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The Almanac

By United Press International
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Today is Monday, July 3, the 184th day of 2006 with 181 to follow.

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

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Those born on this date are under the sign of Cancer. They include actor, singer, composer George M. Cohan in 1878; Welsh poet and writer William Henry Davies ("The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp") in 1871; Czech novelist Franz Kafka in 1883; actor George Sanders in 1906; journalist and columnist Dorothy Kilgallen in 1913; Jerry Gray, band leader, arranger for Glenn Miller, in 1915; English filmmaker Ken Russell in 1927 (age 79); clarinetist and New Orleans jazz great Pete Fountain in 1930 (age 76); English playwright Tom Stoppard in 1937 (age 69); humorist Dave Barry and actress Betty Buckley, both in 1947 (age 59); exiled Haitian dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier in 1951 (age 55); talk show host Montell Williams in 1956 (age 49); pop singer Laura Branigan in 1957 (age 49); actors Tom Cruise and Thomas Gibson ("Dharma & Greg"), both in 1962 (age 44); and pop singer Taylor Dayne in 1963 (age 43).

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On this date in history:

In 1608, French explorer Samuel de Champlain founded the Canadian town of Quebec.

In 1775, George Washington took command of the Continental Army at Cambridge, Mass.

In 1863, the Union army under command of Gen. George Meade defeated Confederate forces commanded by Gen. Robert E. Lee at Gettysburg, Pa. The same day, Vicksburg, Miss., surrendered to Union troops led by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant.

In 1928, the first color television transmission was accomplished by John Logie Baird in London.

In 1971, rock star Jim Morrison, 27, was found dead in a bathtub in Paris of heart failure.

In 1976, Israeli commandos raided the airport at Entebbe, Uganda, rescuing 103 hostages held by Arab terrorists.

In 1986, U.S. President Ronald Reagan re-lit the Statue of Liberty's torch in New York Harbor after a $66 million restoration of the statue was completed during the 100th anniversary year of its dedication.

Also in 1986, Rudy Vallee, one of the nation's most popular singers in the 1920s and '30s, died at the age of 84.

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In 1988, missiles fired from the USS Vincennes brought down an Iranian airliner in the Persian Gulf, killing all 290 people aboard.

In 1992, the U.S. Air Force joined the international airlift of food and medical supplies to besieged residents of Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina.

In 1993, exiled Haitian President Aristide and Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras, who led the coup in 1991 that ousted him, announced an agreement that would put Aristide back in power by October. Cedras later broke the agreement.

In 1996, Boris Yeltsin was re-elected president of Russia, defeating Gennadi Zyuganov in a runoff.

In 2000, blasts caused by suicide bombers in Chechnya killed at least 37 Russian soldiers.

In 2003, the U.S. Labor Department reported that June unemployment had climbed to a 9-year high of 6.4 percent.

In 2004, the United States planned to evacuate more than 500 U.S. citizens from the Gulf kingdom of Bahrain due to the threat of terrorism.

Also in 2004, a U.N. panel of experts from 60 countries met in Geneva to discuss international standards for storage and classification of fireworks.

In 2005, the Israeli Cabinet overwhelmingly rejected a move to postpone the pullback from the Gaza Strip and from four settlements in the northern West Bank.

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Also in 2005, water temperatures in the lower Great Lakes were reported at a 5-year high.


A thought for the day: Flaubert said, "Of all lies, art is the least untrue."


This is Tuesday, July 4, the 185th day of 2006 with 180 to follow.

This is Independence Day in the United States.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Cancer. They include author Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1804; songwriter Stephen Foster ("Oh! Susannah," "Beautiful Dreamer") in 1826; circus operator James Bailey in 1847; Calvin Coolidge, 30th president of the United States, in 1872; innovative cartoonist Rube Goldberg in 1883; Louis B. Mayer, film mogul and co-founder of MGM, in 1885; actor/politician George Murphy in 1902; conductor Mitch Miller in 1911 (age 94); Ann Landers, advice columnist, in 1918; her twin, also an advice columnist, Abigail Van Buren in 1918 (age 88); former hotel executive Leona Helmsley in 1920 (age 86); actress Eva Marie Saint in 1924 (age 82); playwright Neil Simon in 1927 (age 79); actress Gina Lollobrigida in 1928 (age 78); Al Davis, Oakland Raiders owner, in 1929 (age 77); New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner in 1930 (age 76); TV reporter Geraldo Rivera in 1943 (age 63); and former tennis player Pam Shriver in 1962 (age 44).

