The Almanac
Today is Saturday, Feb. 4, the 35th day of 2017 with 330 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 Polish-born American patriot
Tadeusz Kosciuszko in 1746; French cubist painter Fernand Leger in
1881; actor Nigel Bruce in 1895; aviator Charles Lindbergh in 1902;
legendary golfer Byron Nelson in 1912; civil rights activist Rosa Lee
Parks in 1913; actor Ida Lupino in 1918; feminist Betty Friedan in
1921; actor Conrad Bain in 1923; comedian David Brenner in 1936; actor
John Schuck in 1940 (age 77); former U.S. Vice President Dan Quayle in
1947 (age 70); shock rocker Alice Cooper in 1948 (age 69); actor Lisa
Eichhorn in 1952 (age 65); football Hall of Fame member Lawrence Taylor
in 1959 (age 58); country singer Clint Black in 1962 (age 55), actor
Gabrielle Anwar in 1970 (age 47); boxer Oscar de la Hoya in 1973 (age
44); singer-songwriter Natalia Imbruglia in 1975 (age 42). On this date
in history: In 1789, George Washington of Virginia, the commander of
the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, was elected the
first president of the United States by all 69 presidential electors
who cast votes. John Adams of Massachusetts was elected vice president.
In 1792, George Washington was unanimously elected to a second term as
U.S. president in a vote of the Electoral College. In 1861, the 25-year
period of conflict known as the Apache War began at Apache Pass, Ariz.,
with the arrest of American-Indian leader Cochise for raiding a ranch.
Cochise escaped his U.S. Army captors and declared war. In 1938, Adolf
Hitler seized control of the German army and put Nazi officers in key
posts as part of a plan that led to World War II. In 1945, the U.S.
Army liberated the Santo Tomas Internment Camp in the Philippines from
Japanese command. Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin, the Big Three, meet
at Yalta to discuss unconditional surrender terms for Germany. In 1974,
urban guerrillas calling themselves the Symbionese Liberation Army
abducted Patricia Hearst, the 19-year-old daughter of publisher
Randolph Hearst, from her apartment in Berkeley, Calif. Hearst was
arrested as a fugitive in September of 1975. She said she had been
forced to join her captors and was charged with participating in bank
robberies. The heiress spent 22 months in prison before her sentence
was commuted by President Jimmy Carter. She was eventually granted a
full pardon by President Bill Clinton. In 1976, a magnitude-7.5
earthquake struck the Guatemala City region in Guatemala, killing an
estimated 23,000 people and injuring tens of thousands. In 2004,
Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan, considered the key figure in his
country's nuclear weaponry development, admitted he leaked that
technology to other countries. In 2006, widespread Muslim protests of
caricatures depicting Muhammad in a negative way turned violent. Angry
demonstrators smashed windows, set fires and burned flags. Syrian mobs
burned Danish and Norwegian embassies because newspapers in those
countries published the drawings. In 2012, Russia and China vetoed an
effort by the U.N. Security Council to end the violence in Syria with
an Arab League peace plan. In 2013, law enforcement officers stormed an
underground bunker in Midland City, Ala., killed 65-year-old Jimmy Lee
Dykes and rescued a 5-year-old boy he had held hostage for a week. In
2014, Microsoft announced the appointment of Satya Nadella as the
company's chief executive officer, succeeding Steve Ballmer, and said
Bill Gates would step down as board chairman. A thought for the day:
Scottish Olympian and missionary Eric Liddell said, In the dust of
defeat as well as the laurels of victory there is a glory to be found
if one has done his best. .
