On this date in history

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On this date in history


Today is Monday, June 4, the 155th day of 2007 with 210 to follow.

The moon is waning. The morning stars are Mars, Jupiter, Neptune and Uranus. The evening stars are Mercury, Venus and Saturn.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Gemini. They include (Judykay-ts4ms) George III, king of England during the Revolutionary War, in 1738; actress Rosalind Russell in 1907; opera singer Robert Merrill in 1919; actors Dennis Weaver in 1924 and Bruce Dern in 1936 (age 71); radio/TV host Ruth Westheimer in 1928 (age 79); singer Freddie Fender in 1937; singer/actress Michelle Phillips in 1944 (age 63); actor Parker Stevenson in 1952 (age 55); singer El DeBarge in 1961 (age 46); and actors Scott Wolf ("Party of Five") in 1968 (age 39), Noah Wyle in 1971 (age 36) and Angelina Jolie in 1975 (age 32).




On this date in history:

In 1784, a French woman, Marie Thible of Lyons, became the first women to fly in a hot-air balloon.

In 1896, Henry Ford wheeled his first car from a brick shed in Detroit and drove it around darkened streets on a trial run.

In 1917, the first Pulitzer Prizes were awarded.

In 1940, the World War II evacuation of Dunkirk, France, was completed. A flotilla of small boats spent nearly a week crossing the English Channel to rescue nearly 350,000 British, French and Belgian troops from advancing German forces.

In 1944, Rome was liberated as the last of the German occupiers fled the Italian capital ahead of the U.S. 9th Army.

In 1972, black militant Angela Davis was acquitted of murder, kidnapping and criminal conspiracy charges stemming from a California courtroom shootout in which a judge and three other people were killed.

In 1985, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down an Alabama minute-of-silence law as specifically fostering classroom prayer.

In 1989, in what became known as the Tiananmen Square massacre, hundreds of pro-democracy students were reported killed and thousands wounded as Chinese troops swept demonstrators from the square in Beijing.

In 1990, an Oregon woman, Janet Adkins, killed herself in Michigan using a "suicide machine" developed by "Dr. Death" Jack Kevorkian. She was the controversial retired pathologist's first "medicide" patient.

In 1991, Albania's Communist Cabinet resigned, ending 46 years of Communist rule.

In 1992, U.S. Postal officials announced that the young, 1950s-era Elvis Presley portrait was chosen overwhelmingly over the older, Las Vegas-style Elvis in a nationwide vote for a new postage stamp honoring "The King."

In 1998, Terry Nichols was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for his part in the 1995 bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City.

Also in 1998, the five major nuclear powers (the United States, Russia, China, France and Great Britain) renewed their appeal for India and Pakistan to stop development of nuclear arms and offered to help the two antagonists resolve their conflict over the Kashmir region.

In 1999, the Yugoslav government approved a plan, proposed by Finland and Russia and supported by the major Western nations, which would end NATO's bombing campaign against Yugoslavia.

In 2003, Martha Stewart, the home decorating guru, was indicted on federal charges of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and securities fraud in a dispute over a stock sale.

Also in 2003, Charles Taylor, president of Liberia, was indicted for war crimes.

In 2004, U.S. President George W. Bush met in Rome with Pope John Paul II who reiterated Vatican opposition to the war in Iraq.

In 2005, the Covington Diocese in Kentucky said it has agreed to pay up to $120 million to more than 100 alleged victims of child molestation from the last 50 years.

In 2006, former Peruvian President Alan Garcia Perez regained that post in a runoff victory over Ollanta Humula Tasso.

Also in 2006, continuing violence in Iraq saw 24 people killed in two attacks, including 19 bus passengers north of Baghdad. Among them reportedly were several high school students.


A thought for the day: Oscar Wilde said, "A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal."

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On this date in history


Today is Tuesday, June 5, the 156th day of 2007 with 209 to follow.

The moon is waning. The morning stars are Mars, Jupiter, Neptune and Uranus. The evening stars are Mercury, Venus and Saturn.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Gemini. They include economist Adam Smith in 1723; Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa in 1878; English economist John Maynard Keynes in 1883; actor William Boyd, who played Hopalong Cassidy, in 1895; author/illustrator Richard Scarry in 1919; actor Robert Lansing in 1928; journalist/commentator Bill Moyers in 1934 (age 73); novelist Margaret Drabble in 1939 (age 68); Welsh author Ken Follett in 1949 (age 58); entertainer Kenny G in 1956 (age 51); rapper-turned-actor Mark Wahlberg in 1971 (age 36); and actor Chad Allen ("Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman") in 1974 (age 33).



On this date in history:

In 1783, the first public demonstration of a hot-air balloon occurred at Annonay, France.

In 1933, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt signed a bill abolishing the gold standard.

In 1967, the Six-Day War began between Israel and the Arab states of Egypt, Syria and Jordan.

In 1968, as he campaigned for the Democratic presidential nomination, U.S. Sen. Robert Kennedy was shot in Los Angeles by Sirhan Sirhan, a Palestine-born Arab. Kennedy, 42, died the next day.

In 1976, the Teton River Dam in Idaho collapsed as it was being filled for the first time, killing 14 people, flooding 300 square miles and causing an estimated $1 billion damage.

In 1985, General Motors agreed to buy Hughes Aircraft for more than $5 billion. At the time, it was the biggest corporate purchase outside the oil industry.

In 1986, Ronald Pelton, a former National Security Agency employee, was convicted in Baltimore of spying for the Soviet Union. The verdict came one day after former Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Jay Pollard pleaded guilty to espionage on behalf of Israel.

In 1991, in a step away from apartheid, South African legislators repealed the Land Acts of 1913 and 1936, which reserved 87 percent of land for whites.

In 1992, on the 20th anniversary of the first U.N. environmental conference, Brazil and 11 other nations signed a controversial biodiversity treaty setting guidelines for the protection and use of plant and animal species.

In 1993, 23 Pakistani members of the U.N. peacekeeping forces were killed in a series of attacks in Mogadishu, Somalia.

Also in 1993, 14 men charged in an Iraqi plot to kill former U.S. President George H.W. Bush went on trial in Kuwait.

In 1998, ethnic Albanian delegates pulled out of peace talks with the Yugoslav republic of Serbia because of a crackdown by Serb police in the rebellious province of Kosovo.

