The Almanac
Today is Thursday, Feb. 11, the 42nd day of 2016 with 324 to follow.
The moon is waxing. Morning stars are Mercury and Venus. Evening stars
are Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune. Those born on this date
are under the sign of Aquarius. They include Englishman Henry Fox
Talbot, a developer of photography, in 1800; Chief Justice of the
United States Melville Weston Fuller in 1833; inventor Thomas Edison in
1847; boxer Max Baer in 1909; film director Joseph L. Mankiewicz, in
1909; author Sidney Sheldon in 1917; actor Eva Gabor in 1919; King
Farouk, Egypt's last monarch, in 1920; actor Kim Stanley in 1925; actor
Leslie Nielsen in 1926; actor Tina Louise in 1934 (age 82); actor Burt
Reynolds in 1936 (age 80); songwriter Gerry Goffin in 1939; Brazilian
musician Sergio Mendes in 1941 (age 75); Jeb Bush, former Florida
governor and presidential son and brother, in 1953 (age 63);
singer/songwriter Sheryl Crow in 1962 (age 54); former Alaska governor
and GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin in 1964 (age 52); actor
Jennifer Aniston in 1969 (age 47); singer/actor Brandy (Norwood) in
1979 (age 37); actor Taylor Lautner in 1992 (age 24). On this date in
history: In 1858, French peasant girl Bernadette Soubirous said the
Virgin Mary appeared to her at Lourdes. In 1929, a Lateran treaty
signed in Italy recognized the sovereignty of Vatican City. In 1929,
Miss Bobbi Trout, 18-year-old Tomboy who took up flying to avoid
dish-washing, broke three world aviation records. In 1941, Glenn
Miller's Chattanooga Choo Choo was awarded the first gold record, given
for sales of 1 million copies. In 1945, U.S. President Franklin
Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader
Josef Stalin ended a wartime conference at Yalta. In 1965, U.S. and
South Vietnamese planes made their first bombing raids on North
Vietnam. In 1970, Japan put a satellite in space, following the Soviet
Union, the United States and France. In 1987, Corazon Aquino was sworn
in for a six-year presidential term in the Philippines. In 1990, Nelson
Mandela, leader of the movement to end South African apartheid, was
released after 27 years in prison. In 1993, British Prime Minister John
Major said Queen Elizabeth II would pay income tax on her personal
income as well as being subject to capital and inheritance levies. In
2005, playwright Arthur Miller, a fiery moralist whose plays include
Death of a Salesman and The Crucible, died at the age of 89. In 2006,
U.S. adventurer Steve Fossett broke the solo flight record when he
landed near Bournemouth, England, covering 24,997 miles after taking
off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida four days earlier. In 2009, a
long, bitter political fight in Zimbabwe apparently was resolved when
President Robert Mugabe swore in opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai as
prime minister. In 2011, Hosni Mubarak stepped down after nearly 30
years as president of Egypt, bowing to intense public pressure to
resign after 18 days of massive, often violent protests that spawned a
reported death toll of more than 800 people. Mubarak, 82, ceded power
to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. In 2012, Whitney Houston,
an American pop singing star who sold millions of albums and starred in
movies, was found dead in a Beverly Hills, Calif., hotel room. The Los
Angeles coroner said the 48-year-old entertainer died of accidental
drowning in her bathtub but that cocaine and heart disease also played
a role. In 2013, the Medal of Honor was awarded to former U.S. Army
Staff Sgt. Clinton Romesha, who led an Alamo-like defense of an outpost
against 300 Taliban attackers in Afghanistan. In 2014, an Algerian
Hercules C-130 military plane crashed into a mountain in eastern
Algeria, killing 77 people, including women and children. There was one
survivor, a soldier. A thought for the day: No one is born hating
another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or
his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate,
they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human
heart than its opposite. -- Nelson Mandela .