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On this date in history:

In 1776, the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, proclaiming U.S. independence from Britain.

In 1826, in one of history's notable coincidences, former Presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died, 50 years to the day after the Declaration of Independence was adopted.

In 1863, Union troops defeated Confederate forces in a battle at Vicksburg, Miss.

In 1895, the poem "America the Beautiful," by Wellesley College Professor Katherine Lee Bates, was first published.

In 1914, director D.W. Griffith began filming his controversial film "Birth of a Nation," which introduced important new filmmaking techniques and influenced many later directors.

In 1986, more than 250 sailing ships and the United States' biggest fireworks display honored the Statue of Liberty in its 100th birthday year.

In 1994, French forces in Rwanda established a security zone for refugees.

In 1995, the British Parliament reconfirmed John Majors as prime minister.

In 1997, NASA's Pathfinder landed on Mars to become the first U.S. spacecraft to land on the red planet in more than two decades.

Also in 1997, Mexico's top drug lord died in a Mexico City hospital following plastic surgery to change his appearance.

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In 1999, top-seeded Pete Sampras won his sixth Wimbledon men's singles title, defeating fellow American Andre Agassi.

In 2002, with the nation on alert for a possible terrorist attack, a gunman killed two people at the Los Angeles International Airport near a ticket counter of El Al, the Israeli airliner, before he was killed by a guard.

In 2003, with the lack of international markets after a lone case of mad cow disease, Canadian beef prices in grocery stores fell to as low as 75 cents a pound.

Also in 2003, three attackers killed 50 people and injured dozens of others when they opened fire at a Shiite mosque in Quetta, Pakistan.

In 2004, the U.S. government said the total of new non-farm jobs in the past year had reached 1.5 million and the unemployment rate had dropped from 6.1 percent to 5.6 percent.

In 2005, NASA's "Deep Impact" spacecraft wound up an 85-million-mile journey by intentionally slamming into the Tempel 1 comet to learn more about comets and other aspects of the solar system.


A thought for the day: U.S. President Calvin Coolidge reportedly said, "If you don't say anything, you won't be called upon to repeat it."

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Today is Wednesday, July 5, the 186th day of 2006 with 179 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Cancer. They include David Farragut, the first U.S. Navy admiral, in 1801; showman P.T. Barnum in 1810; British colonialist Cecil Rhodes, founder of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), in 1853; Dwight Davis, founder of the Davis Cup tennis tournament, in 1879; French writer and film director Jean Cocteau in 1889; politician and diplomat Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. in 1902; actor Milburn Stone ("Gunsmoke") in 1904; former football coach John McKay in 1923; actor Warren Oates in 1928; actress Katherine Helmond in 1934 (age 72); Robbie Robertson, composer, musician, member of The Band, in 1944 (age 62); Julie Nixon Eisenhower in 1948 (age 58); and rock singer Huey Lewis in 1951 (age 55).


On this date in history:

In 1865, William Booth founded the Salvation Army in London.

In 1916, children under 16 were banned from New York City theaters due to an outbreak of polio. Some 200 theaters shut down throughout the summer.

In 1935, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt signed the National Labor Relations Act.

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In 1945, U.S. Army Gen. Douglas MacArthur announced the liberation of the Philippines as World War II approached its end.

In 1946, French designer Louis Reard introduced the bikini swimsuit.

In 1954, newcomer Elvis Presley recorded "That's All Right, Mama," a song he had not intended to do when he began his first recording session at Sun Records in Memphis and it became an instant local sensation.

In 1982, the Penn Square Bank of Oklahoma was declared insolvent, touching off a bank crisis that affected much of the United States.

