The almanac

Today is Wednesday, June 13, the 165th day of 2012 with 201 to follow.

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

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; British actor Basil Rathbone in 1892; British author Dorothy L. Sayers in 1893; Finnish runner Paavo Nurmi, winner of nine Olympic gold medals, in 1897; Mexican composer Carlos Chavez in 1899; football star Harold "Red" Grange in 1903; radio-TV host Ralph Edwards in 1913; tennis Hall of Fame member Don Budge in 1915; comic actor Paul Lynde in 1926; Nobel economics laureate John Forbes Nash, subject of the book and movie "A Beautiful Mind," in 1928 (age 84); Bulgarian-born artist Christo (born Christo Vladimirov Javacheff) in 1935 (age 77); U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in 1944 (age 68); actors Malcolm McDowell in 1943 (age 69) and Stellan Skarsgard and Richard Thomas, both in 1951 (age 61); comedian Tim Allen in 1953 (age 59); and actors Ally Sheedy in 1962 (age 50) and twins Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen in 1986 (age 26).

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 inform 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 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."

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

In 2006, U.S. President George W. 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 2008, Taliban fighters attacked a prison in Kandahar, Afghanistan, killing 15 guards and freeing 1,200 prisoners, including about 400 Taliban members.

In 2009, incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the winner with more than 62 percent of the vote in a disputed Iranian presidential election, touching off widespread clashes between protesters and police.

Also in 2009, Group of Eight financial ministers, meeting in Italy, agreed that economic signs suggest the world economy may have hit bottom and called for an exit strategy from stimulus policies.

In 2010, the U.S. government announced the discovery of more than $1 trillion in untapped gold, iron, copper and lithium deposits in the mountains of Afghanistan, far more than expected.

Also in 2010, an insurgent attack on Iraq's Central Bank in Baghdad by suicide bombers and uniformed gunmen left at least 24 people dead. Forty-six others were wounded.

In 2011, the complete Pentagon Papers, a secret history of the Vietnam War, were made public 40 years after the first leaks were published. The excerpts leaked by Daniel Ellsberg led to a titanic battle with the Nixon administration and a landmark ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court expanding freedom of the press.

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."