The almanac

Today is Friday, June 29, the 181st day of 2012 with 185 to follow.

The moon is waxing. 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 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; French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupery in 1900; 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; baseball Hall of Fame member Harmon Killebrew in 1936; "black power" advocate Stokely Carmichael in 1941; singer Little Eva -- Eva Narcissus Boyd -- in 1943; actor Gary Busey in 1944 (age 68); Swiss fashion designer Egon von Furstenberg in 1946; comedian Richard Lewis in 1947 (age 65); actor and former U.S. Rep. Fred Grandy, R-Iowa, in 1948 (age 64); and actor Sharon Lawrence in 1961 (age 51).

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In 1970, the last U.S. troops were withdrawn from Cambodia into South Vietnam.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

In 2006, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled U.S. President George W. 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, the American bald eagle, declared endangered in 1967, is flourishing and no longer imperiled, the U.S. Interior Department announced.

In 2009, Bernard Madoff, architect of a multibillion-dollar Ponzi investment scheme, was sentenced to 150 years in prison.

In 2010, the leading candidate for governor in the violence-torn Mexican state of Tamaulipas, Rodolfo Torre, and four others were ambushed and killed, officials said.

Also in 2010, researchers at the University of California at San Diego said a survey indicates Americans 65 and older, spend three times as much time watching television as younger adults do -- and enjoy it less -- related, they say, to lower life satisfaction.

In 2011, Greek lawmakers approved some of the toughest economic measures in the nation's modern history, a 5-year austerity plan that included tax increases and job cuts. Observers said the severe budget could be critical to the future of the euro.

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