The Almanac
Today is Tuesday, March 14, the 73rd day of 2017 with 292 to follow.
The moon is waning. Morning stars are Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and
Venus. Evening stars are Mercury, Venus, Uranus and Mars. Those born on
this date are under the sign of Pisces. They include Austrian composer
Johann Strauss Sr. in 1804; Thomas Marshall, U.S. vice president under
Woodrow Wilson, in 1854; Jonathan Luther Jones, railroad engineer who
was the hero of the ballad Casey Jones, in 1864; physicist Albert
Einstein in 1879; bandleader Les Brown in 1912; cartoonist Hank Ketcham
( Dennis the Menace ) in 1920; astronaut Frank Borman in 1928 (age 89);
actor Michael Caine in 1933 (age 84); composer Quincy Jones in 1933
(age 83); astronaut (last man on the moon) Eugene Cernan in 1934; golf
Hall of Fame member Bob Charles in 1936 (age 81); singer Michael Martin
Murphy in 1945 (age 72); basketball Hall of Fame member Wes Unseld in
1946 (age 71); comedian Billy Crystal in 1948 (age 69), Prince Albert
II of Monaco in 1958 (age 59); baseball Hall of Fame member Kirby
Puckett in 1961; actors Daniel Gillies in 1976 (age 41) and Ansel
Elgort in 1994 (age 23). On this date in history: In 1794, Eli Whitney
was granted a patent for the cotton gin. In 1812, the U.S. government
authorized the issue of America's first war bonds -- to pay for
military equipment for use against the British. In 1885, The Mikado by
Gilbert and Sullivan made its stage debut in London. In 1950, the FBI's
10 Most Wanted Fugitives list appeared for the first time. In 1951,
Seoul was recaptured by U.N. troops during the Korean War. In 1964,
Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby was convicted of killing Lee Harvey
Oswald, the assumed assassin of U.S. President John F. Kennedy. Ruby
was sentenced to death but the conviction was overturned and he died of
cancer while awaiting a new trial. In 1991, scientists reported the
discovery of the gene that triggers colon cancer. In 2004, Vladimir
Putin easily won re-election as president of Russia. He won a third
term in 2012. In 2009, Australian authorities said a 230-ton oil spill
from a Hong Kong-registered freighter caused an environmental disaster
along nearly 40 miles of beach off the Queensland coast. In 2010, Katie
Spotz, 22, of Mentor, Ohio, became the youngest person and first
American to complete a solo boat journey across the Atlantic Ocean, a
2,817-mile, 2 1/2-month voyage in a 19-foot wooden rowboat. In 2012,
the International Criminal Court at The Hague, Netherlands, in its
first verdict as a permanent war crimes tribunal, found Congolese
warlord Thomas Lubanga guilty of using children in war. In 2013, New
York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said more people were moving into the
city than moving out for the first time in more than 60 years. In 2014,
Tony Benn, a leader of the British left who campaigned for peace and
nuclear disarmament, died at his home in London. He was 88. A thought
for the day: Minnesota Twins star Kirby Puckett (who died in 2006 at
age 45) said at his National Baseball Hall of Fame induction in 2001,
Don't take life for granted because tomorrow isn't promised to any one
of us. .
