In 2023, December’s Full Moon reaches peak illumination on Tuesday, December 26. December’s Moon is most commonly known as the Cold Moon—a Mohawk name that conveys the frigid conditions of this time of year, when cold weather truly begins to grip us. Read more about December’s Cold Moon here.
Daily Calendar for Sunday, December 15, 2024
Question of the Day
Is there such a thing as a cold-air funnel?
Yes, it’s an official term for a funnel cloud or relatively small, weak tornado that can develop from a small shower or thunderstorm when the air aloft is unusually cold. This is a rare occurrence, and these funnels are much less violent than the usual tornado.
Advice of the Day
Instinct is the nose of the mind.
Home Hint of the Day
If the bars of your wooden clothes-drying rack leave brown stripes on your clothes, coat the bars with polyurethane.
Word of the Day
Thermophobia
The fear of heat
Puzzle of the Day
What goes up the hill, down the hill, and yet stands still?
A road
Born
- Gustave Eiffel (architect) –
- Betty Smith (novelist) –
- Muriel Rukeyser (poet) –
- Tim Conway (comedian & actor) –
- Stuart Townsend (actor) –
- Adam Brody (actor) –
Died
- Sitting Bull (Sioux Chief) –
- Dick Stuart (also known as Dr. Strangeglove, baseball player) –
Events
- The Bill of Rights, first ten amendments to U.S. Constitution, ratified–
- Fire at the U.S. Patent Office–
- Philadelphia streets were first cleaned by a machine–
- Battle of Fredericksburg ends in defeat of union troops by Confederate General Robert E. Lee (Civil War)–
- Groundbreaking ceremonies for the Jefferson Memorial took place in Washington D.C.–
- Gone With the Wind premiered, at Loew’s Grand Theater in Atlanta, Georgia–
- Commemorative stamp depicting Echo I, world’s first passive communications satellite, issued by U.S. post office, D.C., 1960–
- First rendezvous of two manned spacecraft, Gemini 6 and Gemini 7–
- Venera 7 Soviet unmanned spacecraft landed on Venus–
- Superman, starring Christopher Reeve, premiered–
Weather
- An intense cold front swept the East Coast, dumping heavy rain on Louisiana and heavy snow on the Northeast–
- Great Blizzard hit the Prairie provinces–
- O’Hare Airport in Chicago was closed because of high winds and heavy snowfall–
- Approximately 1.5 million homes and businesses in Washington and Oregon were without power after windstorms and heavy rains caused flooding, several deaths and closed two major bridges–
