- 130th Day of 2012 / 236 Remaining
- 42 Days Until Summer Begins
- Sunrise:6:05
- Sunset:8:09
- 14 Hours 4 Minutes of Daylight
- Moon Rise:12:11am(thu)
- Moon Set:9:29am
- Moon’s Phase: 82 %
- 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:1:10am/3:18pm
- Low:8:09am/8:18pm
- Rainfall
- This Year:15.67
- Last Year:26.17
- Normal To Date:23.20
- Annual Seasonal Average: 23.80
- Holidays
- National Butterscotch Brownie Day
- National School Nurse Day
- Lost Sock Memorial Day
- National Receptionists Day
- National Nightshift Workers Day
- Donate a Day's Wages to Charity Day
- Victory Day-Russia
- Yom Ha'Atzma'ut-Israel
- Mother's Day-Belarus
- National Heroes Day-Moldova
- Victory & Peace Day-Armenia
- On This Day In …
- 1429 --- Joan of Arc defeated the besieging English at Orleans.
- 1671 --- In London, Thomas Blood, an Irish adventurer better known as "Captain Blood," is captured attempting to steal the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London. Blood, a Parliamentarian during the English Civil War, was deprived of his estate in Ireland with the restoration of the English monarchy in 1660. In 1663, he put himself at the head of a plot to seize Dublin Castle from supporters of King Charles II, but the plot was discovered and his accomplices executed. He escaped capture. In 1671, he hatched a bizarre plan to steal the new Crown Jewels, which had been refashioned by Charles II because most of the original jewels were melted down after Charles I's execution in 1649. On May 9, 1671, Blood, disguised as a priest, managed to convince the Jewel House keeper to hand over his pistols. Blood's three accomplices then emerged from the shadows, and together they forced their way into the Jewel House. However, they were caught in the act when the keeper's son showed up unexpectedly, and an alarm went out to the Tower guard. One man shoved the Royal Orb down his breeches while Blood flattened the Crown with a mallet and tried to run off with it. The Tower guards apprehended and arrested all four of the perpetrators, and Blood was brought before the king. Charles was so impressed with Blood's audacity that, far from punishing him, he restored his estates in Ireland and made him a member of his court with an annual pension. Captain Blood became a colorful celebrity all across the kingdom, and when he died in 1680 his body had to be exhumed in order to persuade the public that he was actually dead.
- 1754 --- The first "political" cartoon appeared in The Pennsylvania Gazette, the newspaper published at the time in Philadelphia, PA, Benjamin Franklin’s hometown. The cartoon appeared as part of an editorial by Franklin commenting on “the present disunited state of the British Colonies.” The title of the featured cartoon is “JOIN, or DIE.” The drawing is of a snake, chopped into eight pieces. Each of the pieces are labeled with the abbreviation for one of the colonies. The message was that the colonies’ continued failure to join together would result in their eventual doom.
- 1785 --- The beer-pump handle was patented by Joseph Bramah.
- 1868 --- A little town in Northwestern Nevada was officially named, Reno (after General Jesse Lee Reno, a Union officer of the Civil War). Actually, the town that was just over the border from California, already existed before this date. It was first settled by the Washoe Indians who used the area for festivals and ceremonies. Then, as settlers moved in, it was known as Fuller’s Ferry, and later, as Lake’s Crossing. In the mid 1800s, Reno was just another settlement of silver miners. When the Comstock Lode was discovered in the Virginia City area, intrigued fortune hunters throughout the world came to the area to strike it rich. Today, they still come to strike it rich at Reno’s glitzy gambling casinos. Reno, also a haven for quickie divorces (only a six-week residency is required), is known as the biggest little city in the world, the winning slogan from a contest held in 1929.
- 1913 --- The 17th amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, providing for the election of senators by popular vote rather than selection by state legislatures.
- 1937 --- Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy started their own radio show on NBC -- only months after they had debuted on Rudy Vallee’s radio program. W.C. Fields, Don Ameche and Dorothy Lamour were a few of the stars that helped Bergen and the little blockhead, McCarthy, jump to the top of radio’s hit parade.
- 1961 --- Federal Communications Commission Chairman Newton Minow challenged network TV executives to sit through an entire day of their own programming. Minow suggested they would observe a "vast wasteland."
- 1964 --- Following the ascension of "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" to #1 in early February, the Beatles held the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 for three and a half solid months—longer than any popular artist before or since. Over the course of those months, the Fab Four earned three consecutive #1 singles (a record); held all five spots in the top five in early April (a record); and had a total of 14 songs in the Billboard Hot 100 in mid-April (yet another record). But just when it seemed that no homegrown act would ever stand up to the British invaders, one of least likely American stars imaginable proved himself equal to the task. On May 9, 1964, the great Louis Armstrong, age 63, broke the Beatles' stranglehold on the U.S. pop charts with the #1 hit "Hello Dolly."
- 1974 --- The House of Representatives Judiciary Committee opens impeachment hearings against President Richard Nixon, voting to impeach him on three counts on July 30. The impeachment was the result of the scandal involving the bungled burglary of the offices of the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate apartment complex in Washington, D.C., on June 23, 1972. Eventually, it was learned that there was a criminal cover-up that went all the way to the White House. Nixon, facing the impeachment proceedings, resigned the presidency on August 8, 1974. His resignation had a major impact on the situation in Vietnam. Nixon had convinced South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu to consent to the provisions of the Paris Peace Accords by personally promising (on more than 30 occasions) that the United States would re-enter the conflict if the North Vietnamese violated the peace agreement. However, when Nixon resigned, his successor, Gerald R. Ford, was not able to keep Nixon's promises. Ford could not, despite Thieu's desperate pleas for help, get Congress to appropriate significant funds to help the South Vietnamese. Having lost its sole source of aid and support, South Vietnam fell to the North Vietnamese in April 1975.
- 1978 --- The bullet-riddled body of former Italian prime minister Aldo Moro, who'd been abducted by the Red Brigades, was found in an automobile in the center of Rome.
- 1990 --- Sinead O'Connor refused to perform on "Saturday Night Live" after Andrew Dice Clay was named as host.
- 1994 --- South Africa's newly elected parliament chose Nelson Mandela to be the country's first black president.
- 1999 --- A truck carrying 20-million bees in 450 hives overturned in Falmouth, Maine. Firefighters quickly sprayed the dumped hives with water to make the bees think it was raining, so they’d stay home. Five firefighters were stung, but none seriously hurt.
- 2000 --- The owner of a small Dutch tobacco shop won $4.1 million in the lottery by mistake. Having accidentally printed up more tickets than he could sell, he was forced, by law, to buy the remainder himself. One of the extra tickets was a big winner.
- 2010 --- Dallas Braden pitched the 19th perfect game in major league history, leading the Oakland Athletics in a 4-0 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays.
- Birthdays
- Glenda Jackson
- Albert Finney
- Rosario Dawson
- Mike Wallace
- Billy Joel
- Candice Bergen
- Rosario Dawson
- John Aschroft
- Calvin Murphy
- Tony Gwynn
- Ghostface Killah
- Prince Fielder
- Howard Carter
- John Brown
- Sir James Barrie
- Henry J. Kaiser
- Pancho Gonzales
- Hank Snow