The Almanac
Today is Friday, Aug. 5, the 218th day of 2016 with 148 to follow. The
moon is waxing. Morning stars are Neptune and Uranus. Evening stars are
Venus, Mercury, Mars, Saturn and Neptune. Those born on this date are
under the sign of Leo. They include French novelist Guy de Maupassant
in 1850; poet/critic Conrad Aiken in 1889; film director John Huston in
1906; actor Robert Taylor in 1911; astronaut Neil Armstrong, first man
to step on the moon, in 1930; basketball Hall of Fame member Patrick
Ewing in 1962 (age 54); hockey Hall of Fame member Herb Brooks in 1937;
actor John Saxon in 1936 (age 80); actor Loni Anderson in 1945 (age
71); actor Maureen McCormick in 1956 (age 60); actor Tawny Kitaen in
1961 (age 55); actor Jonathan Silverman in 1966 (age 50); rapper Adam
Yauch (Beastie Boys) in 1964. On this date in history: In 1833,
Chicago, with a population of about 200, was incorporated as a village.
In 1858, after several unsuccessful attempts, the first telegraph line
across the Atlantic Ocean was completed. In 1861, U.S. President
Abraham Lincoln approved the first federal income tax. A wartime
measure, it was rescinded in 1872. In 1957, Dick Clark's American
Bandstand began airing nationally. In 1962, Marilyn Monroe died of an
overdose of barbiturates. She was 35. In 1974, U.S. President Richard
Nixon admitted ordering the Watergate investigation halted six days
after the break-in. Nixon said he expected to be impeached. In 1991,
Iraq said it misled U.N. inspectors about secret biological weapons and
also admitted extracting plutonium from fuel at a nuclear plant. In
2003, U.S. Episcopal officials approved election of the church's first
openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. In 2007, U.S.
President George W. Bush signed into law a bill to allow government
eavesdropping of telephone conversations and email of U.S. citizens
without a warrant if there's reasonable belief that one party isn't in
the United States. In 2009, former U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, D-La.,
was convicted on 11 counts of conspiracy, bribery, wire fraud, money
laundering and racketeering for allegedly helping U.S. firms arrange
business deals in Africa. He began serving a 13-year federal prison
sentence in 2012. In 2010, the U.S. Senate cleared the way for
Solicitor General Elena Kagan to become the newest member of the
Supreme Court when it voted 63-37 to confirm her nomination by
President Barack Obama. She was sworn in two days later to succeed the
retiring John Stevens. In 2012, a gunman police described as a white
supremacist shot six people to death, wounded four others, then killed
himself at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wis. In 2013, the Chinese
Ministry of Civil affairs reported that a drought since mid-June had
left nearly 6 million people short of water. In 2014, an Afghan soldier
emerged from a hiding place at a training camp in Afghanistan and
opened fire on American and European military officers, killing U.S.
Maj. Gen. Harold J. Greene and wounding more than a dozen other service
members. In 2015, an inspection conducted by the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) unintentionally released 1 million gallons of
wastewater from an abandoned mine into southwest Colorado's Animas
River, prompting warnings for farmers and recreational users to steer
clear of the waterway. A thought for the day: When you find peace
within yourself, you become the kind of person who can live at peace
with others. -- Peace Pilgrim .
