The Almanac

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Today is Thursday, July 18, the 199th day of 2002 with 166 to follow.

The moon is waxing in its first quarter.

The morning stars are Mercury, Neptune, Uranus and Saturn.

The evening stars are Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Pluto.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Cancer. They include English novelist William Makepeace Thackeray in 1811; actor Chill Wills in 1903; playwright Clifford Odets in 1906; composer, arranger, pianist Lou Busch (a.k.a. Joe "Fingers" Carr); actor Hume Cronyn in 1911 (age 91); comedian Red Skelton in 1913; actress Harriet Nelson in 1914; South African black leader Nelson Mandela in 1918 (age 84); astronaut-turned-Sen. John Glenn, D-Ohio, in 1921 (age 81); journalist/author Hunter S. Thompson and pop singer Dion Di Mucci, both in 1939 (age 63); actor James Brolin in 1941 (age 61); singer Martha Reeves in 1941 (age 61); publisher Steve Forbes in 1947 (age 55); country singer Ricky Skaggs in 1954 (age 48); actress Elizabeth McGovern in 1961 (age 41); and basketball star Anfernee "Penny" Hardaway in 1972 (age 30).

On this date in history:

In 64 A.D. fire destroyed nearly two-thirds of Rome.

In 1925, seven months after he was released from jail, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler published the first volume of his personal manifesto, Mein Kampf.

In 1936, a nephew of Oscar Mayer invented the "Weinermobile."

In 1977, Vietnam was admitted to the United Nations.

In 1969, a car driven by Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., plunged into a pond on Chappaquiddick Island, Mass., killing his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne.

In 1984, a gunman opened fire at a McDonald's restaurant in San Ysidro, Calif., killing 21 people.

In 1991, the first Ibero-American Summit Conference opened in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Also in 1991, the Yugoslav federal presidency began withdrawing troops from Slovenia.

In 1992, youths rampaged for a second night in southwest England following the deaths of two young men on a stolen police motorcycle.

In 1994, a car bombing in Buenos Aires, Argentina, killed some 100 people in or near a building that housed Jewish organizations.

A thought for the day: Fellini said, "All art is autobiographical. The pearl is the oyster's autobiography."