The moon is waxing. The morning stars are Neptune, Uranus and Venus. The evening stars are Jupiter, Mars, Mercury and Saturn.
Those born on this date are under the sign of Taurus. They include Ottmar Mergenthaler, inventor of the Linotype typesetting machine, in 1854; songwriter Irving Berlin in 1888; dancer/choreographer Martha Graham in 1894; Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dali in 1904; comic actors Margaret Rutherford in 1892 and Phil Silvers and Winstead Sheffield "Doodles" Weaver, both in 1911; Nobel laureate physicist Richard Feynman in 1918; actor Denver Pyle in 1920; actor Bernard Fox and satirist Mort Sahl, both in 1927 (age 87); Louis Farrakhan, Nation of Islam leader, in 1933 (age 81); Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Eric Burdon in 1941 (age 73); artificial heart developer Dr. Robert Jarvik in 1946 (age 68); writer Mike Lupica in 1952 (age 62); and actors Doug McClure in 1935 and Natasha Richardson in 1963.
On this date in history:
In 1858, Minnesota joined the United States as the 32nd state.
In 1862, the Confederate navy destroyed its iron-clad vessel Merrimac to prevent it from falling into the hands of advancing Union forces.
In 1910, Glacier National Park in Montana was created by an act of Congress.
In 1924, Karl Benz and Gottlieb merged their companies, forming Mercedes-Benz.
In 1928, the first regularly scheduled television programs were begun by station WGY in Schenectady, N.Y.
In 1969, in one of the more infamous and bloody battles of the Vietnam War, U.S. troops seized Dong Ap Bia mountain, commonly known as "Hamburger Hill."
In 1987, Emmanuel Vitria died in Marseilles in southern France at age 67, 18 years after receiving a transplanted human heart. He was the longest-surviving heart transplant patient at that time.
In 1994, Joseph Hazelwood, captain of the Exxon Valdez, told a federal court in Anchorage, Alaska, he'd had three vodka drinks just hours before the tanker ran aground, spilling 11 million gallons of oil into Prince William Sound in 1989.
In 1996, a ValuJet airliner crashed in the Florida Everglades, killing 110 people.
In 1997, world chess champion Gerry Kasparov was defeated by a computer, IBM's Deep Blue, in a six-game match in New York.
In 2003, the New York Times devoted four pages to a story documenting major inaccuracies and deceptions by one of its reporters, Jayson Blair, in a scandal that cost the newspaper's two top editors their jobs.
In 2006, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told students in Indonesia that Israel was an "evil regime" that would soon be "annihilated."
In 2009, Gen. David McKiernan, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, was fired and replaced by Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal.
In 2010, in discussing sexual-abuse scandals, Pope Benedict XVI said the Roman Catholic Church was undergoing its greatest persecution because of "sin in the church." He called the situation "frightening."
In 2012, a man yelled, "Go to hell, you killed my brother" and threw a shoe at confessed mass killer Anders Breivik in a Norwegian courtroom. Breivik had confessed to killing 77 people in a bombing in Oslo and shooting rampage at nearby Utoya Island in July of 2011.
In 2013, U.S. President Obama, addressing police officers in a Top Cops ceremony at the White House, said: "We don't always get that opportunity to stand and applaud the men and women who keep us safe, but they're out there, hundreds of thousands of you, patrolling our streets every single day. And we know that when we need you most you'll be ready to dash into danger, to protect our lives even if it means putting your lives on the line."
A thought for the day: "Mothers hold their children's hands for a short while, but their hearts forever." -- Anonymous
