The Almanac

Today is Wednesday, July 14, the 196th day of 2004 with 170 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Cancer. They include British suffragist Emmeline Pankhurst in 1858; Austrian Art Nouveau painter Gustav Klimt in 1862; actor Cliff Edwards in 1985; author Isaac Bashevis Singer in 1904; British comedian Terry-Thomas in 1911; folk singer Woody Guthrie in 1912; Gerald Ford, 38th president of the United States, in 1913 (age 91); Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman in 1918 (age 86); actors Dale Robertson in 1923 (age 81), Harry Dean Stanton in 1926 (age 78), and Polly Bergen in 1930 (age 74); TV news commentator John Chancellor in 1927; football star-turned-actor Roosevelt "Rosie" Grier in 1932 (age 72); film producer Joel Silver in 1952 (age 52); and actors Matthew Fox in 1966 (age 38) and Missy Gold in 1970 (age 34).

On this date in history:

In 1789, French peasants stormed the Bastille prison in Paris, beginning the French Revolution. The event is now commemorated as "Bastille Day," a national holiday in France.

In 1793, Jean Paul Marat, one of the most outspoken leaders of the French Revolution, was stabbed to death in his bath by Charlotte Corday, a Royalist sympathizer.

In 1914, Robert Goddard was granted the first patent for a liquid-fueled rocket design.

In 1933, all political parties except the Nazis were officially suppressed in Germany.

In 1966, eight nurses were found murdered in Chicago. Drifter Richard Speck later was convicted of the slayings.

In 1991, Syrian President Hafez al-Assad accepted President Bush's compromise proposal for a Middle East peace conference.

In 1998, independent counsel Kenneth Starr subpoenaed a number of Secret Service agents to testify before a grand jury investigating President Clinton's alleged affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

In 1999, the European Union ended its 3-year ban on British beef imports. The ban had been prompted by fears of "mad cow disease."

In 2000, a jury in Miami-Dade Co., Fla., ordered the tobacco industry to pay $144.8 billion to Florida smokers. It was the largest damage award in U.S. history.

Also in 2000, a panel concluded that federal officials were not liable in the deaths of the Branch Davidian members near Waco, Texas, in April 1993.

In 2003, a U.S. government source confirmed North Korea has begun reprocessing spent nuclear fuel rods, a step toward making more nuclear arms and a move almost certain to heighten the already tense relationship between the United States and North Korea.

Also in 2003, despite bad information that showed up in his State of the Union address, President George W. Bush says U.S. intelligence is "darn good."

A thought for the day: Henri-Frederic Amiel said, "An error is the more dangerous the more truth it contains."