The almanac

Today is Sunday, June 7, the 158th day of 2009 with 207 to follow.

The moon is full. The morning stars are Venus, Jupiter, Neptune, Mercury, Mars and Uranus. The evening star is 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 69); talk-show host Jenny Jones in 1946 (age 63); actor Liam Neeson in 1952 (age 57); singer/songwriter Prince in 1958 (age 51), and former tennis player Anna Kournikova in 1981 (age 28).

On this date in history:

In 1864, Republican delegates meeting in Baltimore renominated 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 1996, Max Factor, who pioneered smudge-proof lipstick, died.

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.

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, wasn't bound by international laws prohibiting torture.

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

In 2006, Iraq's Health Ministry reported that Baghdad's death toll due to violence in the city had surpassed 6,000 for the year.

In 2007, the U.S. House of Representatives joined the Senate in passing legislation easing restrictions on federal funds for embryonic stem cell research but U.S. President George Bush later vetoed the bill.

Also in 2007, Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed a joint venture with the United States on a European missile shield.

In 2008, Sen. Hillary Clinton officially ended her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination and endorsed Sen. Barack Obama for president.

Also in 2008, a leading Israeli official warned that Israel "will attack" Iran if it maintains its current nuclear weapons program. That threat came from Shaul Mofax, the transport minister and former defense chief.

A thought for the day: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe said, "Talent develops in quiet, Character in the torrent of the world."