The Almanac
Today is Monday, Sept. 12, the 256th day of 2016 with 110 to follow.
The moon is waxing. Morning stars are Jupiter, Mars, Uranus and Venus.
Evening stars are Mercury, Neptune and Saturn. Those born on this date
are under the sign of Virgo. They include British explorer Henry Hudson
in 1575; Richard Gatling, inventor of the Gatling gun, in 1818;
newspaperman Charles Dudley Warner in 1829; critic H.L. Mencken in
1880; French entertainer Maurice Chevalier in 1888; publisher Alfred A.
Knopf in 1892; French Nobel chemistry prize laureate Irene Joliot-Curie
in 1897; comedian Ben Blue in 1901; bandleader Shep Fields in 1910;
U.S. Olympic track star Jesse Owens in 1913; singer/bandleader Eddy
Howard in 1914; singer Ella Mae Morse in 1924; British actor Ian Holm
in 1931 (age 85); American country music singer George Jones in 1931;
circus animal trainer Gunther Gebel-Williams in 1934; actor Linda Gray
in 1940 (age 76); singer Maria Muldaur in 1943 (age 72); singer Barry
White in 1944; actor Peter Scolari in 1955 (age 61); actor Rachel Ward
in 1957 (age 59); actor Darren E. Burrows in 1966 (age 50); comedian
Louis C.K. in 1967 (age 49); singer Ruben Studdard in 1978 (age 38);
singer/actor Jennifer Hudson in 1981 (age 35); singer/actor Emmy Rossum
in 1986 (age 30). On this date in history: In 1609, Henry Hudson
discovered what is now known as the Hudson River. In 1940, near
Montignac, France, a collection of prehistoric cave paintings, believed
to be 15,000-17,000 years old, was discovered by four teenagers who
stumbled upon the ancient artwork after following their dog down a
narrow entrance into a cavern. In 1953, U.S. Senator John Fitzgerald
Kennedy married Jacqueline Lee Bouvier at St. Mary's Church in Newport,
Rhode Island. In 1958, Little Rock High School in Arkansas was ordered
by the U.S. Supreme Court to admit black students. In 1974, military
officers deposed Emperor Haile Selassie from the Ethiopian throne he
had oc'cup'ied for more than half a century. In 1977, Steven Biko,
leader of South Africa's Black Consciousness Movement, died of severe
head trauma on the stone floor of a prison cell in Pretoria. Six days
earlier, he had suffered a major blow to his skull during a police
interrogation. In 1992, actor Anthony Perkins, best known for his role
of Norman Bates in Psycho, died from complications of AIDS. He was 60.
In 1994, a pilot crashed his small plane on the White House lawn,
killing himself and creating an alarm about presidential security. In
2001, after meeting with his national security team, U.S. President
George W. Bush said at a news conference: The deliberate and deadly
attacks which were carried out yesterday against our country were more
than acts of terror. They were acts of war. .... The American people
need to know that we're facing a different enemy than we have ever
faced. This enemy hides in shadows. ...This enemy attacked not just our
people, but all freedom-loving people everywhere in the world. ... This
will be a monumental struggle of good versus evil. But good will
prevail. In 2004, Iran announced it planned to start processing 37 tons
of uranium yellowcake, which Western intelligence officials estimated
could be used to build five nuclear bombs. In 2005, the last of Israeli
troops left the Gaza Strip, as planned, and the Palestinians
immediately reclaimed the area Israel had controlled since the 1967
war. In 2006, Pope Benedict XVI, in his first papal trip to his native
Bavaria, in Germany, angered Muslims in a speech with a 14th-century
quote criticizing Islam, leading to church bombings and other protests.
The pope apologized for any offense caused, saying the words didn't
reflect his own views. In 2009, thousands of tax protesters gathered at
the U.S. Capitol in the largest anti-government demonstration since
U.S. President Barack Obama took office. The rally marked the final
stop for the Tea Party Express in a 30-city protest campaign. In 2011,
a leaking gasoline pipeline exploded in a densely populated slum in
Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, engulfing a crowd of onlookers in an
inferno that killed more than 100 people and injured a similar number.
Police said the fire may have been touched off after the pipeline was
punctured in an effort to steal fuel. In 2013, officials in Britain
announced that Prince William, 31, had left the armed forces after more
than 7½ years of service -- first in the army, then as a Royal Air
Force search-and-rescue helicopter pilot -- to focus on royal duties
and charity work. In 2014, Ian Paisley, longtime, hardline Protestant
leader in Northern Ireland who eventually made peace with Irish
Catholics, died in Belfast. He was 88. A thought for the day: There are
terrible, terrible memories of September 11th, things that I saw,
people that I lost, the devastation, the identification of bodies. I
mean, all these memories come back to you at different times. And then
the other side of it -- this tremendous response with the firefighters
and the police officers saving people, the rescue workers. â" Rudy
Giuliani in a 2007 interview