In 1999, NATO and Yugoslav military officials began meeting at the Kosovo border to discuss terms for NATO's suspension of its bombing campaign of Yugoslavia.

In 2000, Ukraine officials announced that the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, site of the worst radiation accident in history, would be closed.

In 2003, officials say U.S. troops will withdraw from the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea, bringing an end to 50 years of guard duty.

Also in 2003, a suicide bomber killed herself and 17 others at a bus stop in northern Russia near Chechnya.

In 2004, Ronald Reagan, the 40th U.S. president, died at his Los Angeles home at the age of 93 of complications from Alzheimer's disease.

In 2005, officials said U.S. forces in Iraq discovered dozens of bunkers used to store weapons for militants, with one the size of several U.S. football fields.

In 2006, Time Magazine said as many as 10 Marines may face charges in the shooting deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians in November 2005.

Also in 2006, Islamist militias, fighting U.S.-supported secular warlords in Somalia, claimed to have taken control of Mogadishu after days of fighting.


A thought for the day: Alfred Whitney Griswold said, "Books won't stay banned. They won't burn. Ideas won't go to jail. ... The only sure weapon against bad ideas is better ideas."

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On this date in history


Today is Wednesday, June 6, the 157th day of 2007 with 208 to follow.

The moon is waning. The morning stars are Mars, Neptune and Uranus. The evening stars are Jupiter, Mercury, Venus and Saturn.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Gemini. They include Spanish painter Diego Velasquez in 1599; American patriot Nathan Hale in 1755; Russian poet Alexander Pushkin in 1799; British Antarctic explorer Robert Falcon Scott in 1868; German novelist Thomas Mann in 1875; vaudeville bandleader Ted Lewis, known for asking his audiences, "Is everybody happy?" in 1890; Indonesian dictator Ahmed Sukarno in 1901; bandleader Jimmie Lunceford in 1902; singer/songwriter Gary "U.S." Bonds in 1939 (age 68); actor David Dukes in 1945; comedian/actress Sandra Bernhard in 1955 (age 52); tennis player Bjorn Borg in 1956 (age 51); and actress Amanda Pays in 1959 (age 48).


On this date in history:

In 1872, feminist Susan B. Anthony was fined for voting in an election in Rochester, N.Y. She refused to pay the fine and the judge allowed her to go free.

In 1933, the first drive-in movie theater opened in Camden, N.J.

In 1944, hundreds of thousands of Allied troops began crossing the English Channel in the "D-Day" invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe. It was the largest invasion in history.

In 1966, James Meredith, who in 1962 became the first African-American to attend the University of Mississippi, was wounded by a sniper during a civil rights march through the South.

In 1972, a coalmine explosion in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, trapped 464 miners underground. More than 425 people died.

In 1982, Israeli forces invaded Lebanon.

In 1994, national leaders and World War II veterans commemorated the 50th anniversary of "D-Day."

In 2002, U.S. President George Bush proposed creation of a Cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security whose main responsibility would be prevention of terrorist attacks.

In 2003, the U.S. Labor Department said unemployment in May hit a 9-year-high of 6.1 percent. The report said a net total of 2.5 million jobs had been lost in a little more than two years.

Also in 2003, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft defended the Justice Department's detention of 762 illegal immigrants after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and urged Congress to give the authorities even broader power to pursue suspected terrorists.

In 2005, the U.S. State Department said North Korea had stated its willingness to return to six-party nuclear talks but no timetable was set.

Also in 2005, at least 37 people were killed and dozens more injured in southern Nepal after a crowded bus hit a land mine planted by suspected Maoist rebels.

In 2006, CNN reported that evidence had emerged alleging U.S. Marines deliberately killed an unarmed Iraqi civilian in April in the town of Hamdaniya.

Also in 2006, in a document by the Pontifical Council on the Family, the Vatican said that unless abortion is punished as a crime it will be seen as a "banal" act.

And, Satan worshippers came out in force at dawn on this, the sixth day of the sixth month of the century's sixth year -- 6-6-6, a number the Bible deems Satanic.


A thought for the day: "The only certainty is that nothing is certain." Pliny the Elder said that.

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Today is Thursday, June 7, the 158th day of 2007 with 207 to follow.

The moon is waning. The morning stars are Mars, Neptune and Uranus. The evening stars are Jupiter, Mercury, Venus 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 1906; actor-singer Dean Martin in 1917; actress Jessica Tandy in 1909; Gwendolyn Brooks, the first black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for poetry, in 1917; singer Tom Jones in 1940 (age 67); talk-show host Jenny Jones in 1946 (age 61); actor Liam Neeson in 1952 (age 55); singer/songwriter Prince in 1958 (age 49), and tennis star Anna Kournikova in 1981 (age 26).


On this date in history:

In 1864, Republican delegates meeting in Baltimore renominated Abraham Lincoln 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 1975, the first videocassette recorder went on sale to the public.

In 1982, Israeli jets bombed central Beirut while Israeli ground forces captured Beaufort Castle and surrounded the Lebanese city of Sidon.

In 1983, one day after Nicaragua expelled three U.S. diplomats, the Reagan administration ordered six Nicaraguan consulates closed and expelled six Nicaraguan 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 1992, a British newspaper reported that Princess Diana, in despair over her marriage to Prince Charles, made five attempts at suicide and had suffered from depression-linked illnesses.

In 1995, using his veto power for the first time, U.S. President Bill Clinton vetoed a bill passed by Congress.

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

In 1997, the Detroit Red Wings won the Stanley Cup with a 2-1 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers. It was the team's first hockey title in 42 years.

In 2000, the federal judge hearing the Microsoft anti-trust suit ordered the break-up of the software giant. It was never carried out.

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 2003, four German peacekeepers were killed and 31 others hurt when a bomb exploded near a bus in Kabul, Afghanistan.

In 2004, a classified U.S. Department of Defense report said that the United States, under national security considerations, was not bound by international laws prohibiting torture.

In 2005, General Motors announced it would cut 25,000 jobs by 2008 and close some factories.

Also in 2005, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter called for the closing of the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba.

In 2006, Iraq's health ministry reported that Baghdad's death toll due to violence in the city had surpassed 6,000 for the year.


A thought for the day: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe said, "Talent develops in quiet, Character in the torrent of the world."

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On this date in history

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Today is Friday, June 8, the 159th day of 2007 with 206 to follow.

