The Almanac

Today is Wednesday, June 13, the 164th day of 2007 with 201 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 U.S. Army Gen. Winfield Scott in 1786; Irish poet and dramatist William Butler Yeats in 1865; actor Basil Rathbone in 1892; Mexican composer Carlos Chavez in 1899; football star Harold "Red" Grange in 1903; TV host Ralph Edwards in 1913; Bulgarian-born artist Christo (born Hristo Yavashev) in 1935 (age 72); actors Malcolm McDowell in 1943 (age 64) and Richard Thomas in 1951 (age 56); comedian Tim Allen in 1953 (age 54); and actresses Ally Sheedy in 1962 (age 45) and twins Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen in 1986 (age 21).

On this date in history:

In 323 B.C., Alexander the Great died of fever in Babylon at age 33.

In 1944, the first German V-1 "buzz bomb" hit London.

In 1966, in Miranda vs. Arizona, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that police must read all arrested people their constitutional rights before questioning them.

In 1967, Thurgood Marshall became the first African-American on the U.S. Supreme Court. U.S. President Lyndon Johnson chose him to succeed Tom Clark.

In 1976, Arizona Republic investigative reporter Don Bolles died as a result of injuries suffered when a bomb blew up his car 11 days earlier. He had been working on an organized crime story at the time of his death.

In 1977, James Earl Ray, convicted assassin of Martin Luther King Jr., was captured in a Tennessee wilderness area after escaping from prison.

In 1983, the robot spacecraft Pioneer 10 became the first man-made object to leave the solar system. It did so 11 years after it was launched.

In 1991, revising a policy with roots to the McCarthy era, the Bush administration agreed to remove almost all 250,000 names from a secret list of unacceptable aliens.

In 1993, 20 Somalis were killed and 50 more wounded when Pakistani members of the U.N. peacekeeping forces fired into a crowd of demonstrators protesting U.N. attacks on warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid.

Also in 1993, Canada got its first woman prime minister when the Progressive Conservative Party elected Kim Campbell to head the party and thus the country.

In 1994, the ex-wife of O.J. Simpson and a friend were found stabbed to death outside her condominium in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles.

In 1996, members of the Freemen militia surrendered, 10 days after the FBI cut off electricity to their Montana compound. The standoff lasted 81 days.

In 1997, jurors unanimously recommended convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh be sentenced to death.

Also in 1997, the Chicago Bulls won their fifth National Basketball Association title in seven years when they downed the Utah Jazz, four games to two.

In 2002, Roman Catholic Church bishops and cardinals, meeting to discuss abuse charges against some priests, heard three men and a woman tell how their lives had been devastated by abuse and ill treatment by the church.

In 2003, Thai and U.S. officials arrested a suspected illegal arms dealer in Bangkok with radioactive material that could be used to make a "dirty bomb."

Also in 2003, thousands of protesting Tehran students ran the streets lighting fires and swinging chains in a third day of demonstrations.

In 2004, a Roman Catholic newspaper said U.S. President George W. Bush asked a Vatican official to help push U.S. bishops on certain cultural issues, including "the battle against gay marriage."

In 2005, pop superstar Michael Jackson was acquitted by a California jury on 10 counts of child molestation.

Also in 2005, a Gallup poll shows U.S. support for the war in Iraq was at its lowest level, with nearly 60 percent of respondents favoring troop cutbacks.

In 2006, U.S. President Bush made a surprise visit to Baghdad to show support for the new Iraqi Cabinet. He said U.S. military forces wouldn't leave until the Iraqi government could strand on its own.

Also in 2006, the United States formally recognized Montenegro as a sovereign and independent state. Montenegro had been part of Serbia.

A thought for the day: Francis Bacon wrote, "It is as natural to die as to be born; and to a little infant, perhaps, the one is as painful as the other."