The Almanac
Today is Thursday, Feb. 16, the 47th day of 2017 with 318 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 French mathematician
Pierre Bouguer in 1698; historian Henry Brooks Adams in 1838; orchestra
leader Wayne King ( The Waltz King ) in 1901; actor Chester Morris in
1901; ventriloquist Edgar Bergen in 1903; actor Hugh Beaumont in 1909;
singer Patty Andrews of the Andrews Sisters in 1918; actor Vera-Ellen
in 1921; U.S. Rep. Sonny Bono, R-Calif. (also part of the comedy/song
team Sonny and Cher) in 1935; former North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in
1941; writer Richard Ford in 1944 (age 73); actor William Katt in 1951
(age 66); model/actor Margaux Hemingway (granddaughter of Ernest
Hemingway) in 1954; actor/director LeVar Burton in 1957 (age 60),
actor-rapper Ice-T, born Tracy Marrow, in 1958 (age 59); tennis Hall of
Fame member John McEnroe in 1959 (age 58); actor Elizabeth Olsen in
1989 (age 28); singer-songwriter The Weeknd in 1990 (age 27). On this
date in history: In 1923, archaeologists opened the treasure-laden tomb
of Tutankhamen, King Tut, in Egypt's Valley of the Kings. In 1933, a
patent for the synthetic fiber nylon was awarded to the DuPont Co. In
1959, Fidel Castro was sworn in as Cuba's leader and set up a Communist
regime. In 1986, Mario Soares was elected Portugal's first civilian
head of state in 60 years. In 1999, Germany announced $1.7 billion
would be set aside to compensate victims of the Holocaust. In 2005,
after a five-month lockout, the National Hockey League canceled its
entire 2004-05 season. In 2009, Japan reported its domestic product
fell at a 12.7 percent annual rate in the last quarter of 2008,
plunging the country into what experts say was its worst financial
crisis since World War II. In 2011, Borders, the 40-year-old retail
book superstore chain that began as a used book shop in Ann Arbor,
Mich., and rapidly expanded in the 1990s with 650 locations and 19,500
employees, filed for bankruptcy. In 2013, protesters in Quetta,
Pakistan, threw rocks at police cars and set fires in the streets after
a bomb attack in a Shiite neighborhood killed at least 65 people and
injured about 175. In 2014, Best Picture and Best Actor honors at the
British Film Academy Awards went to 12 Years a Slave and its star,
Chiwetel Ejiofor. A thought for the day: Don't be trapped by dogma,
which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let
the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. -- Steve
Jobs .