The moon is waning. The morning stars are Mars, Neptune and Uranus. The evening stars are Jupiter, Mercury, Venus and Saturn.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Gemini. They include (mk9775-ts4ms) German composer Robert Schumann in 1810; architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1867; British geneticist Francis Crick, who helped determine the "double helix" structure of DNA, in 1916; actor Robert Preston in 1918; former first lady Barbara Bush in 1925 (age 82); actor Jerry Stiller in 1927 (age 80); comedian Joan Rivers in 1933 (age 74); actor/singer James Darren in 1936 (age 71); singer Nancy Sinatra in 1940 (age 67); singer/songwriter Boz Scaggs in 1944 (age 63); actress Kathy Baker in 1950 (age 57); actor Griffin Dunne in 1955 (age 52); "Dilbert" cartoonist Scott Adams in 1957 (age 50); comedian Keenan Ivory Wayans in 1958 (age 49); and actress Juliana Margulies in 1966 (age 41).




On this date in history:

In 1789, James Madison proposed the Bill of Rights, which led to the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

In 1861, Tennessee seceded from the Union to join the Confederacy.

In 1869, Ives McGaffney of Chicago obtained a patent for a "sweeping machine," the first vacuum cleaner.

In 1967, the USS Liberty, an intelligence ship sailing in international waters off Egypt, was attacked by Israeli jet planes and torpedo boats. Thirty-four Americans were killed in the attack, which Israel claimed was a case of mistaken identity.

In 1968, James Earl Ray, an escaped convict, was arrested in London and charged with the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.

In 1985, the United Nations said worsening famine in 19 African nations would claim tens of millions of lives despite massive international aid.

In 1987, Fawn Hall, former secretary to Iran-Contra scandal figure Oliver North, told congressional hearings that to protect her boss, she helped him alter and shred sensitive documents and smuggle papers out of the White House.

In 1990, Israel's nearly 3-month-old government crisis ended when Yitzhak Shamir and his Likud party won support of six right-wing and religious parties to form one of the most right-wing governing coalitions in Israeli history.

Also in 1990, an explosion started a fire aboard the Norwegian tanker Mega Borg, 57 miles off Galveston, Texas. The blaze burned for days as part of tanker's load of 38 million gallons leaked into the Gulf of Mexico.

In 1991, a $12 million parade for the Persian Gulf War veterans, including 8,000 troops and military jets flying overhead, was held in Washington.

In 1992, PLO's chief of European security was killed in Paris less than two years after his former chief was gunned down in Tunisia.

Also in 1992, the U.N. Security Council authorized deployment of an infantry battalion to take over the airport in Sarajevo, Bosnia and open it to humanitarian aid flights.

In 1994, U.S. President Bill Clinton received an honorary degree from Britain's Oxford University, which he had attended as a Rhodes scholar.

Also in 1994, two of the major warring factions in Bosnia, the Muslim-Croat federation and the Bosnian Serbs, signed a cease-fire agreement.

In 1995, U.S. Marines rescued downed American pilot Scott O'Grady in Bosnia.

In 1998, EU foreign ministers urged NATO and the United Nations to consider military action against the Yugoslav Serbs in their crackdown on the rebellious province of Kosovo.

In 1999, the case of five New York City police officers accused in the 1997 torturing of a Haitian immigrant ended with the conviction of one of the officers. A second officer pleaded guilty, three others were acquitted.

In 2003, U.S. national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said that President George W, Bush's claim in his State of the Union address that Iraq tried to buy uranium from Niger was based on documents found to be forged.

Also in 2003, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said he stands by his testimony before the United Nations that Iraq did have weapons of mass destruction before the war.

In 2004, police in Milan, Italy, arrested an Egyptian man suspected of masterminding the March 11 Madrid commuter train bombings in which 191 people were killed and more than 2,000 were injured.

In 2005, after a two-week trial, a jury in Miami found two former America West pilots guilty of operating an aircraft while drunk.

In 2006, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and seven others were confirmed killed after an air strike on a house north of Baquba.

Also in 2006, U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and former Republican Mayor Rudy Giuliani of New York came out on top in a new poll on possible 2008 presidential candidates.


A thought for the day: James Madison said, "I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations."

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On this date in history



Today is Saturday, June 9, the 160th day of 2007 with 205 to follow.

The moon is waning. The morning stars are Mars, Neptune and Uranus. The evening stars are Jupiter, Mercury, Venus and Saturn.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Gemini. They include(mschatz-ts4ms); Russian Czar Peter the Great in 1672; composer Cole Porter in 1891; composer, conductor, inventor Fred Waring in 1900; actor Robert Cummings in 1908; guitarist and recording pioneer Les Paul in 1915 (age 92); Robert S. McNamara, former U.S. Defense secretary and World Bank president, in 1916 (age 91); journalist Marvin Kalb in 1930 (age 77); comedian Jackie Mason in 1931 (age 76); soul singer Jackie Wilson in 1934; sportscaster Dick Vitale in 1939 (age 68); and actors Michael J. Fox in 1961 (age 46), Johnny Depp in 1963 (age 44), Gloria Reuben in 1964 (age 43) and Natalie Portman in 1981 (age 26).



On this date in history:

In 1534, French navigator Jacques Cartier became the first European explorer to discover the St. Lawrence River in present-day Quebec, Canada.

In 1898, Britain leased Hong Kong from China for 99 years. The territory returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

In 1934, Donald Duck made his first screen appearance in "The Wise Little Hen."

In 1943, The U.S. Congress passed an act authorizing employers to withhold income tax payments from salary checks.

In 1973, Secretariat won racing's coveted Triple Crown with a spectacular victory in the Belmont Stakes, first horse to do so since Citation in 1948. Earlier, Secretariat had captured the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness.

In 1984, an Italian prosecutor's report linked the Bulgarian secret service to the 1981 assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II. Three Bulgarians were indicted but a trial failed to prove charges against them.

In 1989, Chinese officials continued their crackdown on pro-democracy activists with arrests and a sweeping propaganda campaign.

In 1993, Japanese Crown Prince Naruhito married former diplomat Masako Owada in Tokyo.

In 1994, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to require the Clinton administration to stop participating in the U.N.-sponsored arms embargo against the Bosnian government.

In 1995, Colombian police arrested Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela, believed to be a leader of the Cali drug cartel.

In 1998, Gen. Abdulsalam Abubakar was sworn in as Nigeria's military ruler, one day after the death of Gen. Sani Abacha of a heart attack.

