UPI Almanac for Thursday, June 25, 2020

Today is Thursday, June 25, the 177th day of 2020 with 189 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Cancer. They include Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi in 1852; French composer Gustave Charpentier in 1860; English novelist/critic George Orwell in 1903; movie director Sidney Lumet in 1924; actor June Lockhart in 1925 (age 95); civil rights advocate James Meredith in 1933 (age 87); musician Harold Melvin in 1939; basketball Hall of Fame member Willis Reed in 1942 (age 78); musician Carly Simon in 1945 (age 75); actor Jimmie Walker in 1947 (age 73); U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor in 1954 (age 66); chef/TV personality Anthony Bourdain in 1956; actor/writer Ricky Gervais in 1961 (age 59); musician George Michael in 1963; basketball Hall of Fame member Dikembe Mutombo in 1966 (age 54); actor Angela Kinsey in 1971 (age 49); actor Linda Cardellini in 1975 (age 45); actor Busy Philipps in 1979 (age 41); actor/TV personality Alani "La La" Anthony in 1981 (age 39); actor McKenna Grace in 2006 (age 14).

On this date in history:

In 1876, U.S. Army Gen. George Custer and his force of 208 men were killed by Chief Sitting Bull's Sioux warriors at Little Big Horn in Montana.

In 1942, U.S. Army Gen. Dwight Eisenhower took command of the U.S. World War II forces in Europe.

In 1950, North Korean forces invaded South Korea, beginning the Korean War.

In 1951, CBS aired the first color television broadcast. At the time, no color TV sets were owned by the public.

In 1962, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a decision interpreted as barring prayer in public schools.

In 1973, White House attorney John Dean told a U.S. Senate committee that U.S. President Richard Nixon joined in a plot to cover up the Watergate break-in.

In 1991, Slovenia and Croatia declared independence from Yugoslavia, sparking civil war.

In 1993, Kim Campbell was sworn in as Canada's first woman prime minister, taking the post after the retirement of Brian Mulroney. Campbell was prime minister until November, leaving office after her Progressive Conservative Party was defeated in the federal election.

In 1994, Japanese Prime Minister Tsutomu Hata resigned two months after taking office rather than face a no-confidence vote by Parliament.

In 1997, about half of Mir's power supply was knocked out when an unmanned cargo ship collided with the Russian space station and put a hole in it.

In 2005, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was elected president of Iran.

In 2006, Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was kidnapped by militants from the Gaza Strip. He was released Oct. 18, 2011.

In 2009, entertainment superstar Michael Jackson, known as "the king of pop," a vast influence on the music scene of his day, died of cardiac arrest at age 50 while preparing a comeback.

In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that mandatory sentencing of teenage killers to life without parole is unconstitutional.

In 2019, San Francisco became the first U.S. city to ban the sale of electronic cigarettes.

A thought for the day: "Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedy." -- English writer Ernest Benn