The Almanac

Today is Saturday, June 11, the 162nd day of 2005 with 203 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Gemini. They include English playwright/poet Ben Jonson in 1571; German composer Richard Strauss in 1864; Montana's Jeannette Rankin, the first woman elected to the House of Representatives, in 1880; undersea explorer Jacques Cousteau in 1910; football coach Vince Lombardi in 1913; author William Styron in 1925 (age 80); actors Chad Everett in 1937 (age 68), Gene Wilder in 1939 (age 66) and Adrienne Barbeau in 1945 (age 60); Scottish auto racer Jackie Stewart in 1939 (age 66); former football player Joe Montana in 1956 (age 49); and actor Joshua Jackson ("Dawson's Creek") in 1978 (age 27).

On this date in history:

In 1920, Ohio Sen. Warren G. Harding was chosen as the "dark horse" Republican candidate for president. That November, he was elected the 29th president of the United States.

In 1927, President Coolidge welcomed Charles Lindbergh home after the pilot made history's first non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean to Paris.

In 1963, facing federalized Alabama National Guard troops, Gov. George Wallace ended his blockade of the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa and allowed two African Americans to enroll.

In 1967, the Six-Day War between Israel and its Arab neighbors ended with a United Nations-brokered cease-fire. The outnumbered Israel Defense Forces achieved a swift and decisive victory in the brief war.

In 1985, Karen Ann Quinlan died at age 31 in a New Jersey nursing home, nearly 10 years after she lapsed into an irreversible coma. Her condition had sparked a nationwide controversy over her "right to die."

In 1987, Margaret Thatcher became the first British prime minister in 160 years to win three consecutive terms.

In 1990, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down an anti-flag burning law passed by Congress in 1989, re-igniting calls for a constitutional amendment.

Also in 1990, former Reagan national security adviser John Poindexter was sentenced to six months, becoming the first Iran-Contra defendant to receive prison time in the arms-for-hostages scandal.

In 1991, the Red Sea port of Assab, Ethiopia, and the country's capital, Addis Ababa, 400 miles away, were linked with the re-opening of the only road between the two cities.

In 1992, major-league baseball owners approved the sale of the Seattle Mariners to a Japanese-led group. The club became the first major-league baseball team to be owned by interests outside North America.

Also in 1993, North Korea said it would suspend its withdrawal from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

In 1994, after 49 years, the Russian military occupation of what had been East German ended with the departure of the Red Army from Berlin.

In 1998, Pakistan announced a moratorium on future nuclear testing after setting off several blasts the previous month.

In 2003, a Senate committee announced it would investigate whether assessments about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program were accurate.

Also in 2003, a bomb explosion aboard a Jerusalem bus killed at least 13 people and injured 53 more, eight seriously.

In 2004, a second service was held for former President Ronald Reagan in Washington, attended by President George W. Bush, the four living ex-presidents and world leaders. The body was then flown back to California for burial..

A thought for the day: Keats wrote, "A thing of beauty is a joy forever," and it was also Keats who wrote, "Beauty is truth, truth beauty... that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."