Today is Monday, Nov. 24, the 329th day of 2008 with 37 to follow.
The moon is waning. The morning stars are Saturn and Mercury. The evening stars are Mars, Venus, Neptune, Jupiter and Uranus.
Those born on this date are under the sign of Sagittarius. They include Dutch philosopher Baruch Benedict de Spinoza in 1632; British novelist and clergyman Laurence Sterne in 1713; Zachary Taylor, 12th president of the United States, in 1784; gambler, frontier lawman and sports writer William "Bat" Masterson in 1853; painter Henri Toulouse-Lautrec in 1864; ragtime composer Scott Joplin in 1868; lecturer and author Dale Carnegie in 1888; pianist Teddy Wilson in 1912; actress Geraldine Fitzgerald in 1913; columnist William F. Buckley, in 1925; and actors Dwight Schultz in 1947 (age 61) and Stanley Livingston in 1950 (age 58).
On this date in history:
In 1863, Union Gen. U.S. Grant launched the U.S. Civil War battle of Chattanooga in Tennessee.
In 1869, women from 21 states met in Cleveland to organize the American Women Suffrage Association.
In 1874, Joseph Glidden received a patent for barbed wire, which made the farming of the Great Plains possible.
In 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald, accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy, was fatally shot by nightclub owner Jack Ruby in a Dallas jail building two days after Kennedy was slain.
In 1971, a passenger ticketed as "D.B. Cooper" hijacked a Northwest Airlines flight from Portland, Ore., to Seattle, and parachuted south of Seattle with a $200,000 ransom collected from the airline. He reportedly was never heard from again.
In 1985, Arab commandos forced an Egypt Air jetliner to Malta and began shooting passengers, fatally wounding two. Fifty-seven other people died when Egyptian commandos stormed the jet.
In 1989, Czech reform politician Alexander Dubcek made his first public appearance in Prague since the Soviet invasion of 1968.
In 1993, the Brady bill handgun-control legislation cleared Congress. U.S. President Bill Clinton signed it into law on Nov. 30, 1993.
In 1995, Irish voters passed a referendum removing the constitutional ban on divorce.
In 2002, suspected Islamic terrorists stormed a famous Hindu temple in Kashmir, India, killing seven people and wounding 30 others.
In 2003, Hall of Fame pitcher Warren Spahn, the winningest left-hander in major league baseball history, died at the age of 82.
In 2004, Brazilian energy officials said the South American country will begin enriching uranium with the full consent of the United Nations.
In 2005, a suicide car bomber struck at an Iraqi hospital where U.S. soldiers were giving away toys, killing at least 31 people, mostly women and children. Nearly two dozen others died in further violence during the day in Iraq.
In 2006, a car bomb killed at least 22 people in Talafar, Iraq, running the death toll in a 24-hour rash of Baghdad bombings to 202.
In 2007, a brigade of 5,000 U.S. troops left Diyala Province, considered the first significant pullback of American troops from Iraq, the U.S. military said.
Also in 2007, Kevin Rudd took over as Australian prime minister, defeating John Howard who was seeking a fifth term after 11 years in office.
A thought for the day: Dutch philosopher Baruch Benedict de Spinoza said, "Peace is not an absence of war. It is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice."
Today is Tuesday, Nov. 25, the 330th day of 2008 with 36 to follow.
The moon is waning. The morning stars are Saturn and Mercury. The evening stars are Mars, Venus, Neptune, Jupiter and Uranus.
Those born on this date are under the sign of Sagittarius. They include industrialist Andrew Carnegie in 1835; pioneer German automobile designer Karl Benz in 1844; social reformer Carry Nation in 1846; Pope John XXIII in 1881; New York Yankees slugger Joe DiMaggio in 1914; actors Ricardo Montalban in 1920 (age 88); Kathryn Crosby in 1933 (age 75) and John Larroquette in 1947 (age 61); John F. Kennedy Jr. in 1960; singer Amy Grant, also in 1960 (age 48); and actresses Jill Hennessy in 1969 (age 39) and Christina Applegate in 1971 (age 37).