In 1991, BCCI, with $20 billion in assets, was seized by regulators in the United States, Cayman Islands, France, Great Britain, Luxembourg, Spain and Switzerland.

In 1994, the United States stopped accepting Haitian refugees and asked that other countries provide them with "safe havens."

In 1997, Martina Hingis, 16, of Switzerland became the youngest in 100 years to win the women's singles tennis championship at Wimbledon.

In 2000, U.S. President Bill Clinton announced that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat had agreed to meet at Camp David, Md., to discuss peace.

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In 2002, baseball great Ted Williams died at the age of 83. At the time of his death, Williams, who played his entire, war-interrupted career with the Boston Red Sox, was the last man to hit .400 in a major league baseball season (.406 in 1941).

In 2003, 16 people died during Russia's biggest rock concert in Moscow when two female suicide bombers detonated explosives. Security officials stopped the women, suspected of being Chechen terrorists, before they could mingle with the 40,000 concertgoers.

Also in 2003, the World Health Organization said the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, appeared to be contained.

In 2004, an opinion poll conducted by Baghdad University suggested 89 percent of Iraqis were ready to cooperate with their interim government.

In 2005, senior Pakistani and Bahraini diplomats survived attacks by gunmen in separate Iraq attacks. The assaults followed an attack that killed the Egyptian envoy to Iraq. The U.N. Security Council was called into an emergency session to discuss the problem.


A thought for the day: Emily Dickinson wrote, "There is no Frigate like a Book to take us Lands away."


Today is Thursday, July 6, the 187th day of 2006 with 178 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Cancer. They include John Paul Jones, founder of the U.S. Navy, in 1747; band leader, composer John Phillip Sousa ("The Stars and Stripes Forever") in 1854; children's author Beatrix Potter ("Peter Rabbit") in 1866; singer Laverne Andrews, of the Andrews Sisters, in 1915; former first lady Nancy Reagan in 1923 (age 83); TV personality Merv Griffin in 1925 (age 81); rock 'n' roll pioneer Bill Haley ("Rock Around The Clock"), also in 1925; actress Janet Leigh in 1927; singer/actress Della Reese in 1932 (age 74); actors Ned Beatty in 1937 (age 69), Burt Ward in 1945 (age 61) and Sylvester Stallone in 1946 (age 60); U.S. President George W. Bush, also in 1946 (age 60); and actresses Shelley Hack in 1949 (age 57) and Allyce Beasley in 1954 (age 52).


On this date in history:

In 1699, pirate Capt. William Kidd was seized in Boston and deported to England. He later was hanged.

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In 1854, the Republican Party was formally established at a meeting in New York City.

In 1885, French bacteriologist Louis Pasteur inoculated the first human being, a boy who had been bitten by a rabid dog. The youngster did not develop rabies.

In 1919, a British dirigible landed at New York's Roosevelt Field to complete the first airship crossing of the Atlantic.

In 1923, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was formed.

In 1933, the first midsummer Major League Baseball All-Star Game was played at Comiskey Park in Chicago. The American League beat the National League, 4-2.

In 1942, diarist Ann Frank and her family took refuge in a secret section of an Amsterdam warehouse where they hid from the Nazis for two years. Finally discovered, they were shipped off to concentration camps where Ann eventually perished but her diary lived on.

In 1944, fire in the big top of the Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey Circus in Hartford, Conn., killed 167 people, two-thirds of them children, and injured 682 others.

In 1957, while attending a church picnic near Liverpool, 15-year-old Paul McCartney met 16-year-old John Lennon. Lennon's band was playing at the picnic and by the end of the day McCartney had joined the group.

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In 1958, Alaska became the 49th U.S. state.

In 1967, civil war broke out in Nigeria.

In 1971, Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong, one of the 20th century's most influential American musicians, died at age 69.

In 1976, women were first admitted to the U.S. Naval Academy.

In 1984, U.S. President Ronald Reagan, in a TV interview, said it was a "probability" that many young people now paying into Social Security "will never be able to receive as much as they're paying."

In 1992, a bomb exploded near the car carrying French President Mitterrand's wife during a visit to Kurdish settlements in northern Iraq. Mitterrand wife was unhurt, but at least two other people were killed.

