On This Day in History - June 17th - Almanac

Today is Monday, June 17, the 168th day of 2013 with 197 to follow.

The moon is waxing. 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 British clergyman John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, in 1703; John Robert Gregg, inventor of the Greeg shorthand system, in 1867; Russian-born composer Igor Stravinsky in 1882; Dutch artist M.C. Escher in 1898; actor Ralph Bellamy in 1904; author John Hersey in 1914; football Hall of Fame member Elroy "Crazylegs" Hirsch in 1923; Egyptian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mohamed ElBaradei in 1942 (age 71); former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich and singer Barry Manilow, both in 1943 (age 70); musician-songwriter George Clinton in 1947 (age 66); comedian Joe Piscopo in 1951 (age 62); actors Mark Linn-Baker in 1954 (age 59), Thomas Haden Church in 1960 (age 53), Greg Kinnear in 1963 (age 50), Jason Patric in 1966 (age 47) and Will Forte in 1970 (age 43); Olympic gold medal speed skater Dan Jansen in 1965 (age 48); and tennis star Venus Williams in 1980 (age 33).

On this date in history:

In 1967, China announced it had successfully tested a hydrogen bomb.

In 1972, the Watergate scandal began with the arrest of five burglars inside Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington.

In 1982, Argentina's President Leopoldo Galtieri resigned in response to Britain's victory in the Falkland Islands war.

In 1986, Kate Smith, one of America's most popular singers in the '20s, '30s and '40s, died at the age of 79.

In 1991, South African President F.W. de Klerk ended apartheid when he repealed the Population Registration Act that classified South Africans by race from birth.

In 1994, Los Angeles police charged O.J. Simpson with killing his ex-wife and her friend. The former football star and actor was acquitted in a controversial, high-profile criminal trial.

In 1996, ValuJet Airlines shut down about a month after a crash in the Florida Everglades led to questions about the carrier's safety and maintenance records.

In 2003, Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien promised legislation that would legalize same-sex marriage throughout the country.

In 2004, a massive car bomb killed at least 30 people and wounded 150 others in central Baghdad, two weeks before the handover of power to Iraqis.

In 2007, a roof collapsed at a burning furniture store in Charleston, S.C., killing nine firefighters.

In 2009, in a speech to the American Medical Association, U.S. President Barack Obama warned that without action on healthcare reform "the rolls of the uninsured will swell to include millions more Americans."

In 2011, Ayman al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian surgeon and co-founder of al-Qaida, moved up a notch to assume leadership of the terrorist network six weeks after U.S. forces killed Osama bin Laden.

In 2012, Greece's center-right New Democracy party claimed victory in the second parliamentary election in six weeks.

A thought for the day: Martin Luther King, Jr., said, "We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools."