The Almanac

Today is Wednesday, June 14, the 165th day of 2006 with 200 to follow.

Today is Flag Day in the United States.

The moon is waning. 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 Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" in 1811; bookseller John Bartlett, compiler of "Bartlett's Familiar Quotations," in 1820; Wisconsin Gov. Robert La Follette in 1855; photojournalist Margaret Bourke-White in 1906; actor/folksinger Burl Ives in 1909; actress Dorothy McGuire in 1919; Cuban revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara in 1928; author Jerzy Kosinski in 1933; actress Marla Gibbs and real estate mogul Donald Trump, both in 1946 (age 60); Olympic gold medal speed skater Eric Heiden in 1958 (age 48); singer Boy George (George O'Dowd) in 1961 (age 45); actress Yasmine Bleeth ("Baywatch") in 1968 (age 38); and tennis star Steffi Graf in 1969 (age 37).

On this date in history:

In 1623, the first breach of promise suit was filed in the United States. The Rev. Greville Pooley sued Cicely Jordan in Charles City, Va., for jilting him for another man.

In 1775, the Continental Congress established the army as the first U.S. military service.

In 1777, the Star and Stripes became the United States' national flag.

In 1919, Capt. John Alcock and Lt. Arthur Brown flew a Vickers Vimy bomber 1,900 miles non-stop from St. Johns, Newfoundland, Canada, to Clifden, Ireland, for the first non-stop trans-Atlantic flight.

In 1922, Warren G. Harding became the first U.S. president to broadcast a message over the radio. The occasion was the dedication of the Francis Scott Key Memorial in Baltimore.

In 1951, Univac I, the world's first commercial computer, designed for the U.S. Census Bureau, was unveiled.

In 1983, U.S. Health Secretary Margaret Heckler said her department would give top priority to finding the cause and a cure for AIDS.

In 1985, Shiite Muslim gunmen commandeered TWA Flight 847 carrying 153 passengers and crew from Athens to Rome. The ordeal ended 17 days later in Beirut, where one of the hostages, a U.S. sailor, was killed.

In 1990, flash floods around Shadyside, Ohio, killed at least 26 people and damaged or destroyed more than 800 homes in four eastern Ohio counties.

In 1991, NATO and five Eastern European nations approved a compromise, ending a dispute over a U.S.-Soviet treaty limiting conventional armies in Europe.

In 1993, U.S. President Bill Clinton nominated federal Judge Ruth Bader Ginsberg for a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. She succeeded retiring Justice Byron White.

In 1998, the Chicago Bulls won their sixth NBA title in eight years and third in a row, defeating the Utah Jazz in the championship round for the second year in a row.

In 1999, the South African National Assembly elected Thabo Mbeki as president, succeeding the retiring Nelson Mandela. Mbeki had served as deputy president under Mandela.

In 2000, the presidents of North and South Korea announced an agreement to work for peace and unity and also said they'd agreed to allow exchange visits by divided families.

In 2002, U.S. Roman Catholic Church leaders adopted new rules for all dioceses calling for removal from active duty of any priest found to have abused a minor and the reporting of accusations to civil authorities.

In 2003, a part of central Tehran, Iran, turned into a combat zone with battles between riot police and those denouncing Iran's Islamic government.

Also in 2003, the Czech Republic voted overwhelmingly to join the European Union.

In 2004, flights out of the Saudi capital of Riyadh were reported all full as non-Arabic westerners, including U.S. defense contractors, fled increasing attacks by terrorists.

Also in 2004, Iraq's main oil export terminal was temporarily closed by three days of pipeline bombing.

In 2005, two explosions killed at least 29 people and injured dozens of others in Iraq as violence continued to mount.

Also in 2005, a majority of the U.S. Senate apologized in a resolution for taking so long to enact anti-lynching laws. Failure to act, the measure said, contributed to the deaths of 4,700 people from 1882 to 1968, most of them black men.

A thought for the day: Walt Whitman wrote, "If anything is sacred the human body is sacred."