What is the shortest day of the year?  I always thought it was Dec 21,
but from a little research I did, it seems that the actual date varies
somewhat from year to year.  Is this true?  For argument's sake,
assume we are talking about North America (East coast).  Is there a
definitive listing of these dates by year?

Hi rich4x,

I missed this earlier this month, or I would have answered it before!  

I found a geat web site for you, it's called:

Why the earliest sunset, latest sunrise, and shortest day of the year
occur on different dates - by John Holtz
http://members.aol.com/jwholtz/analemma/analemma.htm
This site trys to explain in laymans terms why this happens. It's
really interesting.


The date is *usually* December 21st, but occasionally it's the 22nd.


Other related and interesting sites:

Comparative Lengths of Longest Day and Longest Night, and of Shortest
Day and Shortest Night
Length of Day and Night at the Equinoxes
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/ (click on the FAQ's)


I didn't find a long (or short) list of exact dates of the shortest
day of the year, BY YEAR, but if you give me a short date range I'll
look up a few for you.

I did find these two easily:

21 December 2005
21 December 2004


Hope this satisfies your curiousity!


~~Cynthia


Search terms used at Google:
"shortest day of the year" 
historical 
"winter equinox"