Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe Today is Tuesday, June 20, the 171st day of 2006 with 194 to follow. The moon is waning. Advertisement The morning stars are Venus, Neptune and Uranus. The evening stars are Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Pluto and Saturn. Those born on this date are under the sign of Gemini. They include author-playwright Lillian Hellman in 1907; actor Errol Flynn in 1909; World War II hero Audie Murphy in 1924; actors Martin Landau and Olympia Dukakis, both in 1931 (age 75), Danny Aiello in 1933 (age 73), and John Mahoney ("Frasier") in 1940 (age 66); songwriter Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys in 1942 (age 64); singer Anne Murray in 1945 (age 61); TV handyman Bob Vila and concert pianist Andre Watts, both in 1946 (age 60); singer Lionel Richie in 1949 (age 57); actor John Goodman in 1952 (age 54); pop singer Cyndi Lauper in 1953 (age 53); and actors Nicole Kidman in 1967 (age 39) and Michael Landon Jr. in 1964 (age 42). Advertisement On this date in history: In 1893, a jury in Fall River, Mass., found Lizzy Borden not guilty in the ax murders of her father and stepmother. In 1898, the U.S. Navy seized Guam, the largest of the Mariana Islands in the Pacific, during the Spanish-American War. The people of Guam were granted U.S. citizenship in 1950. In 1900, in response to widespread foreign encroachment upon China's national affairs, Chinese nationalists launched the so-called Boxer Rebellion in Peking. In 1963, the United States and the Soviet Union agreed to establish a hot line communications link between Washington and Moscow. In 1967, the American Independent Party was formed to back George Wallace of Alabama for president. In 1977, oil began to flow through the $7.7 billion, 789-mile Alaska pipeline. In 1986, U.S. President Ronald Reagan had two benign polyps removed from his colon at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland. In 1990, U.S. President George W. Bush broke off U.S. diplomatic contact with the Palestine Liberation Organization after the PLO refused to act against a factional leader who plotted to attack Israel. Also in 1990, South African nationalist Nelson Mandela began a triumphant U.S. fundraising tour in New York. Advertisement In 1991, the German parliament voted in favor of moving its capital from Bonn to Berlin. In 1994, O.J. Simpson pleaded "100 percent not guilty" to charges he killed his ex-wife and her friend. In 1995, a military court acquitted Air Force Capt. James Wang of charges in connection with the April 1994 downing of two U.S Army helicopters over Iraq. He'd been the senior director of an AWACS plane that failed to warn two U.S. jets that the choppers were friendly. In 1996, U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno asked that the Whitewater counsel be allowed to investigate the matter of FBI background checks. A panel of judges agreed the next day. In 1997, four major U.S. tobacco companies and several state attorneys general, after months of negotiations, agreed to a $368.5 billion settlement to recover the costs of smoking-related illnesses. In 1999, NATO formally ended its bombing campaign of Yugoslavia as Serb forces completed their withdrawal from Kosovo. In 2000, Taiwan's new president invited his Chinese counterpart to take part in a peace effort similar to one begun by North and South Korea. In 2003, a top lieutenant to Saddam Hussein told U.S. interrogators that the Iraqi leader and his two sons survived the war in Iraq. Saddam was later captured and, in a separate incident, his sons died in a raid. Advertisement Also in 2003, up to 200 illegal immigrants were feared dead after their boat capsized off the coast of Tunisia on its way to Italy. In 2004, Pakistan and India reached agreement on banning nuclear testing. In 2005, U.S. Senate Democrats temporarily blocked U.S. President George Bush's nomination of John Bolton as U.S. envoy to the United Nations. A thought for the day: Plutarch felt that "Character is simply habit long continued."
