The almanac

Today is Wednesday, June 12, the 163rd day of 2013 with 202 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Gemini. They include John Augustus Roebling, designer of the Brooklyn Bridge, in 1806; film and television producer Irwin Allen in 1916; cartoonist Dave Berg in 1920; former U.S. President George H.W. Bush in 1924 (age 89); singer Vic Damone in 1928 (age 85); Anne Frank, whose diary told of hiding from the Nazis in occupied Holland, in 1929; actor/singer Jim Nabors in 1930 (age 83); author Rona Jaffe in 1932; jazz musician Chick Corea and sportscaster Marv Albert, both in 1941 (age 72); actor Timothy Busfield in 1957 (age 56); musician John Linnell and comedian Scott Thompson, both in 1959 (age 54); and software developer Blake Ross in 1985 (age 28).

On this date in history:

In 1939, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum was dedicated at Cooperstown, N.Y.

In 1963, a sniper killed civil rights leader Medgar Evers in Jackson, Miss.

In 1967, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states couldn't outlaw interracial marriages.

In 1971, Tricia Nixon, daughter of U.S. President Richard Nixon, married Edward Finch Cox in the first wedding in the Rose Garden of the White House.

In 1979, Bryan Allen, 26, pedaled the 70-pound Gossamer Albatross 22 miles for the first human-powered flight across the English Channel.

In 1982, an estimated 700,000 people gathered in New York's Central Park to call for world nuclear disarmament.

In 1989, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that white workers who believe they were treated unfairly because of affirmative action programs can sue for remedies under civil rights legislation.

In 1991, the Russian republic had its first direct presidential election. Boris Yeltsin won.

In 1994, special counsel Robert Fiske took sworn depositions from U.S. President Bill Clinton and first lady Hillary Clinton about the Whitewater land deal in Arkansas. It was believed to be the first time a sitting president responded directly to questions in a legal case relating to his official conduct.

In 1999, Texas Gov. George W. Bush, son of the former president, announced his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination for the 2000 election.

In 2003, television news pioneer David Brinkley, part of the noted Huntley-Brinkley evening news team and host of the long-running Sunday public affairs program "This Week," died at his home in Houston. He was 82.

In 2007, Sudanese government officials agreed to allow a joint peacekeeping force of about 19,000 troops from the African Union and the United Nations to be deployed in war-torn Darfur.

In 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that prisoners at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba have a right to challenge their detention in federal court.

In 2010, Abby Sunderland, a 16-year-old California girl trying to sail solo around the world, was rescued by a French fishing ship after her boat lost its mast in rough weather in the Indian Ocean some 2,000 nautical miles off western Australia.

In 2011, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Justice and Development Party won a third term in a parliamentary election.

In 2012, Ron Barber, former aide to Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., who was seriously wounded in a shooting rampage, won a special election to replace her. Six people were killed and a dozen others, including Barber, were wounded in the Jan. 8, 2011, attack by Jared Lee Loughner.

A thought for the day: T.S. Eliot said, "In my beginning is my end."