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Wednesday May 16, 2012

1975 - Junko Tabei climbs Mt Everest (highlighted story below)
1975 - Junko Tabei climbs Mt Everest (highlighted story below)
  • 137th Day of 2012 / 229 Remaining
  • 35 Days Until Summer Begins
  • Sunrise:5:59
  • Sunset:8:15
  • 14 Hours 16 Minutes of Daylight
  • Moon Rise:3:27am
  • Moon Set:4:39pm
  • Moon’s Phase: 15 %
  • The Next Full Moon
  • June 4 @ 4:11am
  • Full Strawberry Moon
  • Full Rose Moon
  • Full Milk Moon

This name was universal to every Algonquin tribe. However, in Europe they called it the Rose Moon. Also because the relatively short season for harvesting strawberries comes each year during the month of June, so the full Moon that occurs during that month was christened for the strawberry!

  • Tides
  • High:9:11am/8:54pm
  • Low:3:04am/2:31pm
  • Rainfall
  • This Year:15.67
  • Last Year:26.58
  • Normal To Date:23.34
  • Annual Seasonal Average: 23.80
  • Holidays
  • Biographer's Day
  • Sneeze Without Embarrassment Day
  • Red Hill Holiday-Russia
  • On This Day In …
  • 1770 --- At Versailles, Louis, the French dauphin, marries Marie Antoinette, the daughter of Austrian Archduchess Maria Theresa and Holy Roman Emperor Francis I. France hoped their marriage would strengthen its alliance with Austria, its longtime enemy. In 1774, with the death of King Louis XV, Louis and Marie were crowned king and queen of France. From the start, Louis was unsuited to deal with the severe financial problems he had inherited from his grandfather, King Louis XV. In addition, his queen fell under criticism for her extravagance, her devotion to the interests of Austria, and her opposition to reform of the monarchy. Marie exerted a growing influence over her husband, and under their reign the monarchy became dangerously alienated from the French people. In a legendary episode, Marie allegedly responded to the news that the impoverished French peasantry had no food to eat by declaring "Let them eat cake." At the outbreak of the French Revolution, Marie and Louis resisted the advice of constitutional monarchists who sought to reform the monarchy in order to save it, and by 1791 opposition to the royal pair had become so fierce that the two were forced to attempt an escape to Austria. During their trip, Marie and Louis were apprehended by revolutionary forces at Varennes, France, and carried back to Paris. There, Louis was forced to accept the constitution of 1791, which reduced him to a mere figurehead. In August 1792, the royal couple was arrested by the sansculottes and imprisoned, and in September the monarchy was abolished by the National Convention. In November, evidence of Louis' counterrevolutionary intrigues with Austria and other foreign nations was discovered, and he was put on trial for treason by the National Convention. The following January, Louis was convicted and condemned to death by a narrow majority. On January 21, he walked steadfastly to the guillotine and was executed. Nine months later, Marie Antoinette was convicted of treason by a tribunal, and on October 16 she followed her husband to the guillotine.
  • 1866 --- Charles Elmer Hires invents root beer.
  • 1868 --- The United States Senate failed by one vote to convict President Andrew Johnson as it took its first ballot on one of 11 articles of impeachment against him.
  • 1920 --- Joan of Arc was canonized.
  • 1929 --- The first Academy Awards were presented on this night, hosted by Douglas Fairbanks and William C. de Mille. This first awards ceremony of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was held at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles. It attracted an audience of 200 people. (The statuette we know so well as Oscar was not included in this first presentation for films made in 1927-1928. Oscar didn’t make an appearance until 1931.) Janet Gaynor was named Best Actress for her performance in Seventh Heaven, which also won the Best Director/Dramatic Picture for Frank Borzage, and the Best Writing/Adaptation for Benjamin Glazer. Lewis Milestone was named Best Director/Comedy Picture for Two Arabian Knights. Emil Jannings received two Best Actor awards, one for the 1927 flick, The Way of All Flesh, the other for The Last Command (1928) and Wings was selected as Best Film Production. A second Best Film award was presented to Sunrise for Unique and Artistic Production. It also won for Best Cinematography (Charles Rosher and Karl Struss).
  • 1939 --- The Philadelphia Athletics and the Cleveland Indians met at Shibe Park in Philadelphia for the first baseball game to be played under the lights in the American League.
  • 1965 --- Spaghetti-O's went on sale.
  • 1966 --- The album "Blonde on Blonde" by Bob Dylan was released.
  • 1966 --- The album "Pet Sounds" by the Beach Boys was released.
  • 1969 --- Jack Cassady (Jefferson Airplane) was arrested for possession of marijuana at the Royal Orleans Hotel in New Orleans.
  • 1975 --- Via the southeast ridge route, Japanese mountaineer Junko Tabei becomes the first woman to reach the summit of Mt. Everest, the tallest mountain in the world. Located in the central Himalayas on the border of China and Nepal, Everest stands 29,035 feet above sea level. Called Chomo-Lungma, or "Mother Goddess of the Land," by the Tibetans, the English named the mountain after Sir George Everest, an early 19th-century British surveyor of the Himalayas. In May 1953, climber and explorer Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay of Nepal made the first successful climb of the peak. Hillary was later knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for the achievement. Ten years later, American James Whittaker reached Everest's summit with his Sherpa climbing partner, Nawang Gombu. In 1975, Junko Tabei conquered the mountain, and in 1988 Stacy Allison became the first American woman to successfully climb Everest.
  • 1988 --- The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that police can search your garbage without a warrant if they suspect criminal activity.
  • 1988 --- A report released by Surgeon General C. Everett Koop declared that nicotine was addictive in similar ways as heroin and cocaine.
  • 1996 --- Residents of Williamstown, Massachusetts, voted 165-138 to end their 200-year tradition of opening the annual town meeting with a prayer. Before they voted, they prayed.
  • 2000 --- The New York Democratic Party nominated First Lady Hillary Clinton for the U.S. Senate, making her the first First Lady to run for public office.
  • 2005 --- The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Michigan and New York could not prohibit people from buying wine online from out of state wineries. Some 23 other states have similar laws that presumably would also be affected by the ruling.
  • 2007 --- Twenty-two-year-old Evonne D. Maurice pleaded guilty in federal court to trying to rob a Rhode Island bank at a drive-up window while traveling in a hired limousine. She told the driver she needed to withdraw cash from a branch bank to pay for the ride. Then she handed the teller an envelope with a note demanding money. The teller triggered an alarm. Police said the driver was unaware of the robbery attempt. Maurice was sentenced to 37 months in prison for two other Connecticut bank robberies after police found her working at a Hooters in Florida.
  • Birthdays
  • Liberace
  • Studs Terkel
  • Debra Winger
  • Pierce Brosnan
  • Tori Spelling
  • Janet Jackson
  • Olga Korbut
  • Gabriela Sabatini
  • Anne O'Hare McCormick
  • William Henry Seward
  • Henry Fonda
  • Woody Herman
  • Billy Martin
  • Betty Carter
  • Elizabeth Palmer Peabody
  • Margret Rey
  • Woody Herman
  • Yvonne Craig
  • Robert Fripp