In 1993, the flooded Mississippi River was closed to barge traffic from Sioux City, Iowa, to St. Louis.

In 1994, a firestorm killed 14 firefighters near Glenwood Springs, Colo., while fighting a forest fire.

Also in 1994, U.S. President Bill Clinton visited Latvia, becoming the first U.S. president to travel to the Baltic region.

In 1997, the Mars Pathfinder deployed the remote-controlled Sojourner to explore the surface of Mars.

Also in 1997, for the first time since it was founded in 1929, Mexico's Institutional Revolutionary Party failed to win a majority in voting for the lower house of Congress.

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In 1999, first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton announced she was forming an exploratory committee to look into running for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y. No first lady had ever before sought public office.

Also in 1999, Ehud Barak was sworn in as prime minister of Israel.

In 2003, Liberian President Charles Taylor, who promised to resign in the face of civil war, said he had accepted an invitation to go into exile in Nigeria.

Also in 2003, police arrested three heavily armed teenagers in Oaklyn, N.J., whom they suspected of plotting a massive random shooting spree.

In 2004, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., the presumptive Democratic Party nominee for president, chose North Carolina Sen. John Edwards as his running mate.

In 2005, New York Times reporter Judith Miller was sent to jail for refusing to name her source in connection with the leaking of a CIA agent's identity to the media.

Also in 2005, London was chosen for the site of the 2012 Olympic Games in a close decision over Paris.


A thought for the day: Ambrose Bierce defined a bore as "A person who talks when you wish him to listen."

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Today is Friday, July 7, the 188th day of 2006 with 177 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Cancer. They include composer Gustav Mahler in 1860; painter Marc Chagall in 1887; film director George Cukor in 1899; film director Vittorio DeSica in 1902; baseball pitcher Leroy "Satchel" Paige and zither player Anton Karras ("The Third Man") in 1906; science fiction author Robert Heinlein in 1907; composer Gian Carlo Menotti in 1911; Chicago 7 defense lawyer William Kunstler in 1919; Ezzard Charles, heavyweight boxing champion, in 1921; French fashion designer Pierre Cardin in 1922 (age 84); bandleader Doc Severinsen in 1927 (age 79); actor Vince Edwards and singer Mary Ford in 1928; former Beatle Ringo Starr in 1940 (age 66); actors Shelley Duvall in 1949 (age 57) and Bill Campbell in 1959 (age 47); and figure skater Michelle Kwan in 1980 (age 26).


On this date in history:

In 1846, U.S. Navy Commodore J.D. Sloat proclaimed the annexation of California by the United States.

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In 1865, four people convicted of conspiring with John Wilkes Booth in the assassination of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln were hanged in Washington.

In 1898, U.S. President William McKinley signed a joint resolution of Congress authorizing the annexation of Hawaii by the United States.

In 1946, Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini (1850-1917) became the first American to be canonized a saint in the Roman Catholic Church.

In 1973, U.S. President Richard Nixon said he would not appear before the Senate Watergate Investigating Committee or give it access to White House files.

In 1976, the first female students were permitted to enroll at U.S. military academies.

In 1981, Sandra Day O'Connor was chosen by U.S. President Ronald Reagan to become the first woman on the U.S. Supreme Court. She was unanimously approved by the Senate.

In 1987, Lt. Col. Oliver North began six days of testimony before the congressional Iran-Contra committee.

In 1994, 16 people died in Americus, Ga., when 21.1 inches of rain fell.

In 1998, a Los Angeles jury convicted Mikail Markhasev, 19, of murder in the January 1997 shooting death of Ennis Cosby, son of entertainer Bill Cosby.

In 1999, a Miami-Dade County jury held the leading tobacco companies liable for various illnesses of Florida smokers. The class-action lawsuit, filed in 1994, was the first of its kind to come to trial.

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In 2000, the second test of an anti-missile system failed again when the missile missed its target by 100 yards.

In 2003, the 37-member Iraqi governing council, representing all major ethnic and religious groups in the nation, began work aimed at taking control by the end of the month.

