The Almanac
Today is Sunday, Feb. 5, the 36th day of 2017 with 329 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 former British Prime Minister
Robert Peel, founder of the London Police Force, in 1788; evangelist
Dwight Moody in 1837; Scotsman John Dunlop, inventor of the pneumatic
tire, in 1840; outlaw Belle Starr in 1848; French automotive pioneer
Andre Citroen in 1878; French aviation pioneer Gabriel Voisin in 1880;
U.S. statesman Adlai E. Stevenson in 1900; actor John Carradine in
1906; novelist William Burroughs in 1914; comedian/actor Red Buttons in
1919; author Rev. Andrew Greeley in 1928; baseball Hall of Fame member
Henry Hank Aaron in 1934 (age 83); hockey commentator Don Cherry in
1934 (age 83); financial writer Jane Bryant Quinn in 1939 (age 78);
television writer and producer Stephen J. Cannell in 1941; Heisman
Trophy winner and football Hall of Fame member Roger Staubach in 1942
(age 75); film director Michael Mann in 1943 (age 74); musician Al
Kooper in 1944 (age 73); race car driver Darrell Waltrip in 1947 (age
70); writer/comedian Christopher Guest in 1948 (age 69); actor Barbara
Hershey in 1948 (age 69); actor Tom Wilkinson in 1948 (age 69); actor
Tim Meadows in 1961 (age 56); actor Jennifer Jason Leigh in 1962 (age
55); actor Laura Linney in 1964 (age 53); golf Hall of Fame member Jose
Maria Olazabal in 1966 (age 51); singer Bobby Brown in 1969 (age 48);
Portuguese soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo in 1985 (age 32); Brazilian
soccer star Neymar in 1992 (age 25). On this date in history: In 1631,
British clergyman Roger Williams, who founded the colony of Rhode
Island, arrived in Salem, Mass., seeking religious freedom. In 1919,
screen legends Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and
D.W. Griffith formed United Artists. In 1945, American troops led by
Gen. Douglas MacArthur returned to Manila, liberating the Philippine
capital from Japanese authority. In 1971, Apollo 14 astronauts Alan
Shepard and Edward Mitchell were on the moon for 4 hours. They were the
fifth and sixth astronauts to walk on the moon since Apollo 11 in 1969.
In 1994, white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith was convicted of the
1963 killing of Mississippi civil rights leader Medgar Evers. In 1997,
a jury in a civil trial in Santa Monica, Calif., found O.J. Simpson
liable in the killings of his former wife and her friend and he was
ordered to pay a total of $33.5 million to the families. Simpson had
been acquitted in his murder trial. In 2003, making a case for U.N.
-endorsed military action in Iraq, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell
accused the Saddam Hussein regime of deceiving U.N. weapons inspectors
and having ties with the al-Qaida terrorist network. In 2007, U.S.
astronaut Lisa Marie Nowak, a naval officer, was arrested on several
charges, including attempted kidnapping, after she drove from Houston
to Orlando, Fla., to confront another officer she viewed as a romantic
rival for a fellow astronaut. Nowak eventually pleaded guilty to lesser
charges, avoided prison and was forced to leave the Navy. In 2010, the
president of Toyota Motor Corp., Akio Toyoda, apologized for
quality-control problems, including sticking gas pedals, that led to
massive vehicle recalls. In 2012, Sauli Niinisto scored a resounding
victory over Pekka Haavisto to become Finland's 12th president. In
2013, a report published by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute said
Washington, D.C., had the worst traffic congestion of any city in the
United States, followed by Los Angeles, San Francisco-Oakland, New York
and Boston. In 2014, the CVS Pharmacy chain announced it would stop
selling cigarettes and other tobacco products by Oct. 1. A thought for
the day: You can talk without saying a thing. I don't ever want to be
that type of person. -- Charles Barkley .
