The Almanac
Today is Thursday, Sept. 22, the 266th day of 2016 with 100 to follow.
This is the first day of autumn. The moon is waning. 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 English statesman/author Philip Dormer Stanhope, earl of
Chesterfield, in 1694; English chemist/physicist Michael Faraday in
1791; Austrian filmmaker Erich von Stroheim in 1885; humorist Frank
Sullivan in 1892; actor Paul Muni in 1895; producer/actor John Houseman
in 1902; actor Allan Rocky Lane, B-movie cowboy star/TV voice of Mr.
Ed, in 1909; co-founder of Amnesty International Eric Baker in 1920;
baseball Hall of Fame member Bob Lemon in 1920; baseball Hall of Fame
member Tommy Lasorda in 1927 (age 89); actor Eugene Roche in 1928;
boxing champion Ingemar Johansson in 1932; basketball Hall of Fame
member Lute Olson in 1934 (age 82); former NBA Commissioner David Stern
in 1942 (age 74); singer Toni Basil in 1943 (age 73); actor Paul Le Mat
in 1945 (age 71); singer Debby Boone in 1956 (age 60); singer Nick Cave
in 1957 (age 59); singer Joan Jett in 1958 (age 58); tenor Andrea
Bocelli in 1958 (age 58); television commentator Neil Cavuto in 1958
(age 58); actor Scott Baio in 1960 (age 56); actor Bonnie Hunt in 1961
(age 55); actor Catherine Oxenberg in 1961 (age 55); actor Tom Felton
in 1987 (age 29). On this date in history: In 1776, the British hanged
American Revolutionary War hero and patriot Nathan Hale. His famous
last words were, I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my
country. In 1888, National Geographic began publishing. In 1927, Jack
Dempsey muffed a chance to regain the heavyweight championship when he
knocked down Gene Tunney but failed to go to a neutral corner promptly,
thereby delaying the referee's count and giving the champ time to get
up. In 1949, the U.S. nuclear monopoly ended when the Soviet Union
detonated its first atomic bomb. In 1975, U.S. President Gerald Ford
escaped a second assassination attempt in 17 days, this one by
self-proclaimed revolutionary Sara Jane Moore, who tried to shoot him
as he walked from a San Francisco hotel. Her shot, deflected by
ex-Marine Oliver Sipple, a bystander who grabbed her arm, slightly
wounded a man in the crowd. Moore served 32 years of a life prison
sentence. She was released in 2007 at the age of 77. Lynette Squeaky
Fromme, convicted in a Sept. 5, 1975, assassination attempt in
Sacramento, was paroled in 2009, at age 60, after 34 years in prison.
In 1980, long-standing border disputes and political turmoil in Iran
prompted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to launch an invasion of Iran's
oil-producing province of Khuzestan, touching off an eight-year war. In
1985, more than 50 rock and country stars, headed by Willie Nelson,
Neil Young and John Mellencamp, staged the 14-hour Farm Aid concert for
78,000 rain-soaked spectators in Champaign, Ill., raising $10 million
for debt-ridden U.S. farmers. In 1989, Irving Berlin, whose long list
of enduring songs include God Bless America and White Christmas, died
in his sleep at his home in New York City at the age of 101. In 2005,
the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee voted 13-5 to recommend the
nomination of John Roberts as chief justice of the United States,
succeeding the late William Rehnquist. A week later, the full Senate
confirmed the nomination. In 2008, officials at China's health ministry
said nearly 53,000 children, most of them younger than 2 years old, had
been sickened by milk powder tainted with an industrial chemical. At
least four children died. Ten Asian and African nations, including
Japan, temporarily banned Chinese dairy products. In 2010, a Miami
appeals court affirmed the adoption of two foster children by a gay
couple, ruling Florida's ban on same-sex adoption was unconstitutional.
In 2012, Washington state health authorities said they had shipped more
than 20,000 face masks to several counties where smoke from wildfires
made breathing difficult. In 2013, a Chinese People's Court announced
that former political star Bo Xilai was sentenced to life in prison for
bribery, embezzlement and abuse of power. Bo had been a leading figure
in the Chinese Communist Party. A thought for the day: The problem is
that the people with the most ridiculous ideas are always the people
who are most certain of them. -- Bill Maher .
