The Almanac
Today is Wednesday, March 1, the 60th day of 2017 with 305 to follow.
The moon is waxing. Morning stars are Mercury and Venus. Evening stars
are Jupiter, Mars, Neptune, Saturn and Uranus. Those born on this date
are under the sign of Pisces. They include Polish composer Frederic
Chopin in 1810; author William Dean Howells in 1837; big band leader
Glenn Miller in 1904; actor David Niven in 1910; writer Ralph Ellison
in 1914; St. Louis Cardinals/Chicago Cubs announcer Harry Caray in
1914; poet Robert Lowell in 1917; Israeli Prime Minister and Nobel
Peace Prize laureate Yitzhak Rabin in 1922; Mad magazine publisher
William Gaines in 1922; Donald Deke Slayton, one of the original
Mercury astronauts, in 1924; NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle in 1926;
singer Harry Belafonte in 1927 (age 90); jurist Robert Bork in 1927;
actor Robert Conrad in 1935 (age 82); singer Roger Daltrey (The Who) in
1944 (age 73); singer Mike d'Abo of Manfred Mann in 1944 (age 73);
actor Alan Thicke in 1947; actor/director Ron Howard in 1954 (age 63);
actor Catherine Bach in 1954 (age 63); actor Tim Daly in 1956 (age 61);
singer Kesha in 1987 (age 30); singer Justin Bieber in 1994 (age 23).
On this date in history: In 1565, the city of Rio de Janeiro was
established. In 1692, the notorious witch hunt began in the Salem
village of the Massachusetts Bay colony, eventually resulting in the
executions of 19 men and women. In 1780, Pennsylvania became the first
state to abolish slavery. In 1781, the American colonies adopted the
Articles of Confederation, paving the way for a federal union. In 1803,
Ohio was admitted to the union as the 17th state. In 1867, Nebraska was
admitted to the union as the 37th state. In 1872, Yellowstone National
Park was established by an act of Congress. It was the first area in
the world to be designated a national park. In 1932, aviator Charles
Lindbergh's son was kidnapped. The child's body was found on May 12.
Bruno Hauptmann was convicted of the kidnapping and murder and executed
in 1936. In 1954, Puerto Rican nationalists opened fire from the
gallery of the U.S. House of Representatives, injuring five members of
Congress. In 1961, an executive order from U.S. President John F.
Kennedy established the Peace Corps. In 1971, a bomb exploded in a
restroom in the Senate wing of the U.S. Capitol, causing $300,000
damage but no injuries. The Weather Underground, a leftist radical
group that opposed the Vietnam War, claimed responsibility. In 1995,
the company formerly known as Jerry and David's guide to the World Wide
Web incorporates under the name, Yahoo! In 2003, Khalid Sheik Mohammed,
the suspected mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on
the United States, was captured in Pakistan. In 2004, an interim
government took over in Haiti one day after President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide fled into exile following a month-long insurrection. In 2005,
the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that execution of juvenile offenders is
unconstitutional. In 2007, Arthur Schlesinger Jr., a two-time Pulitzer
Prize-winning historian who served as an adviser in the Kennedy
administration, died at age 89. In 2011, the U.S. Interior Department
approved the first deep-water drilling permits in the Gulf of Mexico
since a BP offshore explosion and massive oil spill in April 2010. In
2013, U.S. authorities said smugglers were using air-powered cannons in
Mexico to blast drugs over the border into the United States. In 2014,
black-clad, knife-wielding attackers, including two women, killed at
least 30 people and wounded about 130 at a railway station in the
southwest Chinese city of Kunming. Four of the assailants were killed
by police and four others were arrested and charged with murder. A
thought for the day: Some people can stay longer in an hour than others
can in a week. -- William Dean Howells .
