The almanac

Today is Tuesday, July 14, the 195th day of 2009 with 170 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Cancer. They include Austrian Art Nouveau painter Gustav Klimt in 1862; author Isaac Bashevis Singer in 1904; British comedian Terry-Thomas in 1911; folk singer Woody Guthrie in 1912; Gerald Ford, 38th president of the United States, in 1913; Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman in 1918; actors Dale Robertson in 1923 (age 86), Harry Dean Stanton in 1926 (age 83) and Polly Bergen in 1930 (age 79); TV news commentator John Chancellor in 1927; football star-turned-actor Roosevelt "Rosey" Grier in 1932 (age 77); film producer Joel Silver in 1952 (age 57); and actor Matthew Fox (TV's "Lost") in 1966 (age 43).

On this date in history:

In 1789, French peasants stormed the Bastille prison in Paris, beginning the French Revolution. The event is commemorated as "Bastille Day," a national holiday in France.

In 1793, Jean Paul Marat, one of the most outspoken leaders of the French Revolution, was stabbed to death in his bath by Charlotte Corday, a Royalist sympathizer.

In 1914, Robert Goddard was granted the first patent for a liquid-fueled rocket design.

In 1933, all political parties except the Nazis were officially suppressed in Germany.

In 1966, eight nurses were found killed in Chicago. Drifter Richard Speck later was convicted of the slayings.

In 1991, Syrian President Hafez al-Assad accepted U.S. President George H.W. Bush's compromise proposal for a Middle East peace conference.

In 1999, the European Union ended its three-year ban on British beef imports. The ban had been prompted by fears of mad cow disease.

In 2000, a jury in Miami-Dade Co., Fla., ordered the tobacco industry to pay $144.8 billion to Florida smokers. It was the largest damage award in U.S. history.

Also in 2000, a U.S. government panel concluded that federal officials weren't liable in the deaths of Branch Davidian cult members in a massive confrontation near Waco, Texas, in April 1993.

In 2003, a U.S. government source confirmed North Korea had begun reprocessing spent nuclear fuel rods, a step toward making more nuclear arms.

In 2004, a British government committee concluded that British intelligence prior to the Iraq war had been "seriously flawed."

In 2006, U.S. crude oil futures recorded an all-time high closing price of $77.03 a barrel at the New York Mercantile Exchange.

In 2007, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that his country would suspend its participation in the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty, a Cold War agreement that limited deployment of heavy weaponry.

In 2008, U.S. President George W. Bush sought to lift a series of executive orders banning U.S. off-shore oil and gas drilling but the move was only symbolic since a similar congressional moratorium remained in effect.

Also in 2008, the International Criminal Court in The Hague accused the president of Sudan, Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir, of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in the civil war-shattered Darfur region.

A thought for the day: Henri-Frederic Amiel said, "An error is the more dangerous the more truth it contains."