The Almanac

Today is Sunday, Aug. 13, the 225th day of 2006 with 140 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Leo. They include social reformer Lucy Stone in 1818; sharpshooter Annie Oakley in 1860; Scottish inventor John Baird, a pioneer in television technology, in 1888; comic actor Bert Lahr (Cowardly Lion in "The Wizard of Oz") in 1895; actor Regis Toomey in 1898; film director Alfred Hitchcock in 1899; bandleader Skinnay Ennis in 1909; golfer Ben Hogan in 1912; actor Neville Brand in 1920, Cuban leader Fidel Castro in 1926 (age 80); actor Pat Harrington Jr. in 1929 (age 77); singer Don Ho in 1930 (age 76); former U.S. Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders in 1933 (age 73); opera singer Kathleen Battle in 1948 (age 58); pop singer Dan Fogelberg in 1951 (age 55); and actor/announcer Danny Bonaduce ("The Partridge Family") in 1959 (age 47).

On this date in history:

In 1889, William Gray patented the coin-operated telephone.

In 1930, Capt. Frank Hawkes set an air speed record by flying from Los Angeles to New York in 12 hours, 25 minutes.

In 1961, East Germany closed the Brandenburg Gate and prepared to start building the Berlin Wall.

In 1980, U.S. President Jimmy Carter was nominated for a second term by the Democratic National Convention in New York but lost in November to Ronald Reagan.

In 1990, singer/songwriter Curtis Mayfield was left paralyzed when he was hit by a wind-blown lighting rig on an outdoor stage in New York. He died in 1999.

In 1992, a gunman dressed in military fatigues went on a shooting spree in a plant nursery in Watsonville, Calif., killing three and wounding four others before killing himself.

In 1993, Israel agreed for the first time to negotiate with a Palestinian delegation whose members belonged officially to the PLO.

In 1994, North Korea agreed to allow U.N. monitors to inspect a secret nuclear laboratory.

In 2002, U.S. President George Bush told an economic forum that he was concerned but optimistic about the future of the U.S. economy.

In 2003, religious conservatives declared an all-out legal war to enact a constitutional ban on same-sex marriages.

Also in 2003, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said the removal of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat from all positions of influence was the key to Middle East peace.

In 2004, Hurricane Charley slammed into Florida's West Coast with winds of up to 145 mph, striking Punta Gorda and offshore islands, causing around 30 deaths and destroying or damaging 16,000 homes. The massive storm earlier hit Jamaica and Cuba, killing seven.

In 2004 sports, the Summer Olympic Games opened in Athens, Greece, with a record 202 countries and 10,500 athletes taking part.

In 2005, the largest Lutheran denomination in the United States decided not to allow homosexuals into the clergy.

Also in 2005, U.S. troops in Mosul, Iraq, found a suspected chemical-weapons factory containing 1,500 gallons of chemicals.

A thought for the day: Henry James reportedly said, "Summer afternoon -- summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language."