UPI Almanac for Thursday, Aug. 6, 2015

Today is Thursday, Aug. 6, the 218th day of 2015 with 147 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Leo. They include English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson in 1809; Hollywood gossip columnist Louella Parsons in 1881; Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of penicillin, in 1881; actor Leo Carrillo in 1881; movie cowboy star Hoot Gibson in 1892; basketball Hall of Fame member Henry Iba in 1904; comedian Lucille Ball in 1911; actor Robert Mitchum in 1917; British airline executive Freddie Laker in 1922; artist Andy Warhol in 1928; writer Piers Anthony in 1934 (age 81); actor Catherine Hicks in 1951 (age 64); basketball Hall of Fame member David Robinson in 1965 (age 50); film director M. Night Shyamalan in 1970 (age 45); singer Geri Halliwell in 1972 (age 43).

On this date in history:

In 1890, the first execution by electric chair was carried out. William Kemmler was put to death at Auburn Prison in New York for the ax murder of his girlfriend.

In 1926, Gertrude Ederle of New York became the first American to swim the English Channel.

In 1945, an atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. (Three days later an atomic bomb hit Nagasaki and Japan soon surrendered, ending World War II.)

In 1965, U.S. President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law. The measure barred states from conducting discriminatory voting practices.

In 1978, Pope Paul VI died at the age of 80 after a heart attack. He had led the Roman Catholic Church for 15 years.

In 1986, William Schroeder died of a stroke in Louisville, Ky., after 620 days with the Jarvik-7 mechanical heart. At the time, he had been the longest-living permanent artificial heart patient.

In 1993, Morihiro Hosokawa was elected prime minister of Japan.

In 2003, actor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced his candidacy for governor of California on NBC-TV's The Tonight Show. (He was elected and served two terms.)

In 2009, the U.S. Senate confirmed the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor for the U.S. Supreme Court on a 68-31 vote.

In 2011, Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan shot down a Chinook transport helicopter, killing 30 Americans and eight Afghans. Officials said it was the highest U.S. death toll in a single incident in the decade-old war.

In 2012, U.S. President Obama signed legislation that bans protests within 300 feet of military funerals 2 hours before or after the services.

In 2013, former U.S. President George W. Bush, 67, underwent surgery at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas to have a stent placed in an artery in his heart.

In 2014, a series of car bombings in Iraq killed more than 50 people.

A thought for the day: "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." -- Maya Angelou