The Almanac

Today is Saturday, June 24, the 175th day of 2006 with 190 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 French Empress Josephine, wife of Napoleon, in 1763; clergyman Henry Ward Beecher in 1813; writer and satirist Ambrose Bierce in 1842; heavyweight boxing champ Jack Dempsey in 1895; band leader Phil Harris in 1904; author/editor Norman Cousins in 1912; musician Mick Fleetwood, co-founder of Fleetwood Mac, in 1942 (age 64); actors Michele Lee in 1942 (age 64) and Peter Weller in 1947 (age 59); former Miss America and TV personality Phyllis George in 1949 (age 57); and actress Nancy Allen in 1950 (age 56).

On this date in history:

In 1812, Napoleon's army entered Russia.

In 1901, Pablo Picasso's artwork was given its first exhibition, in Paris.

In 1948, Soviet forces blockaded the western zones of Berlin, setting the stage for the Berlin airlift to support the 2 million people of the divided German city.

In 1975, an Eastern Airlines Boeing 727 en route from New Orleans crashed at New York's Kennedy International airport, killing 114 people.

In 1986, actress Raquel Welch won a $10.8 million verdict against MGM, which she claimed ruined her career by firing her from the 1980 movie "Cannery Row."

In 1987, comedian/actor Jackie Gleason died at the age of 71.

In 1991, on the eve of the 41st anniversary of the start of the Korean War, the U.S. and North Korea agreed on returning the remains of missing soldiers; 11 sets of remains were shipped.

In 1992, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that health warnings on cigarette packs don't necessarily exempt tobacco companies from false advertising lawsuits if they continue to tell consumers that smoking is safe.

In 1993, the FBI arrested eight men in an alleged plot to bomb several sites in New York City. A ninth was arrested six days later.

Also in 1993, Kurdish militants, seeking to call attention to their 9-year struggle to form an independent Kurdish state, attacked Turkish diplomatic missions and businesses in more than two-dozen European cities.

In 2002, U.S. President George W. Bush said publicly for the first time that the United States would not support a Palestinian state so long as Yasser Arafat was in command.

In 2003, author Leon Uris, who wrote "Exodus," the story of the struggle to establish and defend the state of Israel, and other famous novels, died at age 78.

In 2004, more than 100 people died in a series of apparently well-coordinated insurgency attacks on five cities in Iraq.

In 2005, U.S. President George Bush, facing declining public support for U.S. involvement in Iraq, refused to set a timetable for troop withdrawal.

Also in 2005, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported the nation's second confirmed case of mad cow disease.

A thought for the day: Ambrose Bierce said an acquaintance is "A person whom we know well enough to borrow from, but not well enough to lend to."