The almanac

Today is Monday, June 29, the 180th day of 2009 with 185 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Cancer. They include William Mayo, co-founder of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., in 1861; astronomer George Ellery Hale, founder of the Yerkes and Mount Palomar observatories, in 1868; actor/singer Nelson Eddy in 1901; composer/arranger Leroy Anderson in 1908; Broadway songwriter Frank Loesser in 1910; composer/conductor Bernard Herrmann in 1911; actor Slim Pickens in 1919; "black power" advocate Stokely Carmichael in 1941; actor Gary Busey in 1944 (age 65); actor-U.S. Congressman Fred Grandy in 1948 (age 61); and actress Sharon Lawrence in 1962 (age 47).

On this date in history:

In 1853, the U.S. Senate ratified the $10 million Gadsden Purchase from Mexico, adding more than 29,000 square miles to the territories of Arizona and New Mexico and completing the modern geographical boundaries of the contiguous 48 states.

In 1933, Fatty Arbuckle, the silent film comedian and one of Hollywood's most beloved personalities until a manslaughter charge ruined his career, died while preparing a comeback. He was 46.

In 1941, Isabella Peron took office as president of Argentina, succeeding her husband.

In 1946, two years before Israel became a nation, British authorities arrested more than 2,700 Jewish Zionists in an effort to stop terrorism in Palestine.

In 1970, the last U.S. troops were withdrawn from Cambodia into South Vietnam.

In 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that capital punishment, as then administered by individual states, was unconstitutional.

In 1991, the European Community announced $1.4 billion in aid for the Soviet Union.

In 1992, the U.S. Supreme Court left intact the important aspects of the 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision legalizing abortion but upheld most of Pennsylvania's new restrictions on a woman's right to abortion.

Also in 1992, doctors in Pittsburgh reported the world's first transplant of a baboon liver into a human patient. The recipient, a 35-year-old man, survived for three months.

And in 1992, the president of Algeria, Mohammed Boudiaf, was assassinated during a speech.

In 1994, the Japanese Diet elected Tomiichi Murayama prime minister.

Also in 1994, in a taped interview aired on British TV, Prince Charles admitted he had been unfaithful to his estranged wife, Princess Diana.

In 1995, the U.S. shuttle Atlantis docked with the Russian space station Mir.

In 1999, a Turkish court convicted Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan of treason and sentenced him to death.

In 2003, Hollywood legend Katherine Hepburn died at the age of 96 after a six-decade career in which she won a record four Oscars for best actress.

In 2005, the Bush administration gave the new director of national intelligence additional powers, including authority over operations by the FBI and other agencies.

In 2006, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled U.S. President George Bush didn't have authority, under military law or the Geneva Conventions, to set up military tribunals for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

In 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed course and agreed to hear the appeals of detainees held at the Guantanamo Bay military prison on Cuba.

Also in 2007, London police found an explosive device in a car in a parking garage a few hours after a car bomb left outside a night club was disarmed. The discoveries came almost two years after suicide bombers killed 52 people and injured hundreds in London's public transportation system.

And, the American bald eagle, declared endangered in 1967, is again flourishing and no longer imperiled, the U.S. Interior Department announced.

In 2008, incumbent President Robert Mugabe declared victory in Zimbabwe's runoff election, a contest denounced by African observers as "not credible." Mugabe was the only candidate left in the race after his opponent pulled out for fear of further violence.

A thought for the day: Walt Whitman wrote, "Whoever degrades another degrades me."