The Almanac
Today is Sunday, June 14, the 165th day of 2015 with 200 to follow.
This is Flag Day in the United States. The moon is waning. Morning
stars are Mercury, Neptune and Uranus. Evening stars Jupiter, Mars,
Saturn and Venus. Those born on this date are under the sign of Gemini.
They include Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin in
1811; bookseller John Bartlett, compiler of Bartlett's Familiar
Quotations, in 1820; German physician Alois Alzheimer in 1864;
singer/composer Cliff Edwards (also the voice of Jiminy Cricket in
Disney's Pinocchio ) in 1895; photojournalist Margaret Bourke-White in
1904; actor/folksinger Burl Ives in 1909; actor Dorothy McGuire in
1916; actor Gene Barry in 1919; Cuban revolutionary Ernesto Che Guevara
in 1928; actor Marla Gibbs in 1931 (age 84); musician Junior Walker in
1931; Joe Arpaio, sheriff in Arizona, in 1932 (age 83); rock musician
Rod Argent in 1945 (age 70); real estate mogul Donald Trump in 1946
(age 69); former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams in 1950 (age
65); women's basketball Coach Pat Summitt in 1952 (age 63); Olympic
gold medal speed skater Eric Heiden in 1958 (age 57); singer Boy George
(George O'Dowd) in 1961 (age 54); actor Traylor Howard in 1966 (age
49); actor Yasmine Bleeth in 1968 (age 47); TV journalist Campbell
Brown in 1968 (age 47); tennis star Steffi Graf in 1969 (age 46);
Chinese concert pianist Lang Lang in 1982 (age 33); actors Daryl and
Evan Sabara in 1992 (age 23). On this date in history: In 1623, in the
first breach-of-promise lawsuit in the United States, the Rev. Greville
Pooley sued Cicely Jordan in Charles City, Va., for jilting him for
another man. In 1775, the Continental Congress established the army as
the first U.S. military service. In 1777, the Stars and Stripes became
the national U.S. flag. In 1922, Warren G. Harding became the first
U.S. president to broadcast a message over the radio. The occasion was
the dedication of the Francis Scott Key Memorial in Baltimore. In 1933,
the first Superman comic book -- Action Comic No. 1 -- was published.
In 1951, Univac I, the world's first commercial computer, designed for
the U.S. Census Bureau, was introduced. In 1954, the phrase under God
was formally added to U.S. Pledge of Allegiance. In 1985, Shiite Muslim
gunmen commandeered TWA Flight 847 carrying 153 passengers and crew
from Athens to Rome. (The ordeal ended 17 days later in Beirut, where
one of the hostages, a U.S. sailor, was killed.) In 1990, flash floods
killed at least 26 people and damaged or destroyed more than 800 homes
in four eastern Ohio counties. In 1993, U.S. President Bill Clinton
nominated federal Judge Ruth Bader Ginsberg for a seat on the U.S.
Supreme Court. (She succeeded Justice Byron White.) In 1998, the
Chicago Bulls won their sixth NBA title in eight years and third in a
row, defeating the Utah Jazz in the championship series. In 1999, the
South African National Assembly elected Thabo Mbeki as president,
succeeding Nelson Mandela. Mbeki had served as deputy president under
Mandela. In 2002, U.S. Roman Catholic Church leaders adopted new rules
for all dioceses calling for removal from active service of any priest
found to have abused a minor and for the reporting of accusations to
civil authorities. In 2003, the Czech Republic voted overwhelmingly to
join the European Union. In 2008, heavy rains flooded Iowa and other
Midwestern states, claiming at least 24 lives and damaging millions of
acres of corn and soybeans. In 2012, ousted Tunisian President Zine
el-Abidine Ben Ali, in exile and tried in absentia, was sentenced to
life imprisonment for ordering the shooting of protesters. In 2013,
Hassan Rouhani was elected president of Iran. In 2014, former NFL
running back Rodney Thomas (Houston Oilers, Tennessee Titans, Atlanta
Falcons) died in Groveton, Texas, of a heart attack at the age of 41. A
thought for the day: A critical, independent and investigative press is
the lifeblood of any democracy. -- Nelson Mandela .
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