FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS

Guam (/ˈɡwɑːm/ (listen); Chamorro: Guåhan [ˈɡʷɑhɑn]) is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean. It is the westernmost point and territory of the United States (reckoned from the geographic center of the U.S.); in Oceania, it is the largest and southernmost of the Mariana Islands and the largest island in Micronesia. Guam’s capital is Hagåtña, and the most populous village is Dededo.

People born on Guam are American citizens but have no vote in the United States presidential elections while residing on Guam and Guam delegates to the United States House of Representatives have no vote on the floor. Indigenous Guamanians are the Chamoru, historically known as the Chamorro, who are related to the Austronesian peoples of Indonesia, the Philippines, Taiwan, Micronesia, and Polynesia. As of 2021, Guam’s population is 168,801. Chamoros are the largest ethnic group, but a minority on the multi-ethnic island. The territory spans 210 square miles (540 km²; 130,000 acres) and has a population density of 775 per square mile (299/km²).

The Chamoro people settled the island approximately 3,500 years ago. Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, while in the service of Spain, was the first European to visit the island on March 6, 1521. Guam was colonized by Spain in 1668. Between the 16th and 18th centuries, Guam was an important stopover for the Spanish Manila Galleons. During the Spanish–American War, the United States captured Guam on June 21, 1898. Under the Treaty of Paris, signed December 10, 1898, Spain ceded Guam to the U.S. effective April 11, 1899.

Before World War II, Guam was one of five American jurisdictions in the Pacific Ocean, along with Wake Island in Micronesia, American Samoa and Hawaii in Polynesia, and the Philippines. On December 8, 1941, hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Guam was captured by the Japanese, who occupied the island for two and a half years. During the occupation, Guamanians were subjected to forced labor, incarceration, torture and execution. American forces recaptured the island on July 21, 1944, which is commemorated as Liberation Day. Since the 1960s, Guam’s economy has been supported primarily by tourism and the U.S. military, for which Guam is a major strategic asset.

An unofficial but frequently used territorial motto is “Where America’s Day Begins”, which refers to the island’s proximity to the International Date Line. Guam is among the 17 non-self-governing territories listed by the United Nations, and has been a member of the Pacific Community since 1983.

TODAY’S ALMANAC

Question of the Day

Has anyone else seen a Moon rainbow? If so, are they common?The lunary rainbow, seldom seen, is usually observable soon after dark, following a brief summer storm or shower, when the Moon is nearly full.

Advice of the Day

So many mists in March you see, So many frosts in May will be.

Home Hint of the Day

Paint a brightly colored stripe around the handle of each of your gardening tools. It will help in spotting tools dropped in the grass or garden.

Word of the Day

Diurnal TideA tide with one high water and one low water in a tidal day of approximately 24 hours.

Puzzle of the Day

Why ought the stars to be good astronomers?Because they have studded (studied) the heavens for thousands of years.

Born

• Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (painter & sculptor) – 1475
• Elizabeth Barrett Browning (poet) – 1806
• Oscar Straus (composer) – 1870
• Lou Costello (comedian) – 1906
• Ed McMahon (TV personality) – 1923
• Sarah Caldwell (conductor) – 1924
• Gabriel Garcia-Marquez (author) – 1928
• Marion Barry (politician) – 1936
• Valentina Tereshkova (cosmonaut) – 1937
• David Gilmour (musician) – 1947
• Rob Reiner (actor & director) – 1947
• Connie Britton (actress) – 1967
• Moira Kelly (actress) – 1968
• Shaquille O’Neal (basketball player) – 1972

Died

• Davy Crockett and James Bowie (died defending the Alamo) – 1836
• Louisa May Alcott (author) – 1888
• John Philip Sousa (band leader, conductor, & composer) – 1932
• Georgia O’Keeffe (painter) – 1986
• Frances Dee (film star of the 1930s and 40s) – 2004
• Hans Bethe (nuclear physicist whose calculations explained how stars shine and laid the foundation for development of both the atomic and hydrogen bombs) – 2005
• Kirby Puckett (baseball player) – 2006
• Nancy Reagan (U.S. First Lady) – 2016

Events

• Guam discovered by Ferdinand Magellan– 1521
• First machine patent issued in North America was granted to Joseph Jenckes of Massachusetts– 1646
• U.S. Supreme Court handed down landmark McCulloch v. Maryland decision– 1819
• The city of Toronto, Canada, incorporated; William Lyon Mackenzie was its first mayor– 1834
• After a 13-day siege, the Texas fort, the Alamo, was recaptured by Mexican general Santa Anna– 1836
• Verdi’s opera La Traviata premiered in Venice, Italy– 1853
• First U.S. magazine for nurses published– 1886
• Charles Brady King drove the first automobile on the streets of Detroit, Michigan– 1896
• Aspirin was patented on behalf of Friedrich Bayer & Co.– 1899
• Congress established a permanent Census Office (later, U.S. Bureau of the Census)– 1902
• Nora Stanton Blatch became the first woman to be elected to the American Society of Civil Engineers– 1906
• The first use of dirigibles in warfare took place in an Italian action against the Turks in Tripoli– 1912
• Clarence Birdseye’s first frozen food appeared in grocery stores in Springfield, MA– 1930
• A nationwide bank holiday declared by President Franklin Roosevelt went into effect to help save the nation’s faltering banking system– 1933
• In an Allied air offensive, over 600 planes bombed Berlin (WW II)– 1944
• Comedienne Phyllis Diller made her debut in San Francisco at the Purple Onion nightclub– 1955
• Ghana declared an independent nation– 1957
• Notre Dame star Austin Carr scored single-game NCAA basketball playoff record 61 points as the Irish beat Ohio University 112-82 in an NCAA tournament game– 1970
• CBS Evening News anchorman Walter Cronkite retired after 19 years. His final words: I’ll be away on assignment, and Dan Rather will be sitting in here for the next few years. Good night!– 1981
• The U.S. Football League began its first season– 1983
• Soviet spacecraft, Vega I, entered the atmosphere of Halley’s Comet and sent back pictures of the comet’s icy nucleus– 1986
• A 5.4 earthquake shook Riviere-du-Loup, 250 miles northeast of Montreal– 2005
• A 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck Indonesia– 2007
• NASA launched a spacecraft as part of the Kepler Mission project in order to find habitable planets in the Milky Way galaxy– 2009

Weather

• Sixteen tornadoes in Illinois and Indiana– 1961
• Twenty-eight cities in the north-central United States reported record high temperatures. Pickstown, South Dakota, led the country with 83F, and Saint Cloud, Minnesota, registered 71F, beating its previous record by 21 degrees.– 1987
• More than 90% of Lake Superior was covered with ice due to long stretches of unusually cold weather.– 2003

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