The Almanac
Today is Friday, March 24, the 83rd day of 2017 with 282 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 Aries. They include financier Andrew Mellon
in 1855; magician and escape artist Harry Houdini in 1874; silent film
star Fatty Arbuckle in 1887; Baseball Hall of Fame member George Sisler
in 1893; pioneer Disney film animator Ub Iwerks in 1901; Republican
U.S. presidential candidate Thomas Dewey in 1902; notorious bank robber
Clyde Barrow in 1909; poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti in 1919 (age 98);
actor Norman Fell in 1924; actor Steve McQueen in 1930; dress designer
Bob Mackie in 1940 (age 77); musician Nick Lowe in 1949 (age 68);
fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger in 1951 (age 66); comedian Louie
Anderson in 1953 (age 64); actor Robert Carradine in 1954 (age 63);
actor Donna Pescow in 1954 (age 63); actor/model Kelly LeBrock in 1960
(age 57); television personality Star Jones in 1962 (age 55); actor
Lara Flynn Boyle in 1970 (age 47); actor Megyn Price in 1971 (age 46);
pro football star Peyton Manning in 1976 (age 41); actor Jessica
Chastain in 1977 (age 40). On this date in history: In 1603, Queen
Elizabeth I of England died after 44 years of rule. She was succeeded
by King James VI of Scotland, uniting England and Scotland under a
single British monarch. In 1934, the United States granted independence
to the Philippine Islands, effective July 4, 1946. In 1975, the beaver
became the official symbol of Canada. In 1989, the Exxon Valdez hit a
reef in the Gulf of Alaska, spilling 11 million gallons of crude oil in
the largest oil tanker spill in U.S. history. In 1998, four girls and a
teacher at Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Ark., were killed by
bullets fired from a nearby wooded area. The shooters were two boys,
ages 11 and 13, who were convicted as juveniles and served prison time.
In 2003, British Prime Minister Tony Blair told the House of Commons
that coalition forces were well on their way to Baghdad, and victory in
Iraq was certain despite some anxious moments ahead. In 2004, the
European Commission fined software giant Microsoft $613 million for EU
antitrust violations. In 2012, former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney,
71, underwent heart transplant surgery at a hospital in Falls Church,
Va. In 2014, a court in Minya, Egypt sentenced 529 members of the
Muslim Brotherhood to death on charges including murder and attempted
murder. Most of the suspects were tried in absentia. In 2015, a
Germanwings plane carrying 150 people, including German high school
students, crashed in the French Alps in southern France. A thought for
the day: Martin Luther King Jr. said, I have a dream that my four
little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be
judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their
character. .
