The almanac

Today is Friday, June 13, the 165th day of 2008 with 201 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Gemini. They include U.S. Army Gen. Winfield Scott in 1786; Irish poet and dramatist William Butler Yeats in 1865; actor Basil Rathbone in 1892; Mexican composer Carlos Chavez in 1899; football star Harold "Red" Grange in 1903; TV host Ralph Edwards in 1913; Bulgarian-born artist Christo (born Hristo Yavashev) in 1935 (age 73); actors Malcolm McDowell in 1943 (age 65) and Richard Thomas in 1951 (age 57); comedian Tim Allen in 1953 (age 55); and actresses Ally Sheedy in 1962 (age 46) and twins Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen in 1986 (age 22).

On this date in history:

In 323 B.C., Alexander the Great died of fever in Babylon at age 33.

In 1944, the first German V-1 "buzz bomb" hit London.

In 1966, in Miranda vs. Arizona, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that police must read all arrested people their constitutional rights before questioning them.

In 1967, Thurgood Marshall became the first African-American on the U.S. Supreme Court. U.S. President Lyndon Johnson chose him to succeed Tom Clark.

In 1976, Arizona Republic investigative reporter Don Bolles died as a result of injuries suffered when a bomb blew up his car 11 days earlier. He had been working on an organized crime story at the time of his death.

In 1977, James Earl Ray, convicted assassin of Martin Luther King Jr., was captured in a Tennessee wilderness area after escaping from prison.

In 1983, the robot spacecraft Pioneer 10 became the first man-made object to leave the solar system. It did so 11 years after it was launched.

In 1991, revising a policy with roots to the McCarthy era, the Bush administration agreed to remove almost all 250,000 names from a secret list of unacceptable aliens.

In 1993, 20 Somalis were killed and 50 more wounded when Pakistani members of the U.N. peacekeeping forces fired into a crowd of demonstrators protesting U.N. attacks on warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid.

Also in 1993, Canada got its first woman prime minister when the ruling Progressive Conservative Party elected Kim Campbell to head the party and thus the country.

In 1994, the ex-wife of former football star O.J. Simpson and a friend were found stabbed to death outside her condominium in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles.

In 1996, members of the Freemen militia surrendered, 10 days after the FBI cut off electricity to their Montana compound. The standoff lasted 81 days.

In 1997, jurors unanimously recommended convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh be sentenced to death.

In 2002, Roman Catholic Church bishops and cardinals, meeting to discuss abuse charges against some priests, heard three men and a woman tell how their lives had been devastated by abuse and ill treatment by the church.

In 2003, Thai and U.S. officials arrested a suspected illegal arms dealer in Bangkok with radioactive material that could be used to make a "dirty bomb."

Also in 2003, thousands of protesting Tehran students ran the streets lighting fires and swinging chains in a third day of demonstrations.

In 2004, a Roman Catholic newspaper said U.S. President George Bush asked a Vatican official to help push U.S. bishops on certain cultural issues, including "the battle against gay marriage."

In 2005, pop superstar Michael Jackson was acquitted by a California jury on 10 counts of child molestation.

In 2006, U.S. President George Bush made a surprise visit to Baghdad to show support for the new Iraqi Cabinet. He said U.S. military forces wouldn't leave until the Iraqi government could stand on its own.

Also in 2006, the United States formally recognized Montenegro as a sovereign and independent state. Montenegro had been part of Serbia.

In 2007, the U.S. Defense Department said in a report that the expanded U.S.-Iraqi troop "surge" security drive had reduced violence in Baghdad and Anbar Province but that attacks were up elsewhere.

Also in 2007, the Palestinian faction Hamas, elected leaders of the parliament and devoted to destroying Israel, seized control of the Gaza Strip in fierce fighting with rival faction Fatah that left about 100 reported dead.

A thought for the day: Francis Bacon wrote, "It is as natural to die as to be born; and to a little infant, perhaps, the one is as painful as the other."