The Almanac

Today is Friday, May 26, the 146th day of 2006 with 219 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Gemini. They include English Gen. John Churchill, ancestor of statesman Winston Churchill, in 1650; composer Victor Herbert in 1859; entertainer Al Jolson in 1886; actors John Wayne in 1907, Robert Morley in 1908, Peter Cushing in 1913 and James Arness in 1923 (age 83); trumpeter Ziggy Elman in 1914; singers Peggy Lee in 1920 and Stevie Nicks in 1948 (age 58); jazz trumpeter Miles Davis in 1926; sportscaster Brent Musburger in 1939 (age 67); singer Hank Williams Jr. and actor Philip Michael Thomas, both in 1949 (age 57); Sally Ride, first U.S. woman in space, in 1951 (age 55); and actresses Genie Francis ("General Hospital") in 1962 (age 44) and Helena Bonham Carter in 1966 (age 40).

On this date in history:

In 1864, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, anxious to create new free territories during the Civil War, signed an act establishing the Montana Territory. However, Montana did not become a state until 25 years later.

In 1868, at the end of a historic 2-month trial, the U.S. Senate narrowly failed to convict President Andrew Johnson of impeachment charges levied against him by the House of Representatives. Johnson won acquittal by a single vote on each count.

In 1940, the evacuation of Dunkirk began. Sailing vessels of every kind were pressed into service to ferry across the English Channel the British, French and Belgian soldiers trapped by advancing German forces in northern France. All 200,000 were safely across by June 2.

In 1954, more than 100 crewmembers of the aircraft carrier USS Bennington died in an explosion off Rhode Island.

In 1972, at a Moscow summit, U.S. President Richard Nixon and Soviet Communist Party leader Leonid Brezhnev signed a pact limiting nuclear weapons.

In 1985, a cyclone struck the Bay of Bengal, killing 1,400 people in Bangladesh.

In 1991, a Lauda Air Boeing 767-300 exploded over Thailand after takeoff, killing all 223 people on board.

In 1992, the Philippines' ex-first lady Imelda Marcos formally demanded the government return billions of dollars in assets seized after her husband's ouster from power in 1986.

In 1994, U.S. President Bill Clinton extended for a year most-favored-nation trading status for China.

Also in 1994, the United States and Vietnam resumed diplomatic relations.

And in 1994, Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley, the only child of Elvis Presley, were married in a secret ceremony in the Dominican Republic. They divorced in 1996.

In 1999, new fighting flared in Kashmir, which was claimed by both India and Pakistan.

In 2000, Canadian medical researchers reported they had successfully transplanted insulin-producing cells into eight diabetic patients, freeing them from insulin injections.

In 2002 sports, Helio Castroneves won the Indianapolis 500 for the second straight year.

In 2003, a plane crash in Turkey killed all 74 aboard, including 62 Spanish soldiers returning from peacekeeping duties in Afghanistan.

Also in 2003, New Orleans authorities named Derek Todd Lee as the prime suspect in the killing of five women.

In 2004, Terry Nichols, already serving a life sentence after a federal conviction in the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building was found guilty of 161 killings in a state court.

In 2005, the United States closed its diplomatic missions in Indonesia until further notice, citing a security threat.

Also in 2005, police in Fort Worth, Texas, believed they may have linked a convicted murderer to 18 killings of young women in the mid '80s.

A thought for the day: "All that glitters is not gold" comes from John Dryden, but a similar saying appeared earlier in Shakespeare and earlier still in Chaucer.