The Almanac
Today is Friday, Feb. 3, the 34th day of 2017 with 331 to follow. The
moon is waxing. Morning stars are Jupiter, Saturn and Mercury. Evening
stars are Neptune, Venus, Mars and Uranus. Those born on this date are
under the sign of Aquarius. They include: German composer Felix
Mendelssohn in 1809; U.S. journalist Horace Greeley in 1811; Elizabeth
Blackwell, the first woman doctor of medicine, in 1821; poet and
novelist Gertrude Stein in 1874; artist Norman Rockwell in 1894;
gangster Charles Arthur Pretty Boy Floyd in 1904; author James Michener
in 1907; comedian Joey Bishop in 1918; comedian Shelley Berman in 1925
(age 92); actor John Fiedler in 1925; football Hall of Fame quarterback
Fran Tarkenton in 1940 (age 77); actor Blythe Danner in 1943 (age 74);
football Hall of Fame quarterback Bob Griese in 1945 (age 72); musician
Dave Davies (The Kinks) in 1947 (age 70); Nobel Peace Prize laureate
Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo in 1948 (age 69); actor Morgan Fairchild in
1950 (age 67); actor Pamela Franklin in 1950 (age 67); actor Nathan
Lane in 1956 (age 61); actor Thomas Calabro in 1959 (age 58); actor
Maura Tierney in 1965 (age 52); professional golfer Retief Goosen in
1969 (age 48); actor Warwick Davis in 1970 (age 47); Isla Fisher in
1976 (age 41); and rapper Gucci Mane (age 37). On this date in history:
In 1377, 2,000 people in Cesena, Italy, were killed by papal troops in
what became known as the Cesena Bloodbath. In 1690, Massachusetts
Colony issued the first paper money in America. In 1783, Spain
recognized the independence of the United States from Great Britain. In
1870, the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. It
decreed that the right to vote shall not be denied on account of race,
color or previous condition of servitude. In 1913, the 16th Amendment,
allowing establishment of an income tax, became part of the U.S.
Constitution after ratification by Wyoming. In 1917, the United States
severed relations with Germany following the former's announcing its
intention of waging unrestricted submarine warfare the previous day, on
Feb. 2, 1917. In 1924, Woodrow Wilson, the 28th president of the United
States, died in Washington at the age of 67. In 1959, singers Buddy
Holly, J.P. The Big Bopper Richardson and Ritchie Valens and their
pilot, Roger Peterson, were killed in a plane crash near Clear Lake,
Iowa. In 1966, the Soviet Union accomplished the first controlled
landing on the moon when the unmanned spacecraft Luna 9 touched down on
the Ocean of Storms. In 1973, the Endangered Species Act was signed
into law by U.S. President Richard Nixon. In 1994, Space Shuttle
Discovery blasted off into space with the first Russian cosmonaut
aboard a U.S. spacecraft. In 1998, Texas executed Karla Faye Tucker,
the first female inmate to be put to death by the state in 135 years.
In 2004, the discovery of the lethal poison ricin in the mailroom of
U.S. Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., the Senate majority leader, forced the
temporary closing of three Senate office buildings in Washington. In
2005, more than 50 people died when a train rammed a trailer carrying a
wedding party at a railroad crossing in India. In 2006, an Egyptian
ferry sank in the Red Sea off the coast of Egypt, an accident that
killed nearly 1,000 people. In 2007, a truck bomb exploded in a Baghdad
market killing at least 135 people and injuring more than 300. In 2008,
Serbian President Boris Tadic, a pro-Western leader who favored closer
ties with the United States, won re-election over a hard-line Radical
Party candidate. In 2011, the New York City Council approved a measure
banning smoking in 1,700 parks and along 14 miles of beaches. In 2014,
Michael David Elliot, 40, convicted of killing four people in 1993, was
captured in Indiana's LaPorte County, a day after he escaped from the
Ionia Correctional Facility in Michigan. In 2015, a Metro-North
commuter train struck a vehicle on the tracks in Valhalla, NY, killing
six people and injuring 12 others. A thought for the day: The purpose
of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be
compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and
lived well. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson .