The almanac

Today is Saturday, June 22, the 173rd day of 2013 with 192 to follow.

The moon is waxing. Morning stars are Mars, Neptune and Uranus. Evening stars are Saturn and Venus.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Cancer. They include English adventure novelist H. Rider Haggard ("King Solomon's Mines," "She") in 1856; German novelist Erich Remarque ("All Quiet on the Western Front") in 1898; bank robber John Dillinger and baseball Hall of Fame member Carl Hubbell, both in 1903; movie director Billy Wilder and author Anne Morrow Lindbergh, wife of aviator Charles Lindbergh, both in 1906; producer Mike Todd in 1909; fashion designer Bill Blass in 1922; Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., in 1933 (age 80); singer/actor Kris Kristofferson in 1936 (age 77); TV journalist Ed Bradley in 1941; news commentator Brit Hume in 1943 (age 70); writer Octavia Butler and basketball Hall of Fame member Pete Maravich, both in 1947; rock musician Todd Rundgren in 1948 (age 65); actors Meryl Streep and Lindsay Wagner, both in 1949 (age 64), Graham Greene in 1952 (age 61), Freddie Prinze in 1954 and Tracy Pollan in 1960 (age 53); pop singer Cyndi Lauper in 1953 (age 60); activist Erin Brockovich-Ellis in 1960 (age 53); basketball Hall of Fame member Clyde Drexler in 1962 (age 51); actor Amy Brenneman and writer Dan Brown ("The DaVinci Code"), both in 1964 (age 49); and television host Carson Daly in 1973 (age 40).

On this date in history:

In 1807, the U.S frigate Chesapeake was fired upon and boarded by the crew of the British battleship Leopold about 40 miles east of Chesapeake Bay.

In 1918, 53 circus performers and many circus animals were killed when an empty troop train rear-ended the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus train, which was stopped in Ivanhoe, Ind., to fix its brakes.

In 1937, Joe Louis knocked out Jim Braddock in the eighth round to become the world heavyweight boxing champion. He was the first African-American boxing champion since Jack Johnson lost his title in 1915.

In 1940, France fell to Germany in World War II.

In 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union.

In 1965 movie mogul David O. Selznick, producer of "Gone With The Wind," died at age 62.

In 1969, show business legend Judy Garland died of an overdose of sleeping pills. She was 47.

In 1973, U.S. President Richard Nixon and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev signed a pledge to try to avoid nuclear war.

In 1977, former U.S. Attorney General John Mitchell entered a federal prison for Watergate crimes. He was released for medical reasons 19 months later.

In 1990, South African police tightened security around President Frederik Willem de Klerk and detained 11 right-wing activists after a published report detailed an alleged plot to assassinate de Klerk and black nationalist Nelson Mandela.

In 2003, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon offered to cede responsibility for security in some West Bank and Gaza Strip areas to the Palestinians.

In 2004, former U.S. President Bill Clinton's autobiography "My Life" was published to an awaiting audience so large the publisher ordered a second printing the next day.

In 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama signed legislation authorizing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to regulate content and marketing of tobacco products for adults. It also outlawed cigarette ads in school and playground areas and the sale of flavored cigarettes designed for young people.

In 2010, a federal judge in New Orleans blocked a ban on deep-water drilling the Obama administration ordered after a massive BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

In 2011, reputed former Boston crime boss James "Whitey" Bulger, indicted in 19 homicides, was captured in Santa Monica, Calif., ending a 16-year manhunt.

In 2012, accused child-molester Jerry Sandusky, a former Penn State assistant football coach, was convicted on 45 sex-abuse charges. He was sentenced to up to 60 years in prison.

A thought for the day: George Jean Nathan wrote, "It may be said that artist and censor differ in this wise: that the first is a decent mind in an indecent body and that the second is an indecent mind in a decent body."