In 1999, Yugoslavia signed an agreement, pledging to withdraw all Serbian troops from Kosovo within 11 days.

In 2003, former U.S. first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton's memoir "Living History" sold 200,000 copies the first day.

Also in 2003, North Korea said it needed to develop nuclear weapons to save costs by reducing conventional forces and had no plan for nuclear blackmail.

In 2004, the body of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan was flown to Washington for a state funeral. Earlier, more than 100,000 mourners paid their respects at the Reagan presidential library in California.

In 2005, the Bush administration refused to give its endorsement to Germany for a permanent seat on an expanded U.N. Security Council.

Also in 2005, after weeks of protests, Bolivian President Carlos Mesa resigned.

In 2006, the new Iraqi Cabinet was completed with the appointments of ministers of defense, interior and national security.


A thought for the day: Henri-Frederic Amiel defined charm as "the quality in others that makes us more satisfied with ourselves."

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On this date in history


Today is Sunday, June 10, the 161st day of 2007 with 204 to follow.

The moon is waning. The morning stars are Mars, Neptune and Uranus. The evening stars are Jupiter, Mercury, Venus and Saturn.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Gemini. They include actress(susieq-ts4ms);Hattie McDaniel, the first African-American to win an Oscar (best supporting actress, "Gone with the Wind"), in 1895; Britain's Prince Philip, husband of Queen Elizabeth II, in 1921 (age 86); Judy Garland in 1922; children's author and illustrator Maurice Sendak in 1928 (age 79); attorney F. Lee Bailey in 1933 (age 74); actor Andrew Stevens in 1955 (age 52); model/actress Elizabeth Hurley, in 1965 (age 42); Olympic figure skater Tara Lipinski in 1982 (age 25) and actress Leelee Sobieski in 1983 (age 24).



On this date in history:

In 1652, silversmith John Hull, in defiance of English colonial law, established the first mint in America.

In 1692, in Salem Village in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Bridget Bishop, the first colonist tried in the Salem witch trials, was hanged after being found guilty of the practice of witchcraft.

In 1898, U.S. Marines invaded Cuba in the Spanish-American War.

In 1935, Alcoholics Anonymous was founded in Akron, Ohio.

In 1942, the German Gestapo burned the tiny Czech village of Lidice after shooting 173 men and shipping the women and children to concentration camps.

In 1943, Hungarian Laszlo Biro invented the ballpoint pen.

In 1987, South Koreans demanding free elections launched a wave of violent demonstrations.

In 1989, the Rev. Jerry Falwell said his conservative lobbying group, the Moral Majority, had accomplished its goals and would be disbanded.

In 1991, Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines erupted, spewing debris as far as 20 miles away.

In 1992, Texas law officers urged a boycott of Time-Warner and Warner Bros. over a recording by rap artist Ice-T that they said encouraged the shooting of officers.

In 1994, U.S. President Bill Clinton froze most financial transactions between the United States and Haiti and suspended all commercial flights to the Caribbean nation, effective June 25.

In 1995, Cuba announced the arrest of U.S. financier-turned-fugitive Robert Vesco on spying charges. Vesco had fled the United States in 1972 ahead of embezzlement charges.

In 1998, a jury in Jacksonville, Fla., found the Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. liable in the lung cancer death of a smoker. The jury awarded his family $950,000, including $450,000 in punitive damages -- the first such assessment in a smoking-related lawsuit.

In 1999, NATO suspended its bombing campaign against Yugoslavia.

In 2000, Syrian President Hafez Assad died from a heart attack at age 69. He had ruled Syria since 1970.

In 2003, a three-member Ontario Court of Appeal in Canada ordered that full marriage rights be extended to same-sex couples.

In 2004, Ray Charles, a 12-time Grammy-winning singer-pianist who pioneered the blending of country and R&B, died at his home in Beverly Hills. He was 73.

In 2005, in a landmark civil lawsuit against the tobacco industry, the U.S. government scaled back its demands for penalties from $130 billion to $10 billion. The government had asked for the larger sum to help 45 million American smokers quit their smoking habit.

In 2006, three detainees at the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, hanged themselves in the first reported deaths at the facility, prompting more calls to close the facility.


A thought for the day: Joseph Joubert wrote, "Children need models more than they need critics."

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Today is Monday, June 11, the 162nd day of 2007 with 203 to follow.

The moon is waning. The morning stars are Mars, Neptune and Uranus. The evening stars are Jupiter, Mercury, Venus and Saturn.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Gemini. They include English playwright/poet Ben Jonson in 1572; German composer Richard Strauss in 1864; Montana's Jeannette Rankin, the first woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, in 1880; undersea explorer Jacques Cousteau in 1910; football coach Vince Lombardi in 1913; author William Styron in 1925; actors Chad Everett in 1936 (age 71), Gene Wilder in 1933 (age 74) and Adrienne Barbeau in 1945 (age 62); Scottish auto racer Jackie Stewart in 1939 (age 68); former football player Joe Montana in 1956 (age 51); and actor Joshua Jackson ("Dawson's Creek") in 1978 (age 29).


On this date in history:

In 1920, U.S. Sen. Warren G. Harding, R-Ohio, was chosen as the "dark horse" Republican candidate for president. That November, he was elected the 29th president of the United States.

In 1927, U.S. President Calvin Coolidge welcomed Charles Lindbergh home after the pilot made history's first non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean, New York to Paris.

In 1963, facing federalized Alabama National Guard troops, Gov. George Wallace ended his blockade of the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa and allowed two African-Americans to enroll.

In 1967, the Six-Day War between Israel and its Arab neighbors ended with a United Nations-brokered cease-fire. The outnumbered Israel forces achieved a swift and decisive victory in the brief war.

In 1985, Karen Ann Quinlan died at age 31 in a New Jersey nursing home, nearly 10 years after she lapsed into an irreversible coma. Her condition had sparked a nationwide controversy over her "right to die."

In 1987, Margaret Thatcher became the first British prime minister in 160 years to win three consecutive terms.

In 1990, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down an anti-flag burning law passed by Congress in 1989, reigniting calls for a constitutional amendment.

Also in 1990, former Reagan national security adviser John Poindexter was sentenced to six months in prison, becoming the first Iran-Contra defendant to receive prison time in the arms-for-hostages scandal.

