The stars are not aligned

On a day when Iraqi negotiators struggle to reach a constitutional agreement under the twin pressures of politically-driven deadlines from the US and civil war at home, the historical omens from today's Times of London anniversaries are not auspicious:

EVENTS: In 1485 Henry Tudor defeated King Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth; in 1642, when King Charles I raised his standard at Nottingham, the English Civil War is generally considered to have begun; ... in 1846 the United States annexed New Mexico;

DEATHS: King Richard III, reigned 1483-85, killed at the Battle of Bosworth, 1485 ... Michael Collins, Irish nationalist and IRA leader, killed in an ambush in Beal-na-Blath, Cork, 1922;

Also: The Soviet Union’s [1968] occupation of Prague led to violent clashes between Czechoslovak protesters and the Russian troops

On the other hand, it wasn't a bad day for laughs:

in 1960 Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Alan Bennett and Jonathan Miller opened their satirical revue Beyond the Fringe at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe; Dorothy Parker, wit, satirical poet and short-story writer, born in West End, New Jersey, 1893.