Today is Friday, January 20, 2017, the Trumpocalypse.
- Sunrise: 7:22am
- Sunset: 5:20pm
51% of the waning moon may be visible between clouds, setting at 12:14pm.
Tides at the Golden Gate:
- High: 5:44am/6:53pm
- Low: 12:30pm/11:50pm
Special international celebrations today...
- Army Day – Laos, Lesotho, Mali
- Day of the Martyrs (Day of Sorrow) - Azerbaijan
- National Heroes Day - Cape Verde Islands
- Foundation Day (Rio de Janeiro) - Brazil
It's also...
- Arbor Day in Florida
- 42nd Annual Bean Day 2017
- National Cheese Lovers Day
- National Coffee Break Day
- National Buttercrunch Day
- St. Sebastian, patron of gardeners
- Camcorder Day
- Data Innovation Day
- International Fetish Day
- Penguin Awareness Day
- National Disc Jockey Day
- Women's Healthy Weight Day
On this day in…
1265 - The first English parliament met in Westminster Hall.
1801 - John Marshall was appointed chief justice of the United States.
1839 - Chile defeated a confederation of Peru and Bolivia in the Battle of Yungay.
1841 - The island of Hong Kong was ceded to Great Britain. It returned to Chinese control in July 1997.
1885 - The roller coaster was patented by L.A. Thompson.
1886 - The Mersey Railway Tunnel was officially opened by the Prince of Wales.
1887 - The U.S. Senate approved an agreement to lease Pearl Harbor in Hawaii as a naval base.
1891 - James Hogg took office as the first native-born governor of Texas.
1892 - The first official basketball game was played by students at the Springfield, MA, YMCA Training School.
1929 - The movie "In Old Arizona" was released. The film was the first full-length talking film to be filmed outdoors.
1937 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt became the first U.S. President to be inaugurated on January 20th. The 20th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution officially set the date for the swearing in of the President and Vice President.
1942 - Nazi officials held the Wannsee conference, during which they arrived at their "final solution" that called for exterminating Europe's Jews.
1944 - The British RAF dropped 2,300 tons of bombs on Berlin.
1952 - In Juarez, Mexico, Patricia McCormick debuted as the first professional woman bullfighter from the United States.
1953 - "Studio One" became the first television show to be transmitted from the United States to Canada.
1954 - The National Negro Network was formed on this date. Forty radio stations were charter members of the network.
1972 - The number of unemployed in Britain exceeded 1 million.
1981 - Iran released 52 Americans that had been held hostage for 444 days. The hostages were flown to Algeria and then to a U.S. base in Wiesbaden, West Germany. The release occurred minutes after the U.S. presidency had passed from Jimmy Carter to Ronald Reagan.
1985 - The most-watched Super Bowl game in history was seen by an estimated 115.9 million people. The San Francisco 49ers defeated the Miami Dolphins, 38-16. Super Bowl XIX marked the first time that TV commercials sold for a million dollars a minute.
1986 - The U.S. observed the first federal holiday in honor of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
1986 - Britain and France announced their plans to build the Channel Tunnel.
1986 - New footage of the 1931 "Frankenstein" was found. The footage was originally deleted because it was considered to be too shocking.
1987 - Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite was kidnapped in Beirut, Lebanon. He was there attempting to negotiate the release of Western hostages. He was not freed until November 1991.
1994 - Shannon Faulkner became the first woman to attend classes at The Citadel in South Carolina. Faulkner joined the cadet corps in August 1995 under court order but soon dropped out.
1996 - Yasser Arafat was elected president of the Palestinian Authority and his supporters won two thirds of the 80 seats in the Legislative Council.
1998 - American researchers announced that they had cloned calves that may produce medicinal milk.
1998 - In Chile, a judge agreed to hear a lawsuit that accused Chile's former dictator Augusto Pinochet with genocide.
1999 - The China News Service announced that the Chinese government was tightening restrictions on internet use. The rules were aimed at 'Internet Bars.'
2000 - Greece and Turkey signed five accords aimed to build confidence between the two nations.
Today’s birthday celebrants included (or included)…
- Theobald Wolfe Tone 1763
- Lead Belly (Huddie William Ledbetter) 1889
- George Burns 1896
- Aristotle Onassis 1906
- Joy Adamson 1910
- Lawrence Dobkin 1919
- DeForest Kelley 1920
- Federico Fellini 1920
- Ray Anthony (Antonini) 1922
- Slim Whitman 1924
- David Tudor 1926
- Patricia Neal 1926
- Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin 1930
- Edward "Fireball" Roberts 1931
- Arte Johnson 1934
- Camilo Pascual 1934
- Dorothy Provine 1937
- Carol Heise 1940
- Ron Townson (The 5th Dimension) 1941
- Eric Stewart (Mindbenders) 1945
- David Lynch 1946
- Malcolm McLaren 1946
- George Grantham (Poco) 1947
- Paul Stanley 1950 - Musician (KISS)
- Ian Hill 1952 - Musician (Judas Priest)
- Bill Maher 1956
- Lorenzo Lamas 1958
- John Michael Montgomery 1965
- Stacy Dash 1967
- Xavier 1968
- Melissa Rivers 1968
- Skeet Ulrich 1969
- Mark Trojanowski (Sister Hazel) 1970
- Gary Barlow 1971
