UPI Almanac for Wednesday, June 23, 2021

Today is Wednesday, June 23, the 174th day of 2021 with 191 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Cancer. They include French Empress Josephine, wife of Napoleon, in 1763; pioneer sex researcher Alfred Kinsey in 1894; British King Edward VIII in 1894; Alan Turing, British computer scientist, in 1912; former U.S. Secretary of State William Rogers in 1913; director/choreographer Bob Fosse in 1927; singer June Carter Cash in 1929; astronaut Donn Eisele in 1930; Finnish Nobel Peace Prize laureate Martti Ahtisaari in 1937 (age 84); U.S. Olympic gold medalist Wilma Rudolph in 1940; former Metropolitan Opera conductor James Levine in 1943; actor Ted Shackelford in 1946 (age 75); actor Bryan Brown in 1947 (age 74); U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in 1948 (age 73); music producer Randy Jackson in 1956 (age 65); actor Frances McDormand in 1957 (age 64); golf Hall of Fame member Colin Montgomerie in 1963 (age 58); filmmaker Joss Whedon in 1964 (age 57); actor Selma Blair in 1972 (age 49); musician Jason Mraz in 1977 (age 44); actor Melissa Rauch in 1980 (age 41); singer Duffy, born Amy Anne Duffy, in 1984 (age 37).

On this date in history:

In 1845, the Congress of the Republic of Texas agreed to annexation by the United States.

In 1865, the last Confederate holdouts formally surrendered in the Oklahoma Territory.

In 1894, the International Olympic Committee was founded in Paris.

In 1933, Japanese Emperor Hirohito, in an interview with Roy Howard of United Press, stressed the importance of friendship with the United States.

In 1947, the U.S. Congress enacted the Taft-Hartley labor act over the veto of President Harry Truman. The law limits the power of labor unions.

In 1956, Gamel Abdel Nasser was elected first president of the Republic of Egypt.

In 1985, Air India Flight 182, flying from Montreal to London, was brought down by a terrorist bomb off the coast of Ireland, killing all 329 people aboard.

In 1991, the Group of Seven industrialized democracies agreed to offer the Soviet Union associate membership in the International Monetary Fund.

In 1993, John Bobbitt made headlines when his wife, Lorena Bobbitt, cut off his penis while he slept. She testified she did so because he sexually and emotionally abused her during four-year marriage. A jury found her not guilty by reason of insanity.

In 2010, U.S. Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal resigned as commander of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan after he and senior aides made disparaging remarks in a magazine interview about administration officials. President Barack Obama named Gen. David Petraeus as McChrystal's replacement.

In 2013, daredevil Nik Wallenda walked on a 2-inch thick cable across the Little Colorado River Gorge near the Grand Canyon in Arizona -- 1,500 feet above the gorge -- in just under 23 minutes.

In 2014, the World Health Organization said 350 Ebola virus deaths had been reported since March in West Africa. A doctor called it an epidemic "out of control."

In 2018, 12 members of a teenage soccer team and their coach became lost and trapped inside a flooded cave in northern Thailand. They were extricated 18 days later in a rescue effort that left one former Thai Navy SEAL dead.

A thought for the day: Author/poet Maya Angelou said, "Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him."