The Almanac
Today is Saturday, Feb. 11, the 42nd day of 2017 with 323 to follow.
The moon is waning. 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 Englishman Henry Fox
Talbot, a developer of photography, in 1800 Chief Justice of the United
States Melville Weston Fuller in 1833 inventor Thomas Edison in 1847
boxer Max Baer in 1909 film director Joseph L. Mankiewicz, in 1909
author Sidney Sheldon in 1917 actor Eva Gabor in 1919 King Farouk,
Egypt's last monarch, in 1920 actor Kim Stanley in 1925 actor Leslie
Nielsen in 1926 actor Tina Louise in 1934 (age 83) actor Burt Reynolds
in 1936 (age 81) songwriter Gerry Goffin in 1939 Brazilian musician
Sergio Mendes in 1941 (age 76) Jeb Bush, former Florida governor and
presidential son and brother, in 1953 (age 64) singer/songwriter Sheryl
Crow in 1962 (age 55) former Alaska governor and GOP vice presidential
nominee Sarah Palin in 1964 (age 53) actor Jennifer Aniston in 1969
(age 48) singer/actor Brandy (Norwood) in 1979 (age 38) actor Taylor
Lautner in 1992 (age 25). On this date in history: In 1858, French
peasant girl Bernadette Soubirous said the Virgin Mary appeared to her
at Lourdes. In 1929, a Lateran treaty signed in Italy recognized the
sovereignty of Vatican City. In 1929, Miss Bobbi Trout, 18-year-old
Tomboy who took up flying to avoid dish-washing, broke three world
aviation records. In 1941, Glenn Miller's Chattanooga Choo Choo was
awarded the first gold record, given for sales of 1 million copies. In
1945, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston
Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin ended a wartime conference at
Yalta. In 1965, U.S. and South Vietnamese planes made their first
bombing raids on North Vietnam. In 1970, Japan put a satellite in
space, following the Soviet Union, the United States and France. In
1987, Corazon Aquino was sworn in for a six-year presidential term in
the Philippines. In 1990, Nelson Mandela, leader of the movement to end
South African apartheid, was released after 27 years in prison. In
1993, British Prime Minister John Major said Queen Elizabeth II would
pay income tax on her personal income as well as being subject to
capital and inheritance levies. In 2005, playwright Arthur Miller, a
fiery moralist whose plays include Death of a Salesman and The
Crucible, died at the age of 89. In 2006, U.S. adventurer Steve Fossett
broke the solo flight record when he landed near Bournemouth, England,
covering 24,997 miles after taking off from Kennedy Space Center in
Florida four days earlier. In 2009, a long, bitter political fight in
Zimbabwe apparently was resolved when President Robert Mugabe swore in
opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai as prime minister. In 2011, Hosni
Mubarak stepped down after nearly 30 years as president of Egypt,
bowing to intense public pressure to resign after 18 days of massive,
often violent protests that spawned a reported death toll of more than
800 people. Mubarak, 82, ceded power to the Supreme Council of the
Armed Forces. In 2012, Whitney Houston, an American pop singing star
who sold millions of albums and starred in movies, was found dead in a
Beverly Hills, Calif., hotel room. The Los Angeles coroner said the
48-year-old entertainer died of accidental drowning in her bathtub but
that cocaine and heart disease also played a role. In 2013, the Medal
of Honor was awarded to former U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Clinton Romesha,
who led an Alamo-like defense of an outpost against 300 Taliban
attackers in Afghanistan. In 2014, an Algerian Hercules C-130 military
plane crashed into a mountain in eastern Algeria, killing 77 people,
including women and children. There was one survivor, a soldier. A
thought for the day: No one is born hating another person because of
the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must
learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to
love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its
opposite. -- Nelson Mandela .
