The Almanac
Today is Friday, Dec. 9, the 344th day of 2016 with 22 to follow. The
moon is waxing. The morning stars are Jupiter and Saturn. The evening
stars are Mercury, Venus, Mars, Neptune, and Uranus. Those born on this
date are under the sign of Sagittarius. They include English poet John
Milton in 1608; journalist Joel Chandler Harris, author of the Uncle
Remus stories, in 1845; Clarence Birdseye, industrialist/inventor,
noted as the father of frozen foods, in 1886; actor Hermione Gingold in
1897; circus clown Emmett Kelly in 1898; actor Margaret Hamilton in
1902; bandleader Freddy Martin in 1906; actors Douglas Fairbanks Jr. in
1909 and Broderick Crawford in 1911; former Speaker of the House Thomas
Tip O'Neill, D-Mass., in 1912; actor Kirk Douglas in 1916 (age 100);
comedian Redd Foxx in 1922; actors Dina Merrill in 1925 (age 91), Dick
Van Patten in 1928 (age 88), John Cassavetes in 1929, Buck Henry in
1930 (age 86); Judi Dench in 1934 (age 82) and Beau Bridges in 1941
(age 75); football Hall of Fame members Deacon Jones in 1938 and Dick
Butkus in 1942 (age 74); actors Michael Nouri in 1945 (age 71), Michael
Dorn in 1952 (age 64) and John Malkovich in 1953 (age 63); golf Hall of
Fame member Tom Kite in 1949 (age 67); singers Joan Armatrading in 1950
(age 66) and Donny Osmond in 1957 (age 59); and actors Joe Lando in
1961 (age 55) and Felicity Huffman in 1962 (age 54). On this date in
history: In 1907, the first Christmas Seals to raise money to fight
tuberculosis went on sale in the post office in Wilmington, Delaware.
In 1920, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to U.S. President Woodrow
Wilson. In 1936, Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, with the country and
the world waiting in painful suspense to hear confirmation or
repudiation of a belief that King Edward had decided to abdicate, told
Commons that he could not make an announcement before tomorrow, Dec.
10. In 1955, two weeks of bloody student uprisings against President
Fulgencio Batista appeared to follow the pattern of the student riots
that deposed Cuban Dictator Gerardo Machado 22 years ago. Batista would
remain in power four more years before losing power to Fidel Castro. In
1958, in Indianapolis, retired Boston candy manufacturer Robert H. W.
Welch, Jr., established the John Birch Society, a right-wing
organization dedicated to fighting what it perceived to be the
extensive infiltration of communism into U.S. society. In 1974, White
House aide John Ehrlichman testified at the Watergate trial that U.S.
President Richard Nixon was responsible for a coverup. In 1990, Lech
Walesa won Poland's first direct presidential vote. In 1992, British
Prime Minister John Major announced the formal separation of Prince
Charles and Princess Diana. In 2002, United Airlines, which said it was
losing $22 million a day, filed for bankruptcy. In 2006, U.S. midterm
election figures indicated Democrats made a 31-seat gain to recapture
control of the House of Representatives, with 233 seats to 202 for the
Republicans. Democrats earlier assured themselves the Senate majority.
In 2009, the U.S. government's bailout program for ailing major banks
played a critical role in renewing the flow of credit and preventing a
more acute crisis, the independent Congressional Oversight Panel said
in a year-end report. In 2012, the death toll from Typhoon Bopha, which
raged across the Philippines for five days, continued to rise.
Officials later said more than 1,000 people had been killed with at
least that many injured, and thousands of others were left homeless. A
thought for the day: It's better to be unhappy alone than unhappy with
someone. -- Marilyn Monroe .
