Today is Thursday, June 7, the 158th day of 2018 with 207 to follow.
The moon is waning. Morning stars are Jupiter, Mars, Neptune, Saturn and Uranus. Evening stars are Jupiter, Mars, Saturn and Venus.
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; 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 78); Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 1942; former talk-show host Jenny Jones in 1946 (age 72); actor Liam Neeson in 1952 (age 66); singer/songwriter Prince in 1958; U.S. Vice President Mike Pence in 1959 (age 59); guitarist Dave Navarro (Jane’s Addiction, Red Hot Chili Peppers) in 1967 (age 51); TV personality Michael “Bear” Grylls in 1974 (age 44); former pro tennis player Anna Kournikova in 1981 (age 37) actor Michael Cera in 1988 (age 30); rapper Iggy Azalea, born Amethyst Amelia Kelly, in 1990 (age 28); actor/model Emily Ratajkowski in 1991 (age 27); rapper Fetty Wap, born Willie Maxwell II, in 1991 (age 27).
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 at the age of 91.
In 1998, three white supremacists killed James Byrd Jr. by dragging him for 3 miles behind a pickup truck in Jasper, Texas. The three men were convicted of murder — one was executed in 2011, another is on death row and a third was sentenced to life in prison. The lynching spurred a Texas hate crime law as well as the federal Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act.
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-Syrian parties outpolled the militant Hezbollah faction to retain a parliamentary majority in Lebanon.
In 2013, an arsonist set fire to a bus in Xiamen, China, killing 42 people and injuring 30 others.
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 2017, a dozen people died in coordinated attacks at Iran’s Parliament and the tomb of Ayatollah Khomeini. The Islamic State claimed responsibility.
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
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