The Almanac
Today is Tuesday, Feb. 16, the 47th day of 2016 with 319 to follow.
This is observed in the United States as Presidents' Day. 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 French mathematician Pierre Bouguer
in 1698; historian Henry Brooks Adams in 1838; orchestra leader Wayne
King ( The Waltz King ) in 1901; actor Chester Morris in 1901;
ventriloquist Edgar Bergen in 1903; actor Hugh Beaumont in 1909; singer
Patty Andrews of the Andrews Sisters in 1918; actor Vera-Ellen in 1921;
U.S. Rep. Sonny Bono, R-Calif. (also part of the comedy/song team Sonny
and Cher) in 1935; former North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in 1941;
writer Richard Ford in 1944 (age 72); actor William Katt in 1951 (age
65); model/actor Margaux Hemingway (granddaughter of Ernest Hemingway)
in 1954; actor/director LeVar Burton in 1957 (age 59), actor-rapper
Ice-T, born Tracy Marrow, in 1958 (age 58); tennis Hall of Fame member
John McEnroe in 1959 (age 57); actor Elizabeth Olsen in 1989 (age 27);
singer-songwriter The Weeknd in 1990 (age 26). On this date in history:
In 1923, archaeologists opened the treasure-laden tomb of Tutankhamen,
King Tut, in Egypt's Valley of the Kings. In 1933, a patent for the
synthetic fiber nylon was awarded to the DuPont Co. In 1959, Fidel
Castro was sworn in as Cuba's leader and set up a Communist regime. In
1986, Mario Soares was elected Portugal's first civilian head of state
in 60 years. In 1999, Germany announced $1.7 billion would be set aside
to compensate victims of the Holocaust. In 2005, after a five-month
lockout, the National Hockey League canceled its entire 2004-05 season.
In 2009, Japan reported its domestic product fell at a 12.7 percent
annual rate in the last quarter of 2008, plunging the country into what
experts say was its worst financial crisis since World War II. In 2011,
Borders, the 40-year-old retail book superstore chain that began as a
used book shop in Ann Arbor, Mich., and rapidly expanded in the 1990s
with 650 locations and 19,500 employees, filed for bankruptcy. In 2013,
protesters in Quetta, Pakistan, threw rocks at police cars and set
fires in the streets after a bomb attack in a Shiite neighborhood
killed at least 65 people and injured about 175. In 2014, Best Picture
and Best Actor honors at the British Film Academy Awards went to 12
Years a Slave and its star, Chiwetel Ejiofor. A thought for the day:
Don't be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other
people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out
your own inner voice. -- Steve Jobs .
