The Almanac

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Today is Saturday, June 14, the 165th day of 2003 with 200 to follow.

Today is Flag Day.

The moon is full. The morning stars are Mercury, Venus, Mars, Uranus and Neptune. The evening stars are Jupiter, Saturn and Pluto.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Gemini. They include Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" in 1811; bookseller John Bartlett, compiler of "Bartlett's Familiar Quotations," in 1820; Wisconsin Gov. Robert La Follette in 1855; photojournalist Margaret Bourke-White in 1906; actor/folksinger Burl Ives in 1909; actress Dorothy McGuire in 1919; Cuban revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara in 1928; author Jerzy Kosinski in 1933; actress Marla Gibbs and real estate mogul Donald Trump, both in 1946 (age 57); Olympic gold medal speed skater Eric Heiden in 1958 (age 45); singer Boy George (George O'Dowd) in 1961 (age 42); actress Yasmine Bleeth ("Baywatch") in 1968 (age 35); and tennis star Stephanie "Steffi" Graf in 1969 (age 34).

On this date in history:

In 1623, the first breach of promise suit was filed in the United States. The Rev. Greville Pooley sued Cicely Jordan in Charles City, Va., for jilting him in favor of another man.

In 1775, the Continental Congress established the army as the first U.S. military service.

In 1777, the Star and Stripes became the national flag.

In 1919, Capt. John Alcock and Lt. Arthur Brown flew a Vickers Vimy bomber 1,900 miles non-stop from St. Johns, Newfoundland, Canada, to Clifden, Ireland, for the first non-stop trans-Atlantic flight.

In 1922, President Warren G. Harding became the first American president to broadcast a message over the radio. The occasion was the dedication of the Francis Scott Key Memorial in Baltimore.

In 1951, Univac I, the world's first commercial computer, designed for the U.S. Census Bureau, was unveiled.

In 1983, Health Secretary Margaret Heckler said her department would give top priority to finding the cause and a cure for AIDS.

In 1985, Shiite Moslem gunmen commandeered TWA Flight 847 carrying 153 passengers and crew from Athens to Rome. The ordeal ended 17 days later in Beirut, where one of the hostages, a U.S. sailor, was killed.

In 1990, flash floods around Shadyside, Ohio, killed at least 26 people and damaged or destroyed more than 800 homes in four eastern Ohio counties.

In 1991, NATO and five Eastern European nations approved a compromise, ending a dispute over a U.S.-Soviet treaty limiting conventional armies in Europe.

In 1993, President Clinton nominated federal Judge Ruth Bader Ginsberg for a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. She succeeded retiring Justice Byron White.

In 1998, the Chicago Bulls won their sixth NBA title in eight years and third in a row, defeating the Utah Jazz in the championship round for the second year in a row.

In 1999, the South African National Assembly elected Thabo Mbeki as president, succeeding the retiring Nelson Mandela. Mbeki had served as deputy president under Mandela.

In 2000, the presidents of North and South Korea announced an agreement to work for peace and unity and also said they'd agreed to allow exchange visits by divided families.

In 2002, U.S. Catholic Church leaders adopted new rules for all dioceses calling for removal from active duty of any priest found to have abused a minor and the reporting of accusations to civil authorities.

A thought for the day: Walt Whitman wrote, "If anything is sacred the human body is sacred."