The Almanac

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Today is Tuesday, July 22, the 203rd day of 2003 with 162 to follow.

The moon is waning, in its last quarter. The morning stars are Venus, Mars, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. The evening stars are Mercury Jupiter and Pluto.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Cancer. They include Austrian monk and pioneering botanist Gregor Johann Mendel in 1822; poet Emma Lazarus in 1849; matriarch Rose Kennedy in 1890; American psychiatrist Karl Menninger in 1893; poet Stephen Vincent Benet and sculptor Alexander Calder, both in 1898; former U.S. Sen. Robert Dole, R-Kan., in 1923 (age 80); actor Orson Bean in 1928 (age 75); fashion designer Oscar De La Renta in 1932 (age 71); actor Terrence Stamp in 1939 (age 64); "Jeopardy!" game show host Alex Trebek in 1940 (age 63); actor/singer Bobby Sherman in 1945 (age 58); comedian/actor Albert Brooks, actor Danny Glover, and rock musician Don Henley, all in 1947 (age 56); composer Alan Menken in 1949 (age 54); actor Willem Dafoe in 1955 (age 48); R&B singer Keith Sweat in 1961 (age 42); and comedians John Leguizamo and David Spade, both in 1965 (age 38).

On this day in history:

In 1376, according to German legend, a piper -- having not been paid for ridding the town of Hamelin of its rats -- led the town's children away, never to be seen again.

In 1620, Dutch pilgrims started for America. Their ship -- called the "Speedhaven" -- set sail from Delfshaven, Holland.

In 1793, Alexander Mackenzie, the explorer of Canada, reached the Pacific.

In 1864, in the first battle of Atlanta, Confederate troops under Gen. John Hood were defeated by Union forces under Gen. William Sherman.

In 1916, a bomb hidden in a suitcase exploded during a Preparedness Day parade on San Francisco's Market Street, killing 10 people and wounding 40. The parade was organized by the city's Chamber of Commerce in support of America's possible entrance into World War I.

In 1933, Wiley Post completed his first solo flight around the world. It took him seven days, 18 hours and 45 minutes.

In 1934, bank robber John Dillinger died in a hail of bullets from federal agents outside Chicago's Biograph Theater.

In 1983, the military government of Poland lifted martial law.

In 1991, Milwaukee police arrested a man and declared him a suspect in the deaths of at least 15 people. His name was Jeffrey Dahmer.

In 1992, Pablo Escobar, the boss of the Medellin cocaine cartel, and nine henchmen vanished from a Colombian prison. Many months later, Escobar would be surrounded and shot dead.

In 1994, President Clinton ordered the Pentagon to begin a major relief effort in Rwanda.

Also in 1994, a federal judge ordered The Citadel, a state-financed military college in Charleston, S.C., to open its doors to women.

And in 1994, at his arraignment, O.J. Simpson declared himself "100-percent not guilty" in the killings of his ex-wife and her friend.

In 1995, Susan Smith, the Union, S.C., mother who had confessed to drowning her two young sons by allowing her car to roll into a lake with the boys locked inside, was convicted of first-degree murder. She was sentenced to life in prison.

In 1999, the ashes of John F. Kennedy, Jr., his wife and her sister were buried at sea off the coast of Massachusetts. The three had died in a plane crash off Martha's Vineyard six days earlier.

Also in 1999, China outlawed the Falun Gong, or Buddhist Law, religious sect and began detaining thousands of its members.

A thought for the day: Mordecai Richler wrote, "The revolution eats its own. Capitalism re-creates itself."