The Almanac
Today is Tuesday, Aug. 9, the 222nd day of 2016 with 144 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 day are
under the sign of Leo. They include English author/angler Izaak Walton
in 1593; French architect Pierre Charles L'Enfant, designer of the
District of Columbia, in 1754; pioneer Swiss child psychologist Jean
Piaget in 1896; violinist Zino Francescatti in 1902; English
actor/playwright Robert Shaw in 1927; basketball Hall of Fame member
Bob Cousy in 1928 (age 88); Australian tennis star Rod Laver in 1938
(age 78); comedian David Steinberg in 1942 (age 74); heavyweight boxer
Ken Norton in 1943; actor Sam Elliott in 1944 (age 72); actor Melanie
Griffith in 1957 (age 59); actor Amanda Bearse in 1958 (age 58); pop
singer Whitney Houston in 1963; hockey Hall of Fame member Brett Hull
in 1964 (age 52); football Hall of Fame member Deion Sanders in 1967
(age 49); actor Gillian Anderson in 1968 (age 48); actor Eric Bana in
1968 (age 48). On this date in history: In 1854, Walden was published
by Henry David Thoreau. In 1936, American track star Jesse Owens won
his fourth Olympic gold medal in Berlin. In 1945, a U.S. B-29 bomber
dropped an atomic bomb nicknamed Fat Man on the Japanese city of
Nagasaki three days after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Three weeks
later, Japan formally surrendered, ending World War II. In 1969,
actress Sharon Tate and four other people were slain in Los Angeles by
followers of Charles Manson in the first of two nights of murders. In
1974, U.S. President Richard Nixon's resignation became effective at
noon and Vice President Gerald Ford was sworn in as the nation's 38th
chief executive. In 1991, Vietnamese Prime Minister Do Muoi resigned.
He was succeeded by Vo Van Kiet, who vowed to transform Vietnam into a
market economy. In 2001, U.S. President George W. Bush announced he
would allow federal funding for limited stem cell research using human
embryos. In 2004, Terry Nichols was sentenced to life in prison without
possibility of parole for his role in the 1995 Oklahoma City federal
building bombing that killed 168 people. In 2009, Typhoon Morakot
slammed into Taiwan, with more than 80 inches of rain triggering floods
and massive mudslides. The death toll was at least 500 and thousands of
homes were destroyed. In 2010, former U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, a six-term
Republican from Alaska, was killed with four others in the crash of a
small plane in a remote area of his home state. In 2011, the Obama
administration announced the first fuel efficiency standards for heavy
trucks, projected to save U.S. businesses that operate and own the
commercial vehicles about $50 billion in fuel costs over the life of
the program. In 2012, the U.S. Postal Service reported a $5.2 billion
loss in the quarter ending June 30. In 2013, Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul
Ahsan Nafis, 22, a Bangladeshi man who pleaded guilty to terrorism
charges for trying to blow up the Federal Reserve Bank in New York
City, was sentenced to 30 years in prison. I'm ashamed, he said. I'm
lost. I tried to do a terrible thing. I alone am responsible for what
I've done. Please forgive me. In 2014, a white police officer shot and
killed a black youth, Michael Brown, 18, in Ferguson, Mo., touching off
weeks of often violent protests. A thought for the day: Elvis Presley
said, I get lonesome right in the middle of a crowd. .
