The Almanac

Today is Thursday, June 3, the 155th day of 2004 with 211 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Gemini. They include Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy during the Civil War, in 1808; automaker Ranson Olds in 1864; actor Maurice Evans in 1901; opera tenor Jan Peerce in 1904; jazz dancer and singer Josephine Baker in 1906; actors Paulette Goddard in 1911, Tony Curtis in 1925 (age 79) and Colleen Dewhurst in 1926; country blues singer Jimmy Rogers in 1924; poet Allen Ginsberg in 1926; sax virtuoso Boots Randolph in 1927 (age 77); TV producer Chuck Barris in 1929 (age 75); singer/songwriter Curtis Mayfield in 1942; singer Deniece Williams in 1951 (age 53); and actor Scott Valentine ("Family Ties") in 1958 (age 46).

On this date in history:

In 1888, the famous comic baseball poem "Casey at the Bat" was first published in the Sunday edition of the San Francisco Examiner.

In 1937, the Duke of Windsor, formerly King Edward VIII, married divorcee Wallis Warfield Simpson of Baltimore, after abdicating the British throne.

In 1942, the battle of Midway began. It raged for four days and was the turning point for the United States in the World War II Pacific campaign against Japan.

In 1965, Gemini IV astronaut Ed White made the first American "walk" in space.

In 1985, an accord between Italy and the Vatican ended Roman Catholicism's position as "sole religion of the Italian state."

In 1989, Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini, leader of the Islamic revolution, died.

In 1990, President Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev ended their summit in Washington, D.C., with commitments to trust and consultation, despite their discord over Lithuania and German unity.

In 1991, France signed the 1968 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which prohibits signatories from helping other countries to acquire nuclear weapons.

In 1992, U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Ghali opened the largest meeting on the environment in history amid tight security in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

In 1993, after reading her writings, President Clinton announced he was withdrawing the nomination of University of Pennsylvania law professor Lani Guinier to head the civil rights division of the Justice Department. The decision sparked sharp criticism from black civil rights leaders.

In 1994, North Korea's refusal to allow inspections of two of its nuclear power plants prompted the United States to ask the United Nations about new economic sanctions against Pyongyang.

In 1997, French Socialist Party leader Lionel Jospin became prime minister.

In 2000, President Clinton and Russian President Putin met in Moscow to discuss a wide range of subjects. But they were unable to agree on the proposed U.S. missile defense system.

In 2003, President George W. Bush, speaking at a summit with Arab leaders in Egypt, renewed his commitment to work for peace between Arabs and Israelis.

Also in 2003, a federal jury in Detroit convicted two of four Arab immigrants of conspiring to provide support to terrorists. They had been arrested shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

And, North Korea accused South Korean navy ships of intruding its territorial waters, warning the border violation would lead to a second war on the Korean peninsula.

A thought for the day: Bert Leston Taylor said, "A bore is a man who, when you ask him how he is, tells you."