The below information was posted April 2011

The Union of Concerned Scientists and the town of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania announced today that Groundhog Day will be pushed forward eight days to January 25 in 2012 in recognition of the impact climate change has had in the region.

Spring Comes Eight Days Earlier

Groundhog Day will be pushed forward eight days in recognition of the impact climate change has had on the region.

The change is based on analysis by UCS scientists who found that, since 1997, spring has come an average of eight days earlier to western Pennsylvania.

On February 2, 1897, Black inventor and businessman Alfred Cralle patents the first ice cream scoop. His popular creation is part of a surge in patents by Black inventors after the end of the Civil War.

While working as a porter at the Markell Brothers drugstore in Pittsburgh, Alfred Cralle noticed his fellow employees struggling to scoop ice cream cones for customers. Cralle decided to design a contraption to scoop ice cream easily with one hand. His invention, which he called the “ice-cream mold and disher,” received a federal patent on February 2, 1897. According to his patent application, the disher  “will be extremely simple in its construction, strong, durable, effectual in its operation and comparatively inexpensive to manufacture.” The Pittsburgh Press reported that Cralle’s ice cream disher could scoop “40 to 50 dishes of ice cream in a minute,” while avoiding “the soiling of the hands.” Cralle’s invention spread rapidly, helping to satisfy the nation’s craving for ice cream.

Alfred Cralle was born in Kenbridge, Virginia, in 1866, shortly after the end of the Civil War. As a boy, Cralle learned the carpentry trade from his father. He moved to Washington, D.C. as a young man to enroll in the Wayland Theological Seminary, an institution founded to educate the free Black community after the Civil War. Eventually, Cralle moved to Pittsburgh, where he worked as a porter at the St. Charles Hotel and Markell Brothers drugstore. He also served as assistant manager of the city’s Afro-American Financial, Accumulating, Merchandise and Business Association. He died in a car accident in 1920, at the age of 54. He was the first Black man in the city of Pittsburgh to receive his own patent.

Source: history.com

TAKE A TOUR OF THE MUSEUM!

Next week we will be celebrating six months of the National Museum of African American History and Culture being open and over 1,000,000 visitors have already come through our doors! If you’ve already visited the Museum, then you understand the groundbreaking significance of this remarkable institution that you helped to build. If you have not had a chance to visit, join as a Charter Member now to receive a downloadable map of the Museum experience. Each day, thousands of visitors embark on an exhilarating exploration of the rich and complex tapestry of the African American experience… In case you haven’t yet visited the Museum, there is a special map available if you join as a Charter Member today. It depicts visitors’ progression through Museum’s galleries and highlights some of thousands of objects featured in our exhibitions — from an old slave cabin and Harriett Tubman’s shawl, to Chuck Berry’s Cadillac and a robe worn by Muhammad Ali. Join as a Charter Member now to show your continued commitment! All the best, Lonnie G. Bunch III Founding Director Photographs by Benjamin G. Sullivan for the NMAAHC

1536 – The Argentine city of Buenos Aires was founded by Pedro de Mendoza of Spain.

1653 – New Amsterdam, now known as New York City, was incorporated.

1802 – The first leopard to be exhibited in the United States was shown by Othello Pollard in Boston, MA.

1848 – The Mexican War was ended with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The treaty turned over portions of land to the U.S., including Texas, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, California and parts of Colorado and Wyoming. The U.S. gave Mexico $15,000,000 and assumed responsibility of all claims against Mexico by American citizens. Texas had already entered the U.S. on December 29, 1845.

1848 – The first shipload of Chinese emigrants arrived in San Francisco, CA.

1863 – Samuel Langhorne Clemens used a pseudonym for the first time. He is better remembered by the pseudonym which is Mark Twain.

1870 – The “Cardiff Giant” was revealed to be nothing more than carved gypsum. The discovery in Cardiff, NY, was alleged to be the petrified remains of a human.

1876 – The National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs (known as the National League) was formed in New York. The teams included were the Chicago White Stockings, Philadelphia Athletics, Boston Red Stockings, Hartford Dark Blues, Mutual of New York, St. Louis Brown Stockings, Cincinnati Red Stockings and the Louisville Grays.

1878 – Greece declared war on Turkey.

1880 – The S.S. Strathleven arrived in London with the first successful shipment of frozen mutton from Australia.

1887 – The beginning of Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney, PA.

1892 – William Painter patented the bottle cap.

1893 – The Edison Studio in West Orange, NJ, made history when they filmed the first motion picture close-up. The studio was owned and operated by Thomas Edison.

1897 – The Pennsylvania state capitol in Harrisburg was destroyed by fire. The new statehouse was dedicated nine years later on the same site.

1913 – Grand Central Terminal officially opened at 12:01 a.m. Even though construction was not entirely complete more than 150,000 people visited the new terminal on its opening day.

1935 – Leonard Keeler conducted the first test of the polygraph machine, in Portage, WI.

1943 – During World War II, the remainder of Nazi forces from the Battle of Stalingrad surrendered to the Soviets. Stalingrad has since been renamed Volgograd.

1945 – U.S. President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill left for a summit in Yalta with Soviet leader Josef Stalin.

1946 – The first Buck Rogers automatic pistol was made.

1946 – The Mutual Broadcasting System aired “Twenty Questions” for the first time on radio. The show moved to television 3 years later.

1949 – Golfer Ben Hogan was seriously injured in an auto accident in Van Horn, TX.

1950 – “What’s My Line” debuted on CBS television.

1962 – The 8th and 9th planets aligned for the first time in 400 years.

1967 – The American Basketball Association was formed by representatives of the NBA.

1971 – Idi Amin assumed power in Uganda after a coup that ousted President Milton Obote.

1980 – The situation known as “Abscam” began when reports surfaced that the FBI had conducted a sting operation that targeted members of the U.S. Congress. A phony Arab businessmen were used in the operation.

1989 – The final Russian armored column left Kabul, Afghanistan, after nine years of military occupation.

1990 – South African President F.W. de Klerk lifted a ban on the African National Congress and promised to free Nelson Mandela.

1998 – U.S. President Clinton introduced the first balanced budget in 30 years.

1999 – 19 people were killed at Luanda international airport when a cargo plane crashed just after takeoff.

1999 – Hugo Chávez Frías took office. He had been elected president of Venezuela in December 1998.

2004 – It was reported that a white powder had been found in an office of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) later confirmed that the powder was the poison ricin.

1962 8 of 9 planets align for 1st time in 400 years

The eighth planet from the sun, Neptune is about the size of Uranus and is known for supersonic strong winds. Neptune is far out and cold. The planet is more than 30 times as far from the sun as…

astrobiology.nasa.gov