Today is Wednesday, Aug. 19, the 231st day of 2015 with 134 to follow.
The moon is waxning. Morning stars are Mars, Neptune, Uranus and Venus. Evening stars are Jupiter, Mercury and Saturn.
Those born on this date are under the sign of Leo. They include English poet John Dryden in 1631; clockmaker Seth Thomas in 1785; statesman Bernard Baruch in 1870; aviation pioneer Orville Wright in 1871; French fashion designer Coco Chanel in 1883; actor Alfred Lunt in 1892; humorist Ogden Nash in 1902; pioneer television engineer Philo Farnsworth in 1906; singing Mills Brother Harry Mills in 1913; writer Ring Lardner Jr. in 1915; publisher Malcolm Forbes in 1919; “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry in 1921; writer Frank McCourt in 1930; jockey Willie Shoemaker in 1931; actor Diana Muldaur in 1938 (age 77); actor Jill St. John in 1940 (age 75); drummer Ginger Baker (Cream) in 1939 (age 76); singer Johnny Nash in 1940 (age 75); Bill Clinton, 42nd president of the United States, in 1946 (age 69); political commentator Mary Matalin in 1953 (age 62); actor Gerald McRaney in 1947 (age 68); actor Jonathan Frakes in 1952 (age 63); actor Peter Gallagher in 1955 (age 60); actor Adam Arkin in 1956 (age 59); actor John Stamos in 1963 (age 52); actor Kyra Sedgwick in 1965 (age 50); actor Matthew Perry in 1969 (age 46).
On this date in history:
In 1812, the U.S. Navy frigate Constitution defeated the British ship Guerriere in a furious engagement off the coast of Nova Scotia and earned its nickname of “Old Ironsides.” Witnesses said British shots seemed to bounce off the Constitution.
In 1960, U-2 spy plane pilot Francis Gary Powers was convicted in a Moscow court and sentenced to 10 years in prison. (He was released 18 months later and exchanged for Soviet spy Rudolf Abel.)
In 1977, Julius “Groucho” Marx, leader of the Marx Brothers comedy troupe, died at the age of 87.
In 1987, gun enthusiast Michael Ryan went on a shooting rampage in Hungerford, England, killing 16 people.
In 1992, delegates to the Republican National Convention nominated President George H.W. Bush and Vice President Dan Quayle for re-election. (They were defeated in November by Democrats Bill Clinton and Al Gore.)
In 1995, three U.S. negotiators, including Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Robert Frasure, were killed when their vehicle plunged from a mountain road near Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina
In 1996, the Green Party nominated Ralph Nader as its presidential candidate.
In 2003, a suicide bomber exploded a device aboard a Jerusalem bus, killing and injuring more than 100 people.
In 2008, the resignation of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf was followed by insurgent bombing attacks that killed about 100 people.
In 2009, two massive bomb attacks killed at least 95 people and wounded more than 600 others in Baghdad. It was said to be the worst attack in the region since the U.S. military gave control of the country’s security back to the Iraqi government.
In 2012, Todd Akin, Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in Missouri, was quoted as saying pregnancy is “really rare” in rape cases and if “it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.” (Akin lost in by a wide martin in the general election.)
in 2013, an express train killed at least 37 people and injured many others crossing tracks at a remote transit station in the eastern India state of Bihar. After the accident, an angry mob severely beat the operator of the train, authorities said.
In 2014, police in St. Louis said officers shot and killed a knife-wielding 22-year-old African-American man, increasing tension in an area already rocked by violence following the police shooting of black teenager Michael Brown in suburban Ferguson 10 days earlier.
A thought for the day: “The older I get the better I used to be.” — golfer Lee Trevino
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