The almanac

Today is Sunday, June 27, the 178th day of 2010 with 187 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Cancer. They include Irish patriot Charles Stewart Parnell in 1846; noted anarchist Emma Goldman in 1869; poet Paul Laurence Dunbar 1872; blind and deaf author Helen Keller in 1880; billiards champion Willie Mosconi in 1913; "Captain Kangaroo" Bob Keeshan in 1927; H. Ross Perot in 1930 (age 80); musician and songwriter Bruce Johnston in 1942 (age 68); fashion designers Norma Kamali in 1945 (age 65) and Vera Wang in 1949 (age 61);actors Julia Duffy in 1951 (age 59), Isabelle Adjani in 1955 (age 55), Christian Kane in 1974 (age 36) and Tobey Maguire in 1975 (age 35); and film and television writer/director/producer J.J. Abrams in 1966 (age 44).

On this date in history:

In 1801, British forces captured Cairo and the French began withdrawing from Egypt in one of the Napoleonic Wars.

In 1829, English scientist James Smithson leaves a will that eventually funds the establishment of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, in a country he never visited.

In 1844, Mormon founder Joseph Smith was slain by a mob at a jail in Carthage, Ill.

In 1847, the first telegraph wire links were established between New York City and Boston.

In 1859, Louisville, Ky., schoolteacher Mildred Hill wrote a tune for her students and called it "Good Morning To You." Her sister, Patty, wrote the lyrics and later added a verse that began "Happy Birthday To You."

In 1893, the "Panic of 1893" began as the value of the U.S. silver dollar fell to less than 60 cents in gold.

In 1950, U.S. President Harry Truman ordered U.S. naval and air forces to help repel the North Korean invasion of South Korea.

In 1979, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled private employers could give special preferences to blacks to eliminate "manifest racial imbalance" in traditionally white-only jobs.

In 1991, Associate Justice Thurgood Marshall announced he was retiring from the U.S. Supreme Court. He was the first African-American to sit on the high court.

Also in 1991, South Africa announced it would sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and agree not to develop nuclear weapons.

In 1993, U.N.-sponsored talks between exiled Haitian President Aristide and the military leaders who ousted him opened in New York.

In 1995, the space shuttle Atlantis blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on a historic mission to dock with the Russian space station Mir. The flight was also the 100th U.S.-piloted space mission.

In 2001, screen legend Jack Lemmon died at the age of 76.

In 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court, acting in a Cleveland case, upheld that city's school vouchers program, in which public money goes to help parents pay tuition to non-public schools.

In 2003, the Federal Trade Commission opened a long-awaited nationwide registry for those who want to block unwanted telemarketing calls.

In 2004, two car bombs exploded near a mosque in the southern Iraqi city of Hilla, killing at least 23 Iraqi civilians and wounding 58 others.

In 2005, U.S. crude oil prices closed at a record $60 a barrel.

Also in 2005, Dennis Rader, the so-called "BTK" killer (bind, torture, kill), pleaded guilty to 10 slayings in the Wichita, Kan., area.

In 2007, Tony Blair officially stepped down as British prime minister when he submitted his resignation to Queen Elizabeth II and was succeeded by Gordon Brown. Blair moved into a new role as special international envoy for the Middle East.

Also in 2007, gasoline rationing was introduced in Iran despite its status as the second-highest OPEC crude oil producer. Iran had minimal refining capacity and reportedly must import about 40 percent of its refined gasoline.

In 2008, despite sharp, widespread opposition, the violent Zimbabwean presidential runoff election went as scheduled with incumbent Robert Mugabe re-elected as the only candidate left in the race. Challenger Morgan Tsvangirai had withdrawn citing escalating violence against his supporters.

In 2009, a top health official said the H1N1 virus, known as swine flu, had killed 127 people of the more than 1 million infected in the United States. About 3,000 were reported hospitalized.

Also in 2009, air searches were called off for more passengers aboard Air France Flight 447 that crashed in the Atlantic June 1 on a trip from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. All 228 aboard were reported killed; 51 bodies had been recovered almost a month after the crash.

A thought for the day: Francis Bacon said, "If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties."