UPI Almanac for Wednesday, June 7, 2017

Today is Wednesday, June 7, the 158th day of 2017 with 207 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Gemini. They include British fashion plate George "Beau" Brummell in 1778; French post-Impressionist painter Paul Gauguin in 1848; bandleader Glen Gray in 1900; actor Jessica Tandy in 1909; actor-singer Dean Martin in 1917; Gwendolyn Brooks, the first black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for poetry, in 1917; singer Tom Jones in 1940 (age 77); former talk-show host Jenny Jones in 1946 (age 71); actor Liam Neeson in 1952 (age 65); singer/songwriter Prince in 1958; former pro tennis player Anna Kournikova in 1981 (age 36) actor Michael Cera in 1988 (age 29).

On this date in history:

In 1776, the Lee Resolution, which led to the U.S. Declaration of Independence, was introduced in the Continental Congress.

In 1864, Republican delegates meeting in Baltimore nominated Abraham Lincoln for his second term as president. His running mate was Andrew Johnson.

In 1942, Japanese forces occupied Attu and Kiska in the Aleutian Islands. U.S. forces retook the islands one year later.

In 1965, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Connecticut law banning contraceptives.

In 1967, Israeli troops captured Jerusalem during the Six-Day War.

In 1975, the first videocassette recorder went on sale to the public.

In 1983, one day after Nicaragua expelled three U.S. diplomats, the Reagan administration ordered six Nicaraguan consulates closed and expelled six of the country's diplomats.

In 1990, South African President F.W. de Klerk lifted a 4-year-old nationwide state of emergency in all but the strife-torn Indian Ocean province of Natal.

In 1996, Max Factor, who pioneered smudge-proof lipstick, died.

In 2002, U.S. missionary Martin Burnham, captured in the Philippines by a Muslim group more than a year earlier, was fatally shot during a rescue attempt.

In 2008, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., officially ended her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination and endorsed Sen. Barack Obama for president.

In 2009, a coalition of pro-Western and anti-Syria parties outpolled the militant Hezbollah faction to retain a parliamentary majority in Lebanon.

In 2012, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has "doubled down on his brutality and duplicity." She said Syria cannot be peaceful or stable "until Assad goes."

In 2013, six people were killed and five injured in a Santa Monica, Calif., shooting rampage that started at a private home and ended on a college campus. The dead included the 23-year-old gunman, who was shot by police.

In 2014, California Chrome failed in a bid for racing's Triple Crown, tying for fourth place in the Belmont Stakes won by Tonalist. A year later, American Pharoah became the first horse in 37 years to win the Triple Crown.

A thought for the day: "Peace does not fare well where poverty and deprivation reign. It does not flourish where there is ignorance and a lack of education and information ... Racial, class and religious intolerance and prejudice are its mortal enemies." -- F.W. de Klerk