Electric and General Motors ended with a wage increase.
- 1958 --- Soviet First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev replaces Nicolay Bulganin as Soviet premier, becoming the first leader since Joseph Stalin to simultaneously hold the USSR's two top offices. Khrushchev, born into a Ukrainian peasant family in 1894, worked as a mine mechanic before joining the Soviet Communist Party in 1918. In 1929, he went to Moscow and steadily rose in the party ranks and in 1938 was made first secretary of the Ukrainian Communist Party. He became a close associate of Joseph Stalin, the authoritarian leader of the Soviet Union since 1924. In 1953, Stalin died, and Khrushchev grappled with Stalin's chosen successor, Georgy Malenkov, for the position of first secretary of the Communist Party. Khrushchev won the power struggle, and Malenkov was made premier, a more ceremonial post. In 1955, Malenkov was replaced by Bulganin, Khrushchev's hand-picked nominee.
- 1958 --- CBS Laboratories announced a new stereophonic record that was playable on ordinary LP phonographs, meaning, monaural. In stereo, on the proper equipment, a new rich and fuller sound was heard. It eventually became a standard for record and equipment buyers.
- 1964 --- The strongest earthquake in American history, measuring 8.4 on the Richter scale, slams southern Alaska, creating a deadly tsunami. Some 125 people were killed and thousands injured. The massive earthquake had its epicenter in the Prince William Sound, about eight miles northeast of Anchorage, but approximately 300,000 square miles of U.S., Canadian, and international territory were affected. Anchorage, Alaska's largest city, sustained the most property damage, with about 30 blocks of dwellings and commercial buildings damaged or destroyed in the downtown area. Fifteen people were killed or fatally injured as a direct result of the three-minute quake, and then the ensuing tsunami killed another 110 people. The tidal wave, which measured over 100 feet at points, devastated towns along the Gulf of Alaska and caused carnage in British Columbia, Canada; Hawaii; and the West Coast of the United States, where 15 people died. Total property damage was estimated in excess of $400 million. The day after the quake, President Lyndon B. Johnson declared Alaska an official disaster area.
- 1971 --- UCLA became the first team ever to win five consecutive NCAA basketball titles. The Bruins defeated Villanova 68-62. UCLA, under coaching legend John Wooden, dominated NCAA tournament play until 1974, when North Carolina State won the tourney. The Bruins roared back in one season to win the championship once more.
- 1971 --- Janis Joplin started her second week at the top of the pop music charts with the hit, Me and Bobby McGee, written by Kris Kristofferson.
- 1973 --- Marlon Brando declines the Academy Award for Best Actor for his career-reviving performance in The Godfather. The Native American actress Sacheen Littlefeather attended the ceremony in Brando’s place, stating that the actor “very regretfully” could not accept the award, as he was protesting Hollywood’s portrayal of Native Americans in film. Littlefeather read a portion of a lengthy statement Brando had written, the entirety of which was later published in the press, including The New York Times. “The motion picture community has been as responsible as any,” Brando wrote, “for degrading the Indian and making a mockery of his character, describing his as savage, hostile and evil.” Brando had been involved in social causes for years, speaking publicly in support of the formation of a Jewish state in the 1940s, as well as for African-American civil rights and the Black Panther Party. His Oscar statement expressed support for the American Indian Movement (AIM) and referenced the ongoing situation at Wounded Knee, the South Dakota town that had been seized by AIM members the previous month and was currently under siege by U.S. military forces. Wounded Knee had also been the site of a massacre of Native Americans by U.S. government forces in 1890.
- 1998 --- The Food and Drug Administration approved the drug Viagra, made by Pfizer, to fight male impotence.
- Birthdays
- Gloria Swanson
- Prime Minister Sato Eisaku
- Pee Wee Russell
- Sarah Vaughn
- Ludwig Mies van der Roh
- William Conrad Roentgen
- Arthur Mitchell
- Judy Carne
- Fergie
- Quentin Tarantino
- Julian Glover
- Michael York
- Mariah Carey