The Almanac

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Today is Wednesday, June 6, the 157th day of 2007 with 208 to follow.

The moon is waning. The morning stars are Mars, Neptune and Uranus. The evening stars are Jupiter, Mercury, Venus 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 1890; Indonesian dictator Ahmed Sukarno in 1901; bandleader Jimmie Lunceford in 1902; singer/songwriter Gary "U.S." Bonds in 1939 (age 68); actor David Dukes in 1945; comedian/actress Sandra Bernhard in 1955 (age 52); tennis player Bjorn Borg in 1956 (age 51); and actress Amanda Pays in 1959 (age 48).

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 wounded by a sniper during a civil rights march through the South.

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

In 1982, Israeli forces invaded Lebanon.

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

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

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

Also in 2003, U.S. 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 suspected terrorists.

In 2005, the U.S. State Department said North Korea had stated its willingness to return to six-party nuclear talks but no timetable was set.

Also in 2005, at least 37 people were killed and dozens more injured in southern Nepal after a crowded bus hit a land mine planted by suspected Maoist rebels.

In 2006, CNN reported that evidence had emerged alleging U.S. Marines deliberately killed an unarmed Iraqi civilian in April in the town of Hamdaniya.

Also in 2006, in a document by the Pontifical Council on the Family, the Vatican said that unless abortion is punished as a crime it will be seen as a "banal" act.

And, Satan worshippers came out in force at dawn on this, the sixth day of the sixth month of the century's sixth year -- 6-6-6, a number the Bible deems Satanic.

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