The almanac

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Today is Thursday, June 7, the 159th day of 2012 with 207 to follow.

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

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 1900; actor Jessica Tandy in 1909; actor-singer Dean Martin and Gwendolyn Brooks, the first black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for poetry, both in 1917; singer Tom Jones in 1940 (age 72); talk-show host Jenny Jones in 1946 (age 66); actor Liam Neeson in 1952 (age 60); singer/songwriter Prince in 1958 (age 54); former tennis player Anna Kournikova in 1981 (age 31) and actor Michael Cera in 1988 (age 24).

On this date in history:

In 1776, the Lee Resolution, which led to the U.S. Declaration of Independence, was introduced in the Continental Congress.

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 the United States, under national security considerations, wasn't bound by international laws prohibiting torture.

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.

In 2009, a coalition of pro-Western and anti-Syria parties outpolled the militant Hezbollah faction to retain its parliamentary majority in Lebanon.

In 2010, Countrywide Home Loans, now a part of Bank of America, agreed to settle a $108 million Federal Trade Commission penalty for allegedly gouging customers trying to save their home loans from default and their houses from foreclosure.

In 2011, a U.S. commander in charge of four Iraqi provinces said one of the greatest challenges the military faces is getting U.S. troops safely out of Iraq. Col. Douglas Crissman said American soldiers could become easy targets while readying to leave.

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