Today is Saturday, June 29, the 180th day of 2019 with 185 to follow.
The moon is waning. Morning stars are Jupiter, Neptune, Saturn, Uranus and Venus. Evening stars are Jupiter, Mars, Mercury and Saturn.
Those born on this date are under the sign of Cancer. They include William Mayo, co-founder of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., in 1861; astronomer George Ellery Hale, founder of the Yerkes and Mount Palomar observatories, in 1868; French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupery in 1900; actor/singer Nelson Eddy in 1901; Broadway songwriter Frank Loesser in 1910; actor Slim Pickens in 1919; filmmaker Ray Harryhausen in 1920; “black power” advocate Stokely Carmichael in 1941; singer Little Eva, born Eva Narcissus Boyd, in 1943; actor Gary Busey in 1944 (age 75); comedian Richard Lewis in 1947 (age 72); actor/former U.S. Rep. Fred Grandy, R-Iowa, in 1948 (age 71); actor Sharon Lawrence in 1961 (age 58); musician/actor Bret McKenzie in 1976 (age 43); singer Nicole Scherzinger in 1978 (age 41); comedian Colin Jost in 1982 (age 37); actor Lily Rabe in 1982 (age 37); actor Camila Mendes in 1994 (age 25).
On this date in history:
In 1853, the U.S. Senate ratified the $10 million Gadsden Purchase from Mexico, adding more than 29,000 square miles to the territories of Arizona and New Mexico and completing the modern geographical boundaries of the contiguous 48 states.
In 1933, Fatty Arbuckle, silent film comedian and one of Hollywood’s most beloved personalities until a manslaughter charge (he was eventually acquitted) ruined his career, died while preparing a comeback. He was 46.
In 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that capital punishment, as then administered by individual states, was unconstitutional.
In 1974, Isabel Peron took over as president of Argentina for her ailing husband, Juan Peron, who died two days later. Her official presidency began July 1, 1974.
In 1992, doctors in Pittsburgh reported the world’s first transplant of a baboon liver into a human patient. The recipient, a 35-year-old man, survived three months.
In 1995, a Seoul department store collapsed, killing some 500 people.
In 1995, the U.S. shuttle Atlantis docked with the Russian space station Mir for the first time. NASA’s chief said the docking marked “a new era of friendship and cooperation” between the two countries.
In 2003, Hollywood legend Katharine Hepburn died at the age of 96 after a six-decade career in which she won four Oscars in the Best Actress category.
In 2006, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled U.S. President George W. Bush didn’t have authority, under military law or the Geneva Conventions, to set up military tribunals for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
In 2009, Bernard Madoff, mastermind of a multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme, was sentenced to 150 years in prison. The federal judge who imposed the sentence in New York City said Madoff’s crimes were “extraordinarily evil.” Madoff apologized in the courtroom, saying, “I am responsible for a great deal of suffering and pain.”
In 2012, thousands of people at a rally in Cairo demanded that the military transfer full power to new Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, who told the crowd, “There is no power above people power.” Morsi was ousted by the military just over a year later.
In 2018, Drake released his fifth studio album titled Scorpio and used the project to confirm rumors he has fathered a son.
A thought for the day: “Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.” — Oscar Wilde