The Almanac
Today is Saturday, Aug. 6, the 219th day of 2016 with 147 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 English poet Alfred, Lord
Tennyson in 1809; Hollywood gossip columnist Louella Parsons in 1881;
Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of penicillin, in
1881; actor Leo Carrillo in 1881; movie cowboy star Hoot Gibson in
1892; basketball Hall of Fame member Henry Iba in 1904; comedian
Lucille Ball in 1911; actor Robert Mitchum in 1917; British airline
executive Freddie Laker in 1922; artist Andy Warhol in 1928; writer
Piers Anthony in 1934 (age 82); actor Catherine Hicks in 1951 (age 65);
basketball Hall of Fame member David Robinson in 1965 (age 51); film
director M. Night Shyamalan in 1970 (age 46); singer Geri Halliwell in
1972 (age 44). On this date in history: In 1890, the first execution by
electric chair was carried out. William Kemmler was put to death at
Auburn Prison in New York for the ax murder of his girlfriend. In 1926,
Gertrude Ederle of New York became the first American to swim the
English Channel. In 1945, an atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese
city of Hiroshima. Three days later an atomic bomb hit Nagasaki and
Japan soon surrendered, ending World War II. In 1965, U.S. President
Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law. The measure
barred states from conducting discriminatory voting practices. In 1978,
Pope Paul VI died at the age of 80 after a heart attack. He had led the
Roman Catholic Church for 15 years. In 1986, William Schroeder died of
a stroke in Louisville, Ky., after 620 days with the Jarvik-7
mechanical heart. At the time, he had been the longest-living permanent
artificial heart patient. In 1993, Morihiro Hosokawa was elected prime
minister of Japan. In 2003, actor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced his
candidacy for governor of California on NBC-TV's The Tonight Show. He
was elected and served two terms. In 2009, the U.S. Senate confirmed
the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor for the U.S. Supreme Court on a 68-31
vote. In 2011, Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan shot down a Chinook
transport helicopter, killing 30 Americans and eight Afghans. Officials
said it was the highest U.S. death toll in a single incident in the
decade-old war. In 2012, U.S. President Barack Obama signed legislation
that bans protests within 300 feet of military funerals 2 hours before
or after the services. In 2013, former U.S. President George W. Bush,
67, underwent surgery at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas to
have a stent placed in an artery in his heart. A thought for the day:
I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget
what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. --
Maya Angelou .
