The Almanac
Today is Tuesday, Sept. 27, the 271st day of 2016 with 95 to follow.
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 Libra. They include statesman Samuel Adams in
1722; political cartoonist Thomas Nast in 1840; magician Harry
Blackstone Sr. in 1885; composer Joseph McCarthy ( You Made Me Love You
) in 1885; composer Vincent Youmans ( Tea for Two ) in 1898; former
U.S. Sen. Sam Ervin, D-N.C., in 1896; actor Jayne Meadows in 1919;
filmmaker Arthur Penn in 1922; actor William Conrad in 1920; actor Sada
Thompson in 1927; actor Greg Morris in 1933; actor Wilford Brimley in
1934 (age 82); golf Hall of Fame member Kathy Whitworth in 1939 (age
77); rock musician Randy Bachman in 1943 (age 73); singer Meat Loaf in
1947 (age 69); baseball Hall of Fame member Mike Schmidt in 1949 (age
67); actor/singer Shaun Cassidy in 1958 (age 58); gold medal-winning
speed skater Beth Heiden in 1959 (age 57); actor Gwyneth Paltrow in
1972 (age 44); rapper Lil Wayne in 1982 (age 34); singer Avril Lavigne
in 1984 (age 32). On this date in history: In 1540, the Society of
Jesus, known as the Jesuits, was chartered by the Roman Catholic
Church. In 1825, in England, George Stephenson operated the first
locomotive to pull a passenger train. In 1930, golfer Bobby Jones won
the U.S. Amateur Championship, capturing the era's Grand Slam. Earlier
in the year, he won the British Amateur, British Open and U.S. Open. In
1935, 13-year-old Judy Garland signed her first contract with MGM. In
1939, after 19 days of heavy air raids and artillery bombardment,
Polish defenders of Warsaw surrendered to German forces. In 1954, The
Tonight Show made its television debut with host Steve Allen. In 1964,
the Warren Commission report on the assassination of President John F.
Kennedy was released after a 10-month investigation, concluding that
there was no conspiracy and that Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused
assassin, acted alone. In 1998, Gerhard Schroeder led Germany's Social
Democratic Party to victory in parliamentary elections, bringing to an
end 16 years of power by Chancellor Helmut Kohl and his Christian
Democratic Party. In 2003, U.S. President George W. Bush and Russian
President Vladimir Putin, meeting at Camp David in Maryland, said they
would join forces to oppose nuclear proliferation in Iran and North
Korea. In 2008, Zhai Zhigang left the Shenzhou VII spacecraft and
became the first Chinese astronaut to take a space walk. In 2009,
German Chancellor Angela Merkel was assured of a second term when her
party, the Christian Democrats, easily won the nation's parliamentary
elections. Merkel began a third term in late 2013. In 2010, Jimi
Heselden, 62, manufacturer of the upright Segway scooter, was killed
when he apparently lost control of one of the two-wheeled,
self-balancing machines and ran over a cliff into a river. In 2013, 60
people died in the collapse of a five-story building in Mumbai. Two
other buildings fell in the city in the five previous months, killing a
total of more than 80 people. A thought for the day: No place
epitomizes the American experience and the American spirit more than
New York City. -- Michael Bloomberg .