Also in 2003, actor and dancer Buddy Ebsen, known to millions of TV fans as hillbilly Jed Clampett and detective Barnaby Jones, died in Southern California. He was 95.

In 2004, Ken Lay, founder and former chief executive officer of the bankrupt Enron Corp., was indicted on 11 criminal counts, including conspiracy, bank fraud and securities fraud.

In 2005, terrorists struck the London transit system setting off explosions in three subway cars and a double-decker bus in a coordinated rush-hour arrack. A reported 56 people were killed and more than 700 injured.


A thought for the day: Benjamin Franklin wrote in "Poor Richard's Almanac" that "If you'd know the value of money, go and borrow some."


Today is Saturday, July 8, the 189th day of 2006 with 176 to follow.

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

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Those born on this date are under the sign of Cancer. They include dirigible inventor Ferdinand von Zeppelin in 1838; French psychologist Alfred Binet in 1857; oil magnate John D. Rockefeller in 1839 and his grandson, U.S. Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, in 1908; also in 1908, band leader Louis Jordan; White House journalist Sarah Newcomb McClendon in 1910; drama critic Walter Kerr in 1913; jazz singer Billy Eckstine in 1914; TV executive Roone Arledge in 1931; singers Jerry Vale in 1932 (age 74) and Steve Lawrence in 1935 (age 71); actor Jeffrey Tambor in 1944 (age 62); ballet dancer Cynthia Gregory in 1946 (age 60); children's singer Raffi (Cavoukian) in 1948 (age 58); chef Wolfgang Puck in 1949 (57), and actors Kim Darby in 1948 (age 58), Anjelica Huston in 1951 (age 55), Kevin Bacon in 1958 (age 48) and Billy Crudup in 1968 (age 38).

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On this date in history:

In 1497, Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama sailed from Lisbon on a voyage that would lead to discovery of a sea route to India around the southern tip of Africa.

In 1776, the Declaration of Independence was read in public for the first time, to people gathered at Philadelphia's Independence Square.

In 1835, the Liberty Bell cracked while being rung during the funeral of U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall in Philadelphia.

In 1853, Commodore Matthew Perry, representing the U.S. government, sailed into Tokyo Bay to begin negotiations that led to the United States becoming the first Western nation to establish diplomatic relations with Japan in two centuries.

In 1950, U.S. Army Gen. Douglas MacArthur was designated commander of U.N. forces in Korea.

In 1969, the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Vietnam began.

In 1991, Yugoslav leaders signed an accord calling for an internationally observed cease-fire in Slovenia and Croatia.

Also in 1991, Iraq admitted to the United Nations that it had produced enriched uranium, but not enough to make nuclear weapons.

In 1994, North Korean President Kim Il Sung died at age 82. He had led the country since its founding in 1948.

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Also in 1994, O.J. Simpson was ordered to stand trial on two counts of first-degree murder in the slayings of his ex-wife and her friend.

In 1996, Turkey's first Islamic prime minister confirmed he wanted a less-Western-affiliated nation when he refused the United States permission to use a Turkish military base to bomb Iraq.

In 1997, the U.S. Senate began hearings on potentially illegal campaign fund-raising practices. Among the allegations was that China, through illegal contributions, sought to influence the outcome of the 1996 elections.

Also in 1997, NATO invited three Eastern European nations -- the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland -- to join the organization.

In 1998, a tentative settlement was reported between Dow Corning Corp. and lawyers for 170,000 women who claimed they had become ill from the company's silicone breast implants.

Also in 1998, four leaders of the Montana Freemen were convicted in federal court in Billings, Mont., of conspiring to defraud banks. The anti-government, anti-tax group gained fame in 1996 during an 81-day standoff at its ranch.

In 2003, North Korea said work had begun on nuclear weapons with enough plutonium on hand to build six bombs.

Also in 2003, doctors in Singapore separated two 29-year-old Iranian sisters who had been joined at the head since birth but the women died during the 54-hour operation.

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And, six people, including the gunman, died during a rampage at a military parts manufacturing plant in Meridian, Miss.

