UPI Almanac for Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Today is Tuesday, July 12, the 194th day of 2016 with 172 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Cancer. They include Roman leader Julius Caesar in 100 B.C.; American writer Henry David Thoreau in 1817; photography pioneer George Eastman in 1854; scientist George Washington Carver in 1864; Italian painter and sculptor Amedeo Modigliani in 1884; composer Oscar Hammerstein II in 1895; author/architect R. Buckminster Fuller, inventor of the geodesic dome, in 1895; Chilean writer Pablo Neruda in 1904; comedian Milton Berle in 1908; comedian Curly Joe DeRita in 1909; bandleader Will Bradley in 1912; painter Andrew Wyeth in 1917; pianist Van Cliburn in 1934; comedian/actor Bill Cosby in 1937 (age 79); musician Christine McVie in 1943 (age 73); actor Denise Nicholas in 1944 (age 71); exercise/diet guru Richard Simmons in 1948 (age 68); movie producer Brian Grazer in 1951 (age 65); actor Cheryl Ladd in 1951 (age 65); actor Mel Harris in 1956 (age 60); actor Rolonda Watts in 1959 (age 57); Olympic gold medal figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi in 1971 (age 45).

On this date in history:

In 1862, the U.S. Congress authorized a new award, the Medal of Honor, highest military decoration for valor against an enemy.

In 1933, a U.S. industrial code was established to fix a minimum wage of 40 cents an hour.

In 1962, the Rolling Stones gave their first public performance -- at the Marquee Club in London.

In 1984, Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale named U.S. Rep. Geraldine Ferraro, D-N.Y., as his running mate. She was the first woman to share a major U.S. political party's presidential ticket. Mondale lost in November to incumbent Ronald Reagan.

In 1990, Boris Yeltsin quit the Soviet Communist Party, saying he wanted to concentrate on his duties as president of the Russian republic.

In 2008, Tony Snow, who was press secretary under U.S. President George W. Bush and a Fox News Channel host, died of cancer at age 53.

In 2011, Ahmed Wali Karzai, 48, a half-brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai and a powerful figure in Kandahar, was killed at his home by a bodyguard.

In 2013, a suicide bomber detonated his explosive vest in a Kirkuk, Iraq, coffee shop, killing at least 33 people and injuring more than two-dozen others. It was the latest in a wave of random attacks that killed more than 2,000 people in the country since April.

A thought for the day: "An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day." -- Henry David Thoreau