ALMANAC for April-May 2000

Image Gallery

Holy days and haunting songs.

by Fred Schaaf

APRIL

1 April Fools' Day or All Fools' Day; the sun should now be near the maximum in its roughly 11-year cycle of sunspots and other activity - so in this month after the equinox (when the active latitudes of the sun are pointed more directly toward Earth) look for possible great displays of the Northern Lights, maybe even visible to the southernmost United States; watch the west at dusk and in early evening this month and next to see marvelous patterns of the planets Jupiter, Saturn and Mars.

2 Daylight Saving Time begins at 2:00 A.M. - set clocks ahead one hour ("spring forward" in spring); Pascua Florida Day; International Children's Book Day (on birthday of Hans Christian Andersen).

3 Super Tornado Outbreak of 1974: 148 tornadoes in 13 states, 330 deaths and 5,484 injuries (worst hit were Alabama, Tennessee and Ohio); Washington Irving born, 1783; Pony Express began, 1860.

4 NEW MOON, 2:12 P.M. EDT; NATO established, 1949.

5 Mars at its closest to Jupiter (only about 1° - less than the width of your little finger at arm's length - separates slightly ruddy Mars from far brighter Jupiter this evening and tomorrow evening), with moon not far away and Saturn to upper left.

6 Islamic New Year (start of year A.H. 1421) begins at previous days sunset if crescent moon is seen (this New Year moves back in civil calendar an average of 11 days each year); moon near Saturn, with Jupiter and Mars to lower right; Robert Peary becomes first to reach North Pole, 1909.

8 Astronomy Day; Japanese celebration of Buddha's birth.

9 Appomattox Day: Lee surrenders to Grant to end Civil War in 1865.

10 American SPCA incorporated, 1866.

11 FIRST QUARTER MOON, 9:;30 A.M. EDT; Mars appears about equally distant from Jupiter and Saturn.

12 Highest wind gust ever directly measured by an anemometer: 231 mph at Mount Washington in New Hampshire this day in 1934; Fort Sumter in South Carolina attacked, starting Civil War, 1861.