The Almanac
Today is Saturday, Sept. 5, the 248th day of 2015 with 117 to follow.
The moon is waning. Morning stars are Jupiter, Mars, Uranus and Venus.
Evening stars are Mercury, Neptune and Saturn. Those born on this date
are under the sign of Virgo. They include French King Louis XIV in
1638; outlaw Jesse James in 1847; distiller Jack Daniel in 1846;
baseball Hall of Fame member Napoleon Lajoie in 1874; marketing
research engineer A.C. Nielsen in 1897; movie producer Darryl F. Zanuck
in 1902; author Arthur Koestler in 1905; retired Federal Reserve Board
Chairman Paul Volcker in 1927 (age 88); comedian Bob Newhart in 1929
(age 86); singer/actor Carol Lawrence in 1932 (age 83); actor William
Devane in 1937 (age 78); actor George Lazenby in 1939 (age 76); actor
Raquel Welch in 1940 (age 75); film director Werner Herzog in 1942 (age
73); singer Al Stewart in 1945 (age 70; singer Loudon Wainwright III in
1946 (age 69); singer Freddie Mercury (Queen) in 1946; actor Dennis
Dugan in 1946 (age 69); cartoonist Cathy Guisewite in 1950 (age 65);
actor Michael Keaton in 1951 (age 64); rock musician Dweezil Zappa in
1969 (age 46). On this date in history: In 1774, the first Continental
Congress convened in secret in Philadelphia. In 1882, 10,000 workers
marched in the first Labor Day parade -- in New York City. In 1877,
Oglala Sioux chief Crazy Horse was fatally bayoneted by a U.S. soldier
after resisting confinement in a guardhouse at Fort Robinson, Neb. A
year earlier, Crazy Horse was among the Sioux leaders who defeated
George Armstrong Custer's Seventh Cavalry at the Battle of Little
Bighorn in Montana Territory. In 1935, singing cowboy Gene Autry
starred in his first Western feature, Tumbling Tumbleweeds. In 1972,
Palestinian militants invaded the Olympic Village outside Munich, West
Germany, and killed 11 Israeli athletes and six other people. In 1975,
Lynette Squeaky Fromme, a follower of mass murderer Charles Manson,
failed in an attempt to shoot U.S. President Gerald Ford. (Fromme was
paroled in 2009 after 34 years in prison.) In 1995, France conducted an
underground nuclear test at the Mururoa Atoll in the South Pacific. It
was the first of several -- all of which were met by protests
worldwide. In 1997, Mother Teresa died at age 87. In 2006, Katie
Couric, longtime co-host of the NBC Today Show, became the first solo
female anchor on a major U.S. television network when she took over the
CBS Evening News. In 2007, wealthy, record-setting U.S.
adventurer-aviator Steve Fossett, 63, vanished on a short flight in
western Nevada. (He was declared dead five months later.) Among his
many records, he was the first person to fly around the world solo in a
balloon and first to fly around the globe solo without refueling. In
2012, a suitcase containing a human torso was found floating in Lake
Ontario. Police said the remains, and other body parts discovered in
Toronto-area parks and waterways, were those of Guang Hua Liu, 41,
missing since mid-August. Her former boyfriend, Chun Qi Jiang, 40, was
arrested. (He was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to
life in prison.) In 2013, Walmart workers staged protests in at least
15 cities. They said they wanted better jobs and higher pay (at least
$25,000 for full-time employees). A Walmart representative called the
protests a handful of union-orchestrated media stunts. In 2014, U.S.
officials said Ahmed Abdi Godane, leader of the Somalia-based Islamic
militant organization al-Shabab, was killed earlier in the week in an
American airstrike. In 2012, the United States had posted a $7 million
reward for his arrest. A thought for the day: No one is born hating
another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or
his religion. â" Nelson Mandela .
