The Almanac
Today is Monday, Feb. 13, the 44th day of 2017 with 321 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 Bess Truman, wife of former
U.S. President Harry Truman, in 1885; artist Grant Wood in 1891; writer
Georges Simenon in 1903; golf Hall of Fame member Patty Berg in 1918;
singer Tennessee Ernie Ford in 1919; football Coach Eddie Robinson in
1919; pilot Chuck Yeager, the first man to fly faster than the speed of
sound, in 1923 (age 94); actor Kim Novak in 1933 (age 84); actor George
Segal in 1934 (age 83); actor Oliver Reed in 1938; musician Peter Tork
of the Monkees in 1942 (age 75); actor Carol Lynley in 1942 (age 75);
talk show host Jerry Springer in 1944 (age 73); actor Stockard Channing
in 1944 (age 73): singer Peter Gabriel (Genesis) in 1950 (age 67);
actor David Naughton in 1951 (age 66); Hall of Fame basketball Coach
Mike Krzyzewski in 1947 (age 70); fitness activist Denise Austin in
1957 (age 60). On this date in history: In 1635, the Boston Latin
School was founded. It is the oldest public school in the United
States. In 1668, Portugal was recognized as an independent nation by
Spain. In 1861, the first Medal of Honor was awarded. It went to Col.
Bernard Irwin, an assistant surgeon serving in the first major U.S.
Army-Apache conflict. In 1935, Bruno Richard Hauptmann was convicted of
America's most colossal crime, and a jury determined that he would
forfeit his life in the electric chair for the murder of baby Charles
A. Lindbergh, Jr. In 1945, thousands of Allied planes started bombing
the German city of Dresden in World War II. The attack caused a
firestorm that destroyed the city over a three-day period. Reports of
the death toll varied widely over the years, with many researchers
eventually estimating it was in the 25,000 range. In 1960, France
tested its first atomic weapon. In 1974, the Soviet Union expelled
dissident writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn. In 1984, Konstantin Chernenko
succeeded the late Yuri Andropov as Soviet leader. In 2001, more than
400 people were killed in an earthquake in El Salvador. In 2006, a U.N.
report accused the United States of violating prisoners' rights at its
military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In 2009, a Continental airlines
turboprop commuter plane crashed into a house near Buffalo, N.Y.,
killing 50 people, including one person in the house. In 2013,
authorities announced that 10 police officers in the Atlanta area had
been charged with taking payoffs to protect a drug gang. The U.S.
attorney in the city said the breadth of corruption is troubling. In
2014, the Afghan government, despite protests from the U.S. military,
released 65 suspected members of the Taliban from prison. A thought for
the day: U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., said, I hope for an
America where we can all contend freely and vigorously, but where we
will treasure and guard those standards of civility which alone make
this nation safe for both democracy and diversity. .
