The Almanac

Today is Monday, July 12, the 194th day of 2004 with 172 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Cancer. They include Roman leader Julius Caesar in 100 B.C.; American writer Henry David Thoreau in 1817; photography pioneer George Eastman in 1854; Italian painter and sculptor Amedeo Modigliani in 1884; composer Oscar Hammerstein II and author-architect R. Buckminster Fuller, inventor of the geodesic dome, both in 1895; comedian Milton Berle in 1908; bandleader Will Bradley in 1912; painter Andrew Wyeth in 1917 (age 87); singer Kay Starr in 1922; former General Motors Chairman Roger B. Smith in 1925 (age 79); pianist Van Cliburn in 1934 (age 70); comedian/actor Bill Cosby in 1937 (age 67); singer Connie Francis in 1938 (age 66); exercise and diet guru Richard Simmons in 1948 (age 56); actresses Denise Nicholas in 1945 (age 58), Cheryl Ladd in 1951 (age 53), and Mel Harris in 1957 (age 47); talk-show host Rolanda Watts in 1959 (age 45); and Olympic gold medal figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi in 1971 (age 33).

On this date in history:

In 1862, Congress authorized a new award, the U.S. Medal of Honor, often called the Congressional Medal of Honor.

In 1933, a new U.S. industrial code was established to fix a minimum wage of 40 cents an hour.

In 1962, the Rolling Stones gave their first public performance, at the Marquee Club in London.

In 1972, Sen. George McGovern, D-S.D., was nominated as the Democratic candidate for president. He lost that November to Republican incumbent Richard Nixon.

In 1984, Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale named Rep. Geraldine Ferraro, D-N.Y., as his running mate. She was the first woman to share a major U.S. political party's presidential ticket.

In 1990, Boris Yeltsin quit the Soviet Communist Party, saying he wanted to concentrate on his duties as president of the Russian republic.

In 1991, members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee accused the former ambassador to Iraq, April Glaspie, of misleading them about prewar meetings with Saddam Hussein.

In 1992, Axl Rose, lead singer of the rock band Guns N' Roses, was arrested in New York on charges stemming from a riot that erupted at a Missouri concert the previous July. He later pleaded innocent.

In 1994, President Clinton addressed a large crowd at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.

Also in 1994, PLO chief Yasser Arafat and his wife took up permanent residence in the Gaza Strip.

In 1995, at least 800 people died in the Midwest and Northeast as the result of a heat wave that lasted five days.

In 1996, details surfaced on the divorce of Prince Charles and Princess Diana. Among other things, she kept the princess title but not Her Royal Highness, and received about $25 million in a lump sum followed by an income of $600,000 a year.

In 1998, France won the World Cup soccer tournament with a 3-0 upset over defending champion Brazil.

In 2000, the United States and Vietman reached a trade agreement that would allow unfettered commerce between the two nations for the first time since the end of the Vietnam War.

In 2003, tens of thousands of people were evacuated from their homes along the Huai River in eastern China as floodwaters rose.

A thought for the day: Henry David Thoreau said, "Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth."