The Almanac
Today is Wednesday, Aug. 24, the 237th day of 2016 with 129 to follow.
The moon is waning. 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 Virgo. They include pioneer British abolitionist
William Wilberforce in 1759; English author/parodist Max Beerbohm in
1872; country music publisher Fred Rose in 1898; Argentine poet/author
Jorge Luis Borges in 1899; Palestinian leader/Nobel Peace Prize
laureate Yasser Arafat in 1929; musician David Freiberg in 1938 (age
78); musician Mason Williams in 1938 (age 78); wrestling entrepreneur
Vince McMahon in 1945 (age 71); actor Anne Archer in 1947 (age 69),
actor Stephan Fry in 1957 (age 59); actor Steve Guttenberg in 1958 (age
58); baseball Hall of Fame member Cal Ripken Jr. (major league record
2,632 consecutive games) in 1960 (age 56); political commentator Major
Garrett in 1962 (age 54); actor Marlee Matlin in 1965 (age 51);
comedian Dave Chappelle in 1973 (age 43); actor Rupert Grint in 1988
(age 28). On this date in history: In 79 A.D., thousands died and the
Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum were buried by the eruption of
Mount Vesuvius in Italy. In 1814, the British captured Washington and
burned the Capitol and the White House. In 1932, Amelia Earhart became
the first woman to fly non-stop across the United States. In 1987, a
U.S. appeals court in Cincinnati ruled public schools could require
students to study textbooks not accepted by religious fundamentalists.
In 1990, Irish-British hostage Brian Keenan, held by pro-Iranian Muslim
extremists in Lebanon for more than four years, was freed. In 1991,
Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev quit as general secretary of the
Communist Party central committee. He also ordered his Cabinet to
resign. In 1992, Hurricane Andrew smashed into Florida south of Miami
with sustained winds of 145 mph. The storm killed 15 people and caused
more than $30 billion in damage. In 1996, four women became students at
The Citadel, a military school in South Carolina that had fought in
court to remain all-male. In 2004, two Russian passenger jetliners
crashed within minutes of each other after taking off from Domodedovo
Airport in Moscow. Authorities said terrorist attacks caused the
crashes, which killed 89 people. In 2005, U.S. President George W. Bush
vowed in an Idaho speech that he wouldn't retreat from Iraq or the rest
of the Middle East until U.S. troops win the war on terror. In 2006,
Pluto, the small, distant astronomic body that has discovered in 1930,
was demoted to dwarf planet status when the International Astronomical
Union adopted a new definition of planet. In 2008, the Summer Olympic
Games came to a close in Beijing, with the United States winning the
most medals, 110, including 36 gold. Host China captured the most gold
medals, 51, and was second in the overall category at 100. U.S. swimmer
Michael Phelps won a record eight gold medals in eight events. In 2011,
Steve Jobs, co-founder and chief executive officer of Apple Inc.,
resigned, telling his company's board he could no longer meet my duties
and expectations. Jobs, 56, who stayed on as chairman, had battled
cancer for several years. He died Oct. 5, 2011. In 2012, a 58-year-old
man killed a former co-worker outside of the Empire State Building in
New York. A volley of shots from police officers who said the man
pointed his gun at them killed him and injured nine bystanders. In
2013, Bolivian government officials said inmates at a prison in Santa
Cruz used knives, machetes, self-made flamethrowers and other weapons
in a gang battle that left 30 people dead and dozens injured. In 2014,
acclaimed British actor-turned-director-filmmaker Richard Attenborough,
whose 1982 movie Gandhi won eight Academy Awards, including Best
Director, died in London. He was 90. A thought for the day: It was
Hartford (Conn.) Courant Editor Charles Dudley Warner -- and not his
friend and colleague Mark Twain -- who said, Everybody talks about the
weather but nobody does anything about it. .