In 1992, major-league baseball owners approved the sale of the Seattle Mariners to a Japanese-led group. The club became the first major-league baseball team to be owned by interests outside North America.

Also in 1993, North Korea said it would suspend its withdrawal from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

In 1994, after 49 years, the Russian military occupation of what had been East German ended with the departure of the Red Army from Berlin.

In 2003, a bomb explosion aboard a Jerusalem bus killed at least 13 people and injured 53 more.

In 2004, a second service was held for former U.S. President Ronald Reagan in Washington, attended by President George W. Bush, the four living ex-presidents and world leaders. The body was flown to California for burial.

In 2005, the world's richest countries agreed to a debt relief deal for the poorest nations, writing off $40 billion in debt.

In 2006, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. George Casey, said the United States might start pulling out troops this year if the new Iraqi government and its army show steady progress.


A thought for the day: john Keats wrote, "A thing of beauty is a joy forever." And it was also Keats who wrote, "Beauty is truth, truth beauty... that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."

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Today is Tuesday, June 12, the 163rd day of 2007 with 202 to follow.

The moon is waning. The morning stars are Mars, Neptune and Uranus. The evening stars are Jupiter, Mercury, Venus and Saturn.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Gemini. They include John Augustus Roebling, designer of the Brooklyn Bridge, in 1806; former U.S. President George H.W. Bush in 1924 (age 83); singer Vic Damone in 1928 (age 79; Anne Frank, whose diary told of hiding from the Nazis in occupied Holland, in 1929; author Rona Jaffe in 1932; actor/singer Jim Nabors in 1930 (age 77); jazz musician Chick Corea in 1941 (age 66); sportscaster Marvin "Marv" Albert in 1943 (age 64) and actor Timothy Busfield in 1957 (age 50).



On this date in history:

In 1939, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum was dedicated at Cooperstown, N.Y.

In 1963, a sniper killed civil rights leader Medgar Evers in Jackson, Miss.

In 1967, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states could not outlaw interracial marriages.

In 1971, Tricia Nixon, daughter of U.S. President Richard Nixon, married Edward Finch Cox in the first wedding in the Rose Garden of the White House.

In 1979, Bryan Allen, 26, pedaled the 70-pound Gossamer Albatross 22 miles across the English Channel for the first human-powered flight across that body of water.

In 1982, an estimated 700,000 people gathered in New York's Central Park to call for world nuclear disarmament.

In 1986, the South African government, faced with rising black unrest, declared a nationwide state of emergency.

In 1989, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that white workers who claim to be treated unfairly as a result of affirmative action programs can sue for remedies under civil rights legislation.

In 1990, the Russian republic's legislature, under Boris Yeltsin, passed a radical declaration of sovereignty, proclaiming Russia's laws take precedence over those of the central Soviet government in the republic's territory.

In 1991, the Russian republic had its first direct presidential elections with Boris Yeltsin winning. The event is celebrated in Russia as a national holiday known as Independence Day.

In 1992, amid extremely tight security and criticism of his administration's stand on environmental issues, U.S. President George H.W. Bush addressed the Earth Summit. He urged rich nations to meet by year's end to outline specific action on a climate treaty.

In 1993, U.S. helicopters and gunships destroyed four of Somali warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid's arms depots, one week after his forces allegedly killed 23 Pakistani members of the U.N. peacekeeping forces in a series of firefights.

In 1994, special counsel Robert Fiske took sworn depositions from U.S. President Bill Clinton and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton about the Whitewater land deal in Arkansas. It was believed to be the first time a sitting president responded directly to questions in a legal case relating to his official conduct.

In 1999, Texas Gov. George W. Bush announced his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination.

In 2000, 50 years after the Korean War began the leaders of North and South Korea met in Pyongyang for the first series of talks.

In 2003, television news pioneer David Brinkley, one half of the legendary Huntley-Brinkley evening news team and host of the long-running Sunday public affairs program This Week, died at his home in Houston. He was 82.

Also in 2003, at least 70 Iraqis were killed in a U.S. attack on a terrorist camp near Saddam Hussein's hometown.

In 2004, gunmen killed an Iraqi interim deputy foreign minister, the second such attack in a week on an Iraqi government official in Baghdad.

In 2005, Time magazine reported a secret document showing the use of pressure tactics in the interrogation of a suspected al-Qaida leader by the U.S. military at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

In 2006, more than 20,000 residents along Florida's gulf coast were told to evacuate in the face of Tropical Storm Alberto which made landfall in the panhandle south of Tallahassee.


A thought for the day: T.S. Eliot said, "In my beginning is my end."

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Today is Wednesday, June 13, the 164th day of 2007 with 201 to follow.

The moon is waning. The morning stars are Mars, Neptune and Uranus. The evening stars are Jupiter, Mercury, Venus and Saturn.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Gemini. They include U.S. Army Gen. Winfield Scott in 1786; Irish poet and dramatist William Butler Yeats in 1865; actor Basil Rathbone in 1892; Mexican composer Carlos Chavez in 1899; football star Harold "Red" Grange in 1903; TV host Ralph Edwards in 1913; Bulgarian-born artist Christo (born Hristo Yavashev) in 1935 (age 72); actors Malcolm McDowell in 1943 (age 64) and Richard Thomas in 1951 (age 56); comedian Tim Allen in 1953 (age 54); and actresses Ally Sheedy in 1962 (age 45) and twins Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen in 1986 (age 21).


On this date in history:

In 323 B.C., Alexander the Great died of fever in Babylon at age 33.

In 1944, the first German V-1 "buzz bomb" hit London.

In 1966, in Miranda vs. Arizona, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that police must read all arrested people their constitutional rights before questioning them.

In 1967, Thurgood Marshall became the first African-American on the U.S. Supreme Court. U.S. President Lyndon Johnson chose him to succeed Tom Clark.

In 1976, Arizona Republic investigative reporter Don Bolles died as a result of injuries suffered when a bomb blew up his car 11 days earlier. He had been working on an organized crime story at the time of his death.

In 1977, James Earl Ray, convicted assassin of Martin Luther King Jr., was captured in a Tennessee wilderness area after escaping from prison.

In 1983, the robot spacecraft Pioneer 10 became the first man-made object to leave the solar system. It did so 11 years after it was launched.

In 1991, revising a policy with roots to the McCarthy era, the Bush administration agreed to remove almost all 250,000 names from a secret list of unacceptable aliens.

