The almanac

Today is Sunday, July 3, the 184th day of 2011 with 181 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Cancer. They include actor, singer, composer George M. Cohan in 1878; Welsh poet and writer William Henry Davies ("The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp") in 1871; Czech novelist Franz Kafka in 1883; actor George Sanders in 1906; journalist and columnist Dorothy Kilgallen in 1913; Jerry Gray, band leader, arranger for Glenn Miller, in 1915; English filmmaker Ken Russell in 1927 (age 84); jazz clarinetist Pete Fountain in 1930 (age 81); English playwright Tom Stoppard in 1937 (age 74); singer Fontella Bass in 1940 (age 70); humorist Dave Barry and actor Betty Buckley both in 1947 (age 64); exiled Haitian dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier in 1951 (age 60); talk show host Montel Williams in 1956 (age 55); pop singer Laura Branigan in 1957; and actors Tom Cruise and Thomas Gibson, both in 1962 (age 49); and Yeardley Smith in 1964 (age 47).

On this date in history:

In 1608, French explorer Samuel de Champlain founded the Canadian town of Quebec.

In 1775, George Washington took command of the Continental Army at Cambridge, Mass.

In 1863, the Union army under command of Gen. George Meade defeated Confederate forces commanded by Gen. Robert E. Lee at Gettysburg, Pa. The same day, Vicksburg, Miss., surrendered to Union troops led by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant.

In 1890, Idaho admitted as the 43rd state in the United States.

In 1928, the first color television transmission was accomplished by John Logie Baird in London.

In 1971, rock star Jim Morrison, 27, was found dead in a bathtub in Paris of heart failure.

In 1976, Israeli commandos raided the airport at Entebbe, Uganda, rescuing 103 hostages held by Arab militants.

In 1986, U.S. President Ronald Reagan re-lit the Statue of Liberty's torch in New York Harbor after a $66 million restoration of the statue was completed during the 100th anniversary year of its dedication.

Also in 1986, Rudy Vallee, one of the nation's most popular singers in the 1920s and '30s, died at the age of 84.

In 1988, missiles fired from the USS Vincennes brought down an Iranian airliner in the Persian Gulf, killing all 290 people aboard.

In 1992, the U.S. Air Force joined the international airlift of food and medical supplies to besieged residents of Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina.

In 1996, Boris Yeltsin was re-elected president of Russia, defeating Gennadi Zyuganov in a runoff.

In 2000, blasts caused by suicide bombers in Chechnya killed at least 37 Russian soldiers.

In 2007, a 3-month standoff turned violent between Pakistani police and radical students who had taken over an Islamabad mosque. At least nine people died.

In 2008, after being held for nearly six years by Colombian rebels, 15 hostages, including three U.S. military contractors and French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt, were freed by commandos who had infiltrated the rebels' leadership.

In 2009, Sarah Palin, who became a national figure as the Republican candidate for vice president in 2008, announced she was resigning as governor of Alaska with 17 months to go in her term.

Also in 2009, Russia said it would open its airspace for the U.S. military to use to fight the war in Afghanistan.

In 2010, at least 230 people were reported killed in a blast sparked by a cigarette near an overturned oil tanker truck in the Republic of the Congo.

Also in 2010, U.S. officials helped seize a 100-foot-long diesel-powered submarine found in a jungle tributary on Ecuador's West Coast built by drug traffickers and designed to ship cocaine to the United States.

A thought for the day: Gustave Flaubert said, "Of all lies, art is the least untrue."