The almanac

Today is Thursday, June 27, 178th day of 2013 with 187 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Cancer. They include Irish patriot Charles Stewart Parnell in 1846; 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 83); Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Bruce Johnston (the Beach Boys) in 1942 (age 71); fashion designers Norma Kamali in 1945 (age 68) and Vera Wang in 1949 (age 64); actors Julia Duffy in 1951 (age 62), Isabelle Adjani in 1955 (age 58), Christian Kane in 1974 (age 39) and Tobey Maguire in 1975 (age 38); film and television writer/director/producer J.J. Abrams in 1966 (age 47); and celebrity Khloe Kardashian in 1984 (age 29).

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 left a will that eventually funded 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 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.

In 1995, the space shuttle Atlantis was launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on a historic mission to dock with the Russian space station Mir.

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

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

In 2005, Dennis Rader, the so-called "BTK" (bind, torture, kill) killer, 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.

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, killed 127 people of the more than 1 million infected in the United States. About 3,000 were reported hospitalized.

In 2010, the mineral-rich but poor West African nation of Guinea, which won its independence from France in 1958, had its first democratic election but its bid to name a new president went into a runoff that took until November to decide.

In 2011, a federal court jury in Chicago convicted former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich on 17 felony corruption charges that included trying to sell the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama after the 2008 presidential election.

In 2012, Tanzanian Deputy Interior Minister Pereira Silima said about 42 migrants died of asphyxiation riding in a truck packed with more than 120 people.

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."