In 1993, 20 Somalis were killed and 50 more wounded when Pakistani members of the U.N. peacekeeping forces fired into a crowd of demonstrators protesting U.N. attacks on warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid.

Also in 1993, Canada got its first woman prime minister when the Progressive Conservative Party elected Kim Campbell to head the party and thus the country.

In 1994, the ex-wife of O.J. Simpson and a friend were found stabbed to death outside her condominium in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles.

In 1996, members of the Freemen militia surrendered, 10 days after the FBI cut off electricity to their Montana compound. The standoff lasted 81 days.

In 1997, jurors unanimously recommended convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh be sentenced to death.

Also in 1997, the Chicago Bulls won their fifth National Basketball Association title in seven years when they downed the Utah Jazz, four games to two.

In 2002, Roman Catholic Church bishops and cardinals, meeting to discuss abuse charges against some priests, heard three men and a woman tell how their lives had been devastated by abuse and ill treatment by the church.

In 2003, Thai and U.S. officials arrested a suspected illegal arms dealer in Bangkok with radioactive material that could be used to make a "dirty bomb."

Also in 2003, thousands of protesting Tehran students ran the streets lighting fires and swinging chains in a third day of demonstrations.

In 2004, a Roman Catholic newspaper said U.S. President George W. Bush asked a Vatican official to help push U.S. bishops on certain cultural issues, including "the battle against gay marriage."

In 2005, pop superstar Michael Jackson was acquitted by a California jury on 10 counts of child molestation.

Also in 2005, a Gallup poll shows U.S. support for the war in Iraq was at its lowest level, with nearly 60 percent of respondents favoring troop cutbacks.

In 2006, U.S. President Bush made a surprise visit to Baghdad to show support for the new Iraqi Cabinet. He said U.S. military forces wouldn't leave until the Iraqi government could strand on its own.

Also in 2006, the United States formally recognized Montenegro as a sovereign and independent state. Montenegro had been part of Serbia.


A thought for the day: Francis Bacon wrote, "It is as natural to die as to be born; and to a little infant, perhaps, the one is as painful as the other."

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Today is Thursday, June 14, the 165th day of 2007 with 200 to follow.

Today is Flag Day in the United States.

The moon is waning. The morning stars are Mars, Neptune and Uranus. The evening stars are Jupiter, Mercury, Venus and Saturn.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Gemini. They include Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" in 1811; bookseller John Bartlett, compiler of "Bartlett's Familiar Quotations," in 1820; Wisconsin Gov. Robert La Follette in 1855; singer, composer Cliff Edwards (also the voice of Jiminy Cricket in Disney's "Pinocchio") in 1895; photojournalist Margaret Bourke-White in 1904; actor/folksinger Burl Ives in 1909; actress Dorothy McGuire in 1916; Cuban revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara in 1928; actress Marla Gibbs in 1931 (age 76); real estate mogul Donald Trump, in 1946 (age 61); Olympic gold medal speed skater Eric Heiden in 1958 (age 49); singer Boy George (George O'Dowd) in 1961 (age 46); actress Yasmine Bleeth ("Baywatch") in 1968 (age 39); and tennis star Steffi Graf in 1969 (age 38).


On this date in history:

In 1623, the first breach of promise suit was filed in the United States. The Rev. Greville Pooley sued Cicely Jordan in Charles City, Va., for jilting him for another man.

In 1775, the Continental Congress established the army as the first U.S. military service.

In 1777, the Star and Stripes became the national U.S. flag.

In 1919, Capt. John Alcock and Lt. Arthur Brown flew a Vickers Vimy bomber 1,900 miles non-stop from St. Johns, Newfoundland, Canada, to Clifden, Ireland, for the first non-stop trans-Atlantic flight.

In 1922, Warren G. Harding became the first U.S. president to broadcast a message over the radio. The occasion was the dedication of the Francis Scott Key Memorial in Baltimore.

In 1951, Univac I, the world's first commercial computer, designed for the U.S. Census Bureau, was unveiled.

In 1985, Shiite Moslem gunmen commandeered TWA Flight 847 carrying 153 passengers and crew from Athens to Rome. The ordeal ended 17 days later in Beirut, where one of the hostages, a U.S. sailor, was killed.

In 1990, flash floods around Shadyside, Ohio, killed at least 26 people and damaged or destroyed more than 800 homes in four eastern Ohio counties.

In 1991, NATO and five Eastern European nations approved a compromise, ending a dispute over a U.S.-Soviet treaty limiting conventional armies in Europe.

In 1993, U.S. President Bill Clinton nominated federal Judge Ruth Bader Ginsberg for a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. She succeeded Justice Byron White.

In 1998, the Chicago Bulls won their sixth NBA title in eight years and third in a row, defeating the Utah Jazz in the championship round for the second year in a row.

In 1999, the South African National Assembly elected Thabo Mbeki as president, succeeding the retiring Nelson Mandela. Mbeki had served as deputy president under Mandela.

In 2000, officials of North and South Korea announced an agreement to work for peace and unity and also said they agreed to allow exchange visits by divided families.

In 2002, U.S. Roman Catholic Church leaders adopted new rules for all dioceses calling for removal from active duty of any priest found to have abused a minor and the reporting of accusations to civil authorities.

In 2003, a part of central Tehran, Iran, turned into a combat zone with battles between riot police and those denouncing Iran's Islamic government.

Also in 2003, the Czech Republic voted overwhelmingly to join the European Union.

In 2004, flights out of the Saudi capital of Riyadh were reported all full as non-Arabic westerners, including U.S. defense contractors, fled increasing attacks by terrorists.

Also in 2004, Iraq's main oil export terminal was temporarily closed by three days of pipeline bombing.

In 2005, two explosions killed at least 29 people and injured dozens of others in Iraq.

Also in 2005, a majority of the U.S. Senate apologized in a resolution for taking so long to enact anti-lynching laws. Failure to act, the measure said, contributed to the deaths of 4,700 people from 1882 to 1968, most of them black men.

In 2006, as daily acts of violence continued to pound Iraq, insurgents gunned down an Iraqi newspaper editor they had warned not to publish alleged pro-U.S. coalition copy.


A thought for the day: Walt Whitman wrote, "If anything is sacred the human body is sacred."

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Today is Friday, June 15, the 166th day of 2007 with 199 to follow.

