The Almanac

Today is Thursday, June 22, the 173rd day of 2006 with 192 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Cancer. They include English adventure novelist H. Rider Haggard ("King Solomon's Mines," "She") in 1856; German novelist Erich Remarque ("All Quiet on the Western Front") in 1898; movie director Billy Wilder ("Some Like It Hot") in 1906; author Anne Morrow Lindbergh, wife of aviator Charles Lindbergh, and movie producer Mike Todd, both in 1907; actor Karl Malden in 1913 (age 93); fashion designer Bill Blass in 1922; Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., in 1933 (age 73); comedian Joan Rivers in 1935 (age 71); singer/actor Kris Kristofferson in 1936 (age 70); TV reporter Ed Bradley in 1941 (age 65); actresses Meryl Streep and Lindsay Wagner, both in 1949 (age 57); actor Freddie Prinze in 1954; and actress Tracy Pollan in 1960 (age 46).

On this date in history:

In 1807, the U.S frigate Chesapeake was fired upon and then boarded by the crew of the British battleship Leopold about 40 miles east of Chesapeake Bay.

In 1918, 53 circus performers and many circus animals were killed when an empty troop train rear-ended the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus train, which was stopped in Ivanhoe, Ind., to fix its brakes.

In 1937, Joe Louis knocked out Jim Braddock in the eighth round to become the world heavyweight boxing champion. He was the first African-American champ since Jack Johnson lost his title in 1915.

In 1940, France fell to Germany in World War II.

In 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union.

In 1965 movie mogul David O. Selznick, producer of "Gone With The Wind," died at age 62.

In 1969, show business legend Judy Garland died of an overdose of sleeping pills. She was 47.

In 1973, U.S. President Richard Nixon and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev signed a pledge to try to avoid nuclear war.

In 1977, John Mitchell became the first former U.S. attorney general to go to jail when he entered a federal prison to serve time for Watergate crimes.

In 1990, South African police tightened security around President F.W. de Klerk and detained 11 right-wing activists after a published report detailed an alleged plot to assassinate de Klerk and black nationalist Nelson Mandela.

In 1991, the South African government, Inkatha Freedom party and ANC met for the first time in Johannesburg to discuss a way to end factional violence.

In 1994, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter persuaded North Korea to meet with South Korea as part of a breakthrough in the controversy over North Korea's nuclear-development sites.

In 2003, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said that the United States is not planning any invasion of Iran even though the country supports terrorists and is developing nuclear weapons.

Also in 2003, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon offered to cede responsibility for security in some West Bank and Gaza Strip areas to the Palestinians.

In 2004, a South Korean translator was beheaded by kidnappers in Iraq after his country refused to pull its troops.

Also in 2004, former U.S. President Bill Clinton's autobiography "My Life" was published to an awaiting audience of readers so great the publisher ordered a second printing the next day.

In 2005, China's largest state-controlled oil company made a unsolicited $18.5 billion bid for U.S. oil giant Unocal. Forty-one members of Congress, from both parties, urged an investigation.

A thought for the day: George Jean Nathan wrote, "artist and censor differ ... the first is a decent mind in an indecent body ... the second is an indecent mind in a decent body."