In 2004, John Rigas, founder of Adelphia Communications, a cable television company, and son Timothy were convicted of conspiracy, bank fraud and securities fraud.

Also in 2004, a U.S. Marine once reported to have been beheaded by Iraqi captors showed up alive and well at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut. Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun, 24, was turned over to military authorities.

In 2005, Hurricane Dennis killed an estimated 57 people in Cuba, Haiti and Jamaica before thundering toward the Florida coast where residents prepared for a major storm.


A thought for the day: "Business? That's very simple. It's other people's money." So said Alexander Dumas.


Today is Sunday, July 9, the 190th day of 2005 with 175 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Cancer. They include Elias Howe, inventor of the sewing machine, in 1819; Nicola Tesla, inventor of the electromagnetic motor; historian Samuel Eliot Morison in 1887; English romance novelist Barbara Cartland in 1904; pro football owner and coach Paul Brown in 1908; actor/singer Ed Ames in 1927 (age 79); English artist David Hockney in 1937 (age 69); actors Brian Dennehy in 1938 (age 68) and Richard Roundtree in 1942 (age 64); football star/actor O.J. Simpson in 1947 (age 59); TV host/entertainer John Tesh in 1952 (age 54); actors Tom Hanks in 1956 (age 48), Kelly McGillis in 1957 (age 49), Jimmy Smits in 1958 (age 48) and Fred Savage in 1976 (age 30); and singer/actress Courtney Love in 1965 (age 41).

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On this date in history:

In 1850, U.S. President Zachary Taylor died suddenly of cholera. He was succeeded by Millard Fillmore.

In 1877, the first Wimbledon tennis tournament was staged at the All-England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club.

In 1893, Chicago surgeon Dr. Daniel Hale Williams performed the first successful open-heart surgery.

In 1943, U.S., Canadian and British forces invaded Sicily during World War II.

In 1947, Florence Blanchard, a nurse, was appointed lieutenant colonel in the Army, becoming the first woman to hold a permanent U.S. military rank.

In 1955, Bill Haley and the Comets' "Rock Around the Clock" hit No.1 on Billboard magazine's best-seller records chart, marking what some consider the beginning of the rock 'n' roll era.

In 1960, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev threatened the United States with rockets if U.S. forces attempted to oust the communist government of Cuba.

In 1982, a Pan Am Boeing 727 jetliner crashed in Kenner, La., shortly after takeoff from New Orleans, killing 154 people.

In 1990, two veteran space shuttle commanders were grounded for violating flight safety rules. It marked the first time that astronauts assigned to flight crews had been grounded for other than medical reasons.

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In 1992, Democratic presidential hopeful Bill Clinton picked U.S. Sen. Al Gore, D-Tenn., as his running mate.

Also in 1992, the Mortgage Bankers Association of America and HSH Associates said fixed rates on conventional home loans dropped to their lowest levels in almost 19 years.

In 1997, NBC was the lone holdout when the major networks agreed to implement a revised and expanded television ratings system.

In 2002, the stock market continued to drop in the wake of corporate accounting scandals.

In 2002 sports, the All-Star baseball game ended in an 11-inning, 7-7 tie when Commissioner Bud Selig halted proceedings saying the teams had run out of pitchers.

In 2003, U.S. Army Gen. Tommy Franks, former head of the Central Command in Iraq, told the Senate that U.S. forces in Iraq could not be reduced in "the foreseeable future."

And in 2003, the director of South Korea's intelligence service said North Korea has carried out some 70 high-explosive tests linked to nuclear weapons development.

In 2004, a report by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence accused the CIA and other intelligence agencies of producing false and misleading pre-war information about Iraq's weapons program.

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Also, in 2004, the International Court of Justice told Israel to tear down or re-route the 400-mile wall being built on the Palestinian territory border to thwart suicide attacks.

In 2005, London police continued the grim task of recovering bodies from the city's underground subway system where terrorists set off three well-coordinated bombing attacks killing a reported 57 people and wounding more than 700 others. A massive investigation was under way with more than 100 arrests reported.


A thought for the day: David McCord said, "Life is the garment we continually alter, but which never seems to fit."

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