The moon is new. The morning stars are Mars, Neptune and Uranus. The evening stars are Jupiter, Mercury, Venus and Saturn.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Gemini. They include (Arlene 22-ts4ms); (ReadyToGo-ts4ms); Prince Edward of England, son of Edward III and known as the "Black Prince," in 1330; Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg in 1843; orchestra leader David Rose in 1910; artist Saul Steinberg in 1914; pianist Erroll Garner in 1921; U.S. Rep. Morris Udall, D-Ariz., in 1922; former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo in 1932 (age 75; country singer Waylon Jennings in 1937; singer/songwriter Harry Nilsson in 1941; and actors Jim Varney in 1949, Jim Belushi in 1954 (age 53), Julie Hagerty ("Airplane!") in 1955 (age 52), Helen Hunt in 1963 (age 44), Courtney Cox Arquette ("Friends") in 1964 (age 43) and Neil Patrick Harris ("Doogie Howser, M.D.") in 1973 (age 34).




On this date in history:

In 1215, under pressure from rebellious barons, England's King John signed the Magna Carta, a crucial first step toward creating Britain's constitutional monarchy.

In 1752, Benjamin Franklin, in a dangerous experiment, demonstrated the relationship between lightning and electricity by flying a kite during a storm in Philadelphia. An iron key suspended from the string attracted a lightning bolt.

In 1785, two Frenchmen attempting to cross the English Channel in a hot-air balloon were killed when their balloon caught fire and crashed. It was the first fatal aviation accident.

In 1846, the U.S.-Canadian border was established.

In 1877, Henry Ossian Flipper, born a slave in Thomasville, Ga., became the first African-American cadet to graduate from West Point.

In 1904, the excursion steamboat "General Slocum" caught fire on the East River in New York, killing 1,121 people.

In 1944, U.S. forces invaded the Japanese-occupied Mariana Islands. By days end, a beachhead had been established on the island of Saipan.

In 1963, Soviet cosmonaut Valery Bykovsky was launched on a space mission, during which he orbited the earth 81 times.

In 1987, Richard Norton of Philadelphia and Calin Rosetti of West Germany completed the first polar circumnavigation of the Earth in a single-engine propeller aircraft, landing in Paris after a 38,000-mile flight.

In 1992, more than 1,000 people were arrested and 95 police officers injured in the sporadic violence, looting and arson that erupted after the Chicago Bulls won a second straight NBA championship.

In 1996, 206 people were injured when a bomb exploded in a mall in Manchester, England.

In 1997, U.S. President Bill Clinton said he might support a formal apology to blacks for slavery.

In 1998, Nigeria's new military ruler ordered the release of some of the political prisoners jailed under the previous regime.

In 1999, South Korean ships sank a North Korean torpedo boat, killing all aboard. The incident followed a series of confrontations in disputed territorial waters.

In 2002, Arthur Andersen, one of the nation's top accounting firms, was convicted of obstruction of justice by a federal jury in connection with the Enron investigation.

Also in 2002, as wildfires plagued several Western states, a Forest Service veteran admitted accidentally starting the biggest Colorado fire, which by then had consumed 100,000 acres, while burning a letter from her estranged husband.

In 2003, U.S. troops, tanks, planes and helicopters staged a series of raids on Fallujah and other Iraqi cities to quell resistance.

In 2004, a U.S. Army general suspended after prisoner abuse was revealed at a Baghdad prison said she was ordered to treat prisoners like dogs. Brig Gen. Janis Karpinski said she was being made a scapegoat for the scandal.

In 2005, the trial of a man accused of organizing the abduction and slaying of three civil rights workers in 1964 got under way in Philadelphia, Miss.

In 2006, the U.S. Senate rejected an amendment that called for withdrawal of most U.S. troops from Iraq by year's end. The vote was 93-6.

Also in 2006, at least 61 people, including 15 children, were killed when their bus hit a land mine in northern Sri Lanka.

And, Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft and the wealthiest person in the world, said he would gradually retire and, over the next few years, take a more part time role in the software giant's operations.

A thought for the day: Georg Christoph Lichtenberg said, "A book is a mirror: when a monkey looks in, no apostle can look out."

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Today is Saturday, June 16, the 167th day of 2007 with 198 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Gemini. They include(Fisch-ts4ms); film comedian Stan Laurel in 1890; publisher Katharine Graham in 1917; authors Erich Segal in 1937 (age 70) and Joyce Carol Oates in 1938 (age 69); actress Joan Van Ark in 1943 (age 64); boxer Roberto Duran in 1951 (age 56); and actress Laurie Metcalf ("Roseanne") in 1955 (age 52).



On this date in history:

In 1883, the New York Giants had the first Ladies' Day baseball game.

In 1917, the first Congress of Soviets was convened in Russia.

In 1958, the leader of the unsuccessful Hungarian uprising against Soviet rule, former Premier Imre Nagy, was executed.

In 1977, Leonid Ilich Brezhnev, first secretary of the Soviet Communist Party since 1964, was elected president of the Supreme Soviet, thereby becoming both head of party and head of state.

In 1963, the Soviet Union put the first woman into space, cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova.

In 1986, South African blacks marked the 10th anniversary of the Soweto uprising with a one-day strike. Eleven blacks were killed in the resulting violence.

In 1987, the last dusky seaside sparrow died at Walt Disney World.

In 1992, U.S. President George H.W. Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin met at the White House for the first U.S.-Russian summit.

Also in 1992, former Defense Secretary Casper Weinberger was indicted on five felony counts of lying to Congress and investigators in connection with the Iran-Contra scandal.

In 1998, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic indicated a willingness to resume peace talks with ethnic Albanian leaders about the rebellious Serbian province of Kosovo.

In 1999, U.S. Vice President Al Gore announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination.

In 2003, the militant Palestinian group Hamas reportedly was ready to agree to a cease-fire with Israelis.

In 2004, the U.S. commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks said Iraq played no role in the attacks and the CIA knew of a plot in June.

In 2005, the U.S. Army awarded the first Silver Star for bravery in combat to a female soldier in the Iraq war, Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester, 23, of Bowling Green, Ky.

In 2006, the U.S. House of Representatives rebuffed a mostly Democratic effort to set a timetable for bringing U.S. troops home from Iraq. The Senate, which had defeated a similar amendment the day before, backed up the House action the next week.


A thought for the day: "Neither a borrower nor a lender be" comes from "Hamlet." And the line about a bank being "a place that will lend you money if you can prove that you don't need it" comes from Bob Hope.

