The Almanac

Today is Wednesday, June 7, the 158th day of 2006 with 207 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Gemini. They include British fashion-plate George "Beau" Brummell in 1778; French post-Impressionist painter Paul Gauguin in 1848; bandleader Glen Gray in 1906; actor-singer Dean Martin in 1917; actress Jessica Tandy in 1909; Gwendolyn Brooks, the first black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for poetry, in 1917; singer Tom Jones in 1940 (age 66); talk-show host Jenny Jones in 1946 (age 60); actor Liam Neeson in 1952 (age 54); singer/songwriter Prince in 1958 (age 48), and tennis star Anna Kournikova in 1981 (age 25).

On this date in history:

In 1864, Republican delegates meeting in Baltimore re-nominated Abraham Lincoln as president. His running mate was Andrew Johnson.

In 1942, Japanese forces occupied Attu and Kiska in the Aleutian Islands. U.S. forces retook the islands one year later.

In 1965, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Connecticut law banning contraceptives.

In 1975, the first videocassette recorder went on sale to the public.

In 1982, Israeli jets bombed central Beirut while Israeli ground forces captured Beaufort Castle and surrounded the Lebanese city of Sidon.

In 1983, one day after Nicaragua expelled three U.S. diplomats, the Reagan administration ordered six Nicaraguan consulates closed and expelled six Nicaraguan diplomats.

In 1990, South African President F.W. de Klerk lifted a 4-year-old nationwide state of emergency in all but the strife-torn Indian Ocean province of Natal.

In 1991, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir rejected U.S. calls for compromise to convene a Middle East peace conference.

In 1992, a British newspaper reported that Princess Diana, in despair over her marriage to Prince Charles, made five attempts at suicide and had suffered from depression-linked illnesses.

In 1993, the ninth International Conference on AIDS opened in Berlin.

In 1995, using his veto power for the first time, U.S. President Bill Clinton vetoed a bill passed by Congress.

In 1996, Max Factor, who pioneered smudge-proof lipstick, died.

In 1997, the Detroit Red Wings won the Stanley Cup with a 2-1 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers. It was the team's first hockey title in 42 years.

In 2000, the federal judge hearing the Microsoft anti-trust suit ordered the break-up of the software giant. It was never carried out.

In 2002, U.S. missionary Martin Burnham, captured in the Philippines by a Muslim group more than a year earlier, was fatally shot during a rescue attempt.

Also in 2002, a Norwalk, Conn., jury convicted Michael Skakel, 41, nephew of Sen. Robert Kennedy, in the 1975 killing of Martha Moxley, his 15-year-old neighbor.

In 2003, four German peacekeepers were killed and 31 others hurt when a bomb exploded near a bus in Kabul, Afghanistan.

In 2004, a classified U.S. Department of Defense report said that the United States, under national security considerations, was not bound by international laws prohibiting torture.

In 2005, General Motors announced it would cut 25,000 jobs by 2008 and close some factories.

Also in 2005, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter called for the closing of the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba.

A thought for the day: Goethe said, "Talent develops in quiet; character in the maelstrom of the world."