The Almanac

Today is Sunday, June 6, the 158th day of 2004 with 208 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Gemini. They include Spanish painter Diego Velasquez in 1599; American patriot Nathan Hale in 1755; Russian poet Alexander Pushkin in 1799; British Antarctic explorer Robert Falcon Scott in 1868; German novelist Thomas Mann in 1875; vaudeville bandleader Ted Lewis, known for asking his audiences, "Is everybody happy?" in 1891; Indonesian dictator Ahmed Sukarno in 1901; bandleader Jimmy Lunceford in 1902; former Calif. Gov. George Deukmejan in 1928 (age 76); the Dalai Lama, exiled leader of Tibet's Buddhists, in 1935 (age 69); singer/songwriter Gary "U.S" Bonds in 1939 (age 65); actor David Dukes in 1945 (age 59); comedian/actress Sandra Bernhard in 1955 (age 49); tennis player Bjorn Borg and sax player Kenny G., both in 1956 (age 48); and actress Amanda Pays in 1959 (age 45).

On this date in history:

In 1872, feminist Susan B. Anthony was fined for voting in an election in Rochester, N.Y. She refused to pay the fine and the judge allowed her to go free.

In 1933, the first drive-in movie theater opened in Camden, N.J.

In 1944, hundreds of thousands of Allied troops began crossing the English Channel in the "D-Day" invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe. It was the largest invasion in history.

In 1966, James Meredith, who in 1962 became the first African American to attend the University of Mississippi, was shot and wounded by a sniper during a civil rights march through the South.

In 1972, a coal mine explosion in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, trapped 464 miners underground. More than 425 died.

In 1982, Israeli forces invaded Lebanon.

In 1991, the Soviet KGB released secret documents from 1941 that showed that Rudolph Hess, Hitler's deputy, had been lured to the Duke of Hamilton's estate by the British.

In 1994, national leaders and elderly World War II veterans commemorated the 50th anniversary of "D-Day."

In 2002, President George W. Bush proposed creation of a cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security whose main responsibility would be prevention of terrorist attacks.

Also in 2002, wildfires burned over huge acres of land in Colorado, Arizona, California and other Western states. One such fire caused by a welding accident in northern Los Angeles on this date destroyed seven homes and forced more than 1,000 people to flee.

In 2003, the Labor Department said unemployment in May hit a 9-year-high 6.1 percent. The report said a net total of 2.5 million jobs had been lost in a little over two years.

Also in 2003, Attorney General John Ashcroft defended the Justice Department's detention of 762 illegal immigrants after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and urged Congress to give the authorities even broader power to pursue terrorism suspects.

A thought for the day: "The only certainty is that nothing is certain." Pliny the Elder said that.