The Almanac
Today is Monday, Aug. 15, the 228th day of 2016 with 138 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 Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte
in 1769; Scottish novelist Walter Scott in 1771; longtime Chicago White
Sox owner Charles Comiskey in 1859; British composer Samuel
Coleridge-Taylor in 1875; actor Ethel Barrymore in 1879; novelist Edna
Ferber in 1885; songwriter Charles Tobias ( Don't Sit Under the Apple
Tree ) in 1898; composer Ned Washington in 1901; bandleader Hugo
Winterhalter in 1909; chef Julia Child in 1912 ; activist Archbishop
Oscar Romero in 1917; actor Huntz Hall ( Dead End Kids ) in 1920; actor
Rose Marie in 1923 (age 93); conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly in
1924 (age 92); actor Mike Connors in 1925 (age 91); actor Jim Dale in
1935 (age 81); civil rights leader Vernon Jordan Jr. in 1935 (age 81);
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer in 1938 (age 78); journalist
Linda Ellerbee in 1944 (age 71); football Hall of Fame member/players'
union leader Gene Upshaw in 1945; songwriter Jimmy Webb in 1946 (age
70); Britain's Princess Anne in 1950 (age 66); Swedish writer Stieg
Larsson (the Millennium Trilogy) in 1954; chef Tom Colicchio in 1962
(age 54); actor Debi Mazar in 1964 (age 51); actor Debra Messing in
1968 (age 48); actor Ben Affleck in 1972 (age 44); Olympic beach
volleyball champion Kerri Walsh Jennings in 1978 (age 38); pop singer
Joe Jonas in 1989 (age 27); actor Jennifer Lawrence in 1990 (age 26).
On this date in history: In 1914, a U.S. ship sailed from the Atlantic
to the Pacific Ocean, officially opening the Panama Canal. In 1935,
humorist Will Rogers and pilot Wiley Post were killed when their plane
crashed in Alaska. In 1947, India and Pakistan won independence from
Great Britain after nearly 90 years of Crown rule. In 1969, the
Woodstock Music and Arts Festival, often described as a landmark
counterculture event, opened on Max Yasgur's farm near Bethel, N.Y.,
drawing an estimated 400,000 people for three days of music. In 1985,
South African President P.W. Botha, rejecting Western pleas to abolish
apartheid, declared, I am not prepared to lead white South Africans and
other minority groups on a road to abdication and suicide. In 2003,
Libya admitted responsibility for the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am airliner
over Lockerbie, Scotland, that claimed 270 lives and agreed to pay
reparations totaling $2.7 billion. In 2004, Venezuelan President Hugo
Chavez survived a referendum to oust him. In 2007, an 8-magnitude
earthquake struck 90 miles southeast of Lima, Peru, killing an
estimated 500 people and injuring hundreds more. In 2008, Nepal elected
a Maoist candidate, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, to be its next prime minister,
defeating a man who held the post three times. In 2010, China's economy
moved past Japan's in the second quarter of 2010 to become the second
largest in the world, trailing only the United States. In 2013,
Egyptian authorities said the death toll had surpassed 600 in violence
that began with a crackdown on protesting supporters of ousted
President Mohamed Morsi. In 2014, Pope Francis celebrated his first
mass in South Korea. He spoke out against materialism and economic
inequality during the Mass of the Assumption of Mary. A thought for the
day: Beauty is not in the face, beauty is a light in the heart. --
Khalil Gibran .
