FullCalendar JQ plugin: can't get defaultDate property to work

I'm just starting fooling around with the FullCalendar plugin.  But I can't get the most basic part of this to work the way I believe it should work: the defaultDate property.

I am using a moment.js instance to supply this date, and it does look to be a valid date.  But no matter what I do, the date I attempt to use is ignored and there are no special classes nor symbology applied to the date I attempt to use.

The calendar does display its "now" property.  Today's date is shaded lightly and has a "fc-state-highlight" class applied to it.  I would think that if my attempt to use defaultDate were working, I would see some change to that date as well.  

And if I am successfully setting defaultDate, why wouldn't that date carry a class with it so that I could symbolize it differently?  So I do believe that this is not working, for some reason.  

Here is my JS code:

      var $cal = $('#divRunsCalendar');

      if ($cal.length > 0) {

         var sDefaultDate = $cal.data('defaultdate');   // this contains '2016-08-11'
         var mDefaultDate = moment(sDefaultDate, 'YYYY-MM-DD');   // results in a valid moment.js date for 8/11/2016.

         $cal.fullCalendar({
            defaultDate: mDefaultDate,
            nowIndicator: true,
            defaultView: 'month',
            handleWindowResize: true,
            editable: true,
            selectable: true,
            selectHelper: true,
            unselectAuto: true,
            selectOverlap: true,
            eventOverlap: true,
            dragScroll: true,
            select: function (start, end, jsE, view) {
               var m1 = moment(start);
               var m2 = moment(end);
               m2 = m2.subtract('minutes', 1);
               var s1 = m1.format('YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm');
               var s2 = m2.format('YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm');
               alert('1: ' + s1 + '\r\r' + '2: ' + s2);
            },
            eventClick: function (e, jsE, view) {
               alert('eventClick');
            },
            eventMouseover: function (e, jsE, view) {
               alert('eventMouseover');
            },
            eventMouseout: function (e, jsE, view) {
               alert('eventMouseout');
            },
            eventResize: function (e, delta, revertFunc, jsE, ui, view) {
               alert('eventResize');
            },
            eventDrop: function (e, delta, revertFunc, jsE, ui, view) {
               alert('eventDrop');
            },
            dayClick: function () {
               alert('a day has been clicked!');
            }
         });
      }

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