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Today is Sunday, June 17, the 168th day of 2007. There are 197 days left in the year. This is Father's Day.

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Today's Highlight in History:

On June 17, 1775, the Revolutionary War Battle of Bunker Hill took place near Boston. The battle, which actually occurred on Breed's Hill, was a costly victory for the British, who suffered heavy losses while dislodging the rebels.

On this date:

In 1856, the Republican Party opened its first nominating convention in Philadelphia, during which it chose John Charles Fremont to be its presidential candidate (Fremont ended up losing to James Buchanan).

In 1885, the Statue of Liberty arrived in New York Harbor aboard the French ship Isere.

In 1928, Amelia Earhart embarked on a trans-Atlantic flight from Newfoundland to Wales with pilots Wilmer Stultz and Louis Gordon, becoming the first woman to make the trip, if only as a passenger.

In 1944, the republic of Iceland was established.

In 1948, a United Air Lines DC-6 crashed near Mount Carmel, Pa., killing all 43 people on board.

In 1957, mob underboss Frank Scalice was shot to death at a produce market in the Bronx, N.Y.

In 1961, Soviet ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev defected to the West while his troupe was in Paris.

In 1963, the Supreme Court, in Abington School District v. Schempp, struck down rules requiring the recitation of the Lord's Prayer or reading of Biblical verses in public schools.

In 1972, President Nixon's eventual downfall began with the arrest of five burglars inside Democratic national headquarters in Washington's Watergate complex.

In 1987, Charles Glass, a journalist on leave from ABC News, was kidnapped in Lebanon. (Glass escaped his captors in August 1987.)

Ten years ago: Mir Aimal Kasi, the suspect in the shooting deaths of two CIA employees outside agency headquarters in January 1993, was brought to Fairfax, Va., to face trial after being arrested in Pakistan. (He was later convicted and sentenced to death.)

Five years ago: A judge in San Francisco tossed out the second-degree murder conviction of Marjorie Knoller for the dog-mauling death of neighbor Diane Whipple, but let stand Knoller's conviction for involuntary manslaughter. (However, the California Supreme Court has left open the possibility the murder conviction could be reinstated.) The U.S. Supreme Court struck down an Ohio village's law that required door-to-door solicitors to register with authorities and carry a permit.

One year ago: Officials in Chechnya reported police had killed rebel leader Abdul-Khalim Sadulayev by acting on a tip from within his network.

Today's Birthdays (bslag-ts4ms); (chemteach-ts4ms); Actor Peter Lupus is 75. Singer Barry Manilow is 61. Comedian Joe Piscopo is 56. Actor Mark Linn-Baker is 53. Musician Philip Chevron (The Pogues) is 50. Actor Jon Gries is 50. Movie producer-director-writer Bobby Farrelly is 49. Actor Thomas Haden Church is 46. Actor Greg Kinnear is 44. Olympic gold-medal speed skater Dan Jansen is 42. Actor Jason Patric is 41. Rhythm-and-blues singer Kevin Thornton is 38. Tennis player Venus Williams is 27. Actor-rapper Herculeez (Herculeez and Big Tyme) is 22. Actor Damani Roberts is 11.





Thought for Today: "The theological problem today is to find the art of drawing religion out of a man, not pumping it into him." — Rev. Karl Rahner, Austrian theologian (1904-1984).

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Today is Monday, June 18, the 169th day of 2007 with 196 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Gemini. They include(Hostelling-TS4MS);( mihusker-TS4MS); Cyrus Curtis, founder and publisher of the Ladies' Home Journal, in 1850; journalist and publisher Edward Scripps in 1854; legendary Tin Pan Alley composer Sammy Cahn and financial journalist Sylvia Porter, both in 1913; singer/composer Paul McCartney and film critic Roger Ebert, both in 1942 (age 65); and actresses Carol Kane and Isabella Rossellini, both in 1952 (age 55).




On this date in history:

In 1812, the United States declared war on Britain.

In 1815, England's Duke of Wellington and Prussian Field Marshal Gebhard von Blucher defeated Napoleon at Waterloo in Belgium.

In 1975, Saudi Arabian Prince Museid was publicly beheaded in Riyadh for the assassination of King Faisal.

In 1979, U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev signed a strategic arms control treaty in Vienna, Austria.

In 1983, Sally Ride became the first American woman in space as the space shuttle Challenger was launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla.

In 1990, James Edward Pough, 42, whose car had been repossessed, killed eight people and wounded five more before committing suicide at a General Motors Acceptance Corp. loan office in Jacksonville, Fla. He was believed to have killed two others a day earlier.

In 1993, eight U.S. military officers arrived in the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia to help plan the deployment of a U.N. force that would seek to prevent the Bosnia conflict from spreading.

In 1994, the Gay Games, an Olympic-style competition, opened in New York.

In 1996, the U.S. Senate issued its Whitewater reports. The Republican report accused first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton of obstruction of justice

Also in 1996, Unabomber suspect Theodore Kaczynski was charged with two killings in California; he pleaded innocent. Charges from New Jersey would come later.

In 1997, Turkish Premier Necmettin Erbakan resigned under pressure after his governing coalition lost its majority in Parliament.

In 2000, Ethiopia and Eritrea signed a cease-fire, ending their monthlong war.

In 2002, a suicide bomber killed himself and 19 others when he detonated explosives aboard a bus in Jerusalem.

In 2003, two nights of rioting left the Lake Michigan community of Benton Harbor, Mich., covered with smoldering ruins and broken glass in the aftermath of a deadly police motorcycle chase.

Also in 2003, Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas O'Brien resigned as head of the Phoenix diocese two days after being charged with leaving the scene of an accident in which his car struck and killed a pedestrian

In 2004, U.S. hostage Paul Johnson Jr., 49, was killed by his Saudi captors despite pleas from senior Muslim clerics.

In 2005, investigators reported the leak of tens of millions of MasterCard credit card numbers belonging to U.S. consumers, posing a high risk of fraud.

In 2006, North Korea appeared poised to test-fire a missile after reports that satellite imagery showed fueling had been completed. The pending test drew sharp criticism from the United States and others.

Also in 2006, some 800 U.S. National Guard troops began working along the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border as part of a federal plan to slow illegal immigration.


A thought for the day: Jose Ortega defined civilization as "nothing else than the attempt to reduce force to being the last resort."