The Almanac
Today is Sunday, March 12, the 71st day of 2017 with 294 to follow.
Daylight saving time begins. The moon is full. Morning stars are
Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Venus. Evening stars are Mercury, Venus,
Uranus and Mars. Those born on this date are under the sign of Pisces.
They include pioneer automaker Clement Studebaker in 1831; New York
Times publisher Adolph Ochs in 1858; artist Elaine de Kooning in 1918;
actor/singer Gordon MacRae in 1921; novelist Jack Kerouac in 1922;
Mercury astronaut Wally Schirra in 1923; writer Harry Harrison in 1925;
playwright Edward Albee in 1928 (age 89); actor Billie Buckwheat Thomas
in 1931; Southwest Airlines co-founder Herb Kelleher in 1931 (age 86);
former U.N. Ambassador/Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young in 1932 (age 85);
actor Barbara Feldon in 1933 (age 84); Hall of Fame basketball Coach
Eddie Sutton in 1936 (age 81); singer/songwriter Al Jarreau in 1940
(age 77); singer/actor Liza Minnelli in 1946 (age 71); former
Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in 1947 (age 70); singer/songwriter
James Taylor in 1948 (age 69); Jackson 5 member Marlon Jackson in 1957
(age 60); former baseball player Darryl Strawberry in 1962 (age 55);
actor Aaron Eckhart in 1968 (age 49); musician Pete Doherty in 1979
(age 38). On this date in history: In 1912, Juliette Gordon Low
organized the first Girl Scouts of America troop in Savannah, Ga. In
1933, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt made the first of his Sunday
evening fireside chats -- informal radio addresses from the White House
to the American people. In 1938, Nazi Germany invaded and oc'cup'ied
Austria. In 1947, in a speech to Congress, U.S. President Harry Truman
outlined what became known as the Truman Doctrine, calling for U.S. aid
to countries threatened by communist revolution. In 1963, the U.S.
House of Representatives voted to grant former British Prime Minister
Winston Churchill honorary U.S. citizenship. In 1993, more than 250
people were killed and at least 700 wounded in 13 coordinated terrorist
bombings in Mumbai. In 1994, the Church of England ordained its first
female priests. In 1999, former Soviet allies Hungary, Poland and the
Czech Republic joined NATO. In 2003, Elizabeth Smart, 15, who had been
kidnapped from her Salt Lake City home in June 2002, was found in the
custody of a panhandler and his wife in nearby Sandy, Utah. In 2008,
New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer resigned after being caught in a
high-priced prostitution scandal. In 2009, admitted Wall Street
swindler Bernard Madoff, accused of defrauding thousands of clients of
billions of dollars in a massive Ponzi scheme over 20 years, pleaded
guilty to 11 felonies. Madoff apologized to his victims: I am painfully
aware that I have deeply hurt many, many people ... I cannot adequately
express how sorry I am for what I have done. He was later given a
150-year prison sentence. In 2013, Steven Ray Thacker, 42, who killed
three people during a crime spree in three states was executed via
lethal injection in Oklahoma. In 2014, an explosion caused by a gas
leak knocked down two apartment buildings in New York City's East
Harlem, killing eight people and injuring dozens of others. A thought
for the day: I never did give anybody hell. I just told the truth and
they thought it was hell. -- Harry S. Truman .
