- Equal Opportunity Day
- Geographic Information Systems Day
- National Blow Bagpipes Day
- Educational Support Professionals Day
- Play Monopoly Day
- Family Volunteer Day
- “Have A Bad Day” Day
- National Day Of Play
- Carbonated Beverage With Caffeine Day
- Discovery Day-Puerto Rico
- Prince Ranier’s Day-Monaco
- Army Coup Day-Mali
- Garifuna Settlement Day-Belize
- International Men’s Day
- World Toilet Day
- On This Day
- 1776 --- Congress pleads for the states to send more soldiers to serve in the Continental Army, reminding them "how indispensable it is to the common safety, that they pursue the most immediate and vigorous measures to furnish their respective quotas of Troops for the new Army, as the time of service for which the present Army was enlisted, is so near expiring."
- 1794 --- Britain's King George III signed the Jay Treaty. It resolved the issues left over from the Revolutionary War.
- 1863 --- At the dedication of a military cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, during the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln delivers one of the most memorable speeches in American history. In just 272 words, Lincoln brilliantly and movingly reminded a war-weary public why the Union had to fight, and win, the Civil War. The Battle of Gettysburg, fought some four months earlier, was the single bloodiest battle of the Civil War. Over the course of three days, more than 45,000 men were killed, injured, captured or went missing. The battle also proved to be the turning point of the war: General Robert E. Lee's defeat and retreat from Gettysburg marked the last Confederate invasion of Northern territory and the beginning of the Southern army's ultimate decline.
- 1895 --- Fredrick E. Blaisdell of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania received 1st U.S. patent (No. 549,952) for a paper pencil (paper-wrapped crayons or marking lead with a pull-string to reveal more lead).
- 1928 --- "Time" magazine presented its cover in color for the first time. The subject was Japanese Emperor Hirohito.
- 1942 --- The Soviet Red Army under General Georgi Zhukov launches Operation Uranus, the great Soviet counteroffensive that turned the tide in the Battle of Stalingrad. The battle turned the tide in the war between Germany and the Soviet Union. General Zhukov, who had played such an important role in the victory, later led the Soviet drive on Berlin. On May 1, 1945, he personally accepted the German surrender of Berlin. Von Paulus, meanwhile, agitated against Adolf Hitler among the German prisoners of war in the Soviet Union and in 1946 provided testimony at the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. After his release by the Soviets in 1953, he settled in East Germany.
- 1954 --- Two automatic toll collectors were placed in service on the Garden State Parkway in New Jersey. The nation’s first automatic toll collector accepted only correct change. One needed a quarter to activate the green light.
- 1959 --- The last Edsel rolled off the assembly line. Ford Motor Company stopped production of the big flop after two years and a total of 110,847 cars.
- 1962 --- For the first time, a jazz concert was presented at the White House. Jazz had previously been served as background music only. Among the Performers that night were Dave Brubeck and Tony Bennett.
- 1966 --- Six weeks before his 31st birthday, LA Dodgers pitcher Sandy Koufax, plagued by arthritis, announced his retirement from baseball. Koufax compiled a 12-season record of 165 wins, 87 losses and 2,396 strikeouts.
- 1966 --- In college football, first-ranked Notre Dame and second-ranked Michigan State play to a 10-10 tie at Spartan Stadium. The Irish, per coach Ara Parseghian's instructions, ran out the clock at the end of the game instead of passing to score and risking an interception. After the game, Parseghian defended his decision. "We'd fought hard to come back and tie it up," he told reporters in the locker room. "After all that, I didn't want to risk giving it to them cheap.
- 1969 --- Apollo 12 astronauts Charles Conrad and Alan Bean made man's second landing on the moon.
- 1969 --- Brazilian soccer great Pele scores his 1,000th professional goal in a game, against Vasco da Gama in Rio de Janeiro's Maracana stadium. It was a major milestone in an illustrious career that included three World Cup championships.
- 1975 --- “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, a film about a group of patients at a mental institution, opens in theaters. Directed by Milos Forman and based on a 1962 novel of the same name by Ken Kesey, the film starred Jack Nicholson and was co-produced by the actor Michael Douglas. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest went on to become the first film in four decades to win in all five of the major Academy Award categories: Best Actor (Nicholson), Best Actress (Louise Fletcher, who played Nurse Ratched), Best Director, Best Screenplay (Adapted) and Best Picture.
- 1976 --- Patricia Campbell Hearst, a granddaughter of the legendary publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst, is released on bail pending the appeal of her conviction for participating in a 1974 San Francisco bank robbery that was caught on camera.
- 1977 --- In an unprecedented move for an Arab leader, Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat travels to Jerusalem to seek a permanent peace settlement with Israel after decades of conflict. Sadat's visit, in which he met with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and spoke before the Knesset (Parliament), was met with outrage in most of the Arab world.
- 1984 --- 20-year-old Dwight Gooden of the New York Mets became the youngest major-league pitcher to be named Rookie of the Year in the National League. The Mets pitcher led the majors with 276 strikeouts.
- 1985 --- For the first time in eight years, the leaders of the Soviet Union and the United States hold a summit conference. Meeting in Geneva, President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev produced no earth-shattering agreements. However, the meeting boded well for the future, as the two men engaged in long, personal talks and seemed to develop a sincere and close relationship.
- 1990 --- The pop duo Milli Vanilli was stripped of its Grammy Award after it was revealed that neither performer sang on the group's records.
- 1993 --- Nirvana recorded an MTV unplugged concert in New York. A year later the album, MTV Unplugged in New York, was number one in the U.S. for the week.
- 1998 --- Vincent van Gogh's "Portrait of the Artist Without Beard" sold at auction for more than $71 million.
- 2001 --- Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants became the first baseball player to win four Most Valuable Player awards.
- 2002 --- The oil tanker Prestige broke into two pieces and sank off northwest Spain. The tanker lost about 2 million gallons of fuel oil when it ruptured November 13th and was towed about 150 miles out to sea.
- Birthdays
- James Garfield (20th President)
- Indira Gandhi
- Billy Sunday
- Meg Ryan
- Tommy Dorsey
- Roy Campanella
- Jodie Foster
- Savion Glover
- Larry King
- Dick Cavett
- Ted Turner
- Calvin Klein
- Kathleen Quinlan
- Kerri Strug
- 323rd Day of 2014 / 42 Remaining
- Winter Begins in 32 Days
- Sunrise:6:55
- Sunset:4:55
- 10 Hours 0 Minutes
- Moon Rise:3:58am
- Moon Set:3:24pm
- Moon Phase:8%
- Next Full Moon December 6 @ 4:27am
- Full Cold Moon
- Full Long Nights Moon
During this month the winter cold fastens its grip, and nights are at their longest and darkest. It is also sometimes called the Moon before Yule. The term Long Night Moon is a doubly appropriate name because the midwinter night is indeed long, and because the Moon is above the horizon for a long time. The midwinter full Moon has a high trajectory across the sky because it is opposite a low Sun.
- Tides:
- High Tide:8:05am/9:17pm
- Low Tide:1:51am/2:52pm