On this date in history:
In 1783, more than 6,000 British troops evacuated New York City after signing the peace treaty ending the Revolutionary War.
In 1947, film industry executives announced that 10 directors, producers and actors who refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee would be fired or suspended.
In 1952, Agatha Christie's "The Mousetrap," listed by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's longest running play, opened in London.
In 1963, U.S. President John F. Kennedy, assassinated in Dallas three days earlier, was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
In 1970, world-renowned Japanese writer Yukio Mishima committed suicide after failing to win public support for his often extreme political beliefs.
In 1973, U.S. President Richard Nixon ordered the national highway speed limit cut from 70 mph to 55 mph to save lives and gasoline.
In 1986, U.S. President Ronald Reagan announced the resignation of national security adviser John Poindexter and the firing of Poindexter aide Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North in the aftermath of the secret, illegal Iran arms sale.
In 1987, Chicago's first black mayor, Harold Washington, died in office of a heart attack at age 65.
In 1992, the Czechoslovakian Parliament voted to dissolve the country at the end of the year into separate Czech and Slovak states.
In 1997, Ron Carey, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, resigned amid questions about his management of union funds.
In 2001, hundreds of U.S. Marines arrived in Afghanistan near the southern city of Kandahar in the first major entry of U.S. ground troops in that country in the war on terrorism.
Meanwhile, around 400 Taliban captives revolted at a prison near Mazar-c Sharif, overpowered their guards and put up a fierce battle. U.S. planes were called in to bomb the prison.
Also in 2001, a Massachusetts biotechnology company announced it created the first human embryos by cloning. U.S. President George W. Bush said later he considered the work on human cloning to be immoral.
In 2002, warrants were issued in Los Angeles for the arrest of two former Roman Catholic priests on molestation charges, some dating to the 1950s.
In 2003, a report by the United Nations and the World Health Organization said the infection and death rates of HIV/AIDS reached an all-time high.
In 2004, nine people, including three federal agents, were found dead at two locations near Mexico's resort town of Cancun, all believed slain by drug traffickers.
In 2006, citing a classified U.S. government report, The New York Times said the insurgency in Iraq was self-sustaining financially, raising up to $200 million a year from various sources.
In 2007, thousands were evacuated as a wildfire scorched nearly 5,000 acres and destroyed 49 homes in tinder-dry canyons in Malibu, Calif. It was Malibu's most destructive in 15 years at the time.
Also in 2007, a caretaker government ruled Lebanon after parliament, for a fourth time, postponed a vote on a successor to President Emile Lahoud, whose term expired.
A thought for the day: Andrew Carnegie wrote, "Surplus wealth is a sacred trust which its possessor is bound to administer in his lifetime for the good of the community. The man who dies rich dies disgraced."
Today is Wednesday, Nov. 26, the 331st day of 2008 with 35 to follow.
The moon is waning. The morning star is Saturn. The evening stars are Mars, Mercury, Venus, Neptune, Jupiter and Uranus.
Those born on this date are under the sign of Sagittarius. They include English poet William Cowper in 1731; air conditioning engineer Willis Carrier in 1876; surgeon and women's rights leader Mary Walker Edwards in 1832; French playwright Eugene Ionesco in 1909; TV journalist Eric Sevareid in 1912; cartoonist Charles Schulz ("Peanuts") in 1922; singer Robert Goulet in 1933; impressionist Rich Little in 1938 (age 70); and singer Tina Turner in 1939 (age 69).
On this date in history:
In 1789, U.S. President George Washington declared Nov. 26, 1789, to be Thanksgiving Day. It was the first U.S. holiday by presidential proclamation.
In 1832, the first streetcar railway in America started public service in New York City from City Hall to 14th Street. The car was pulled by a horse and the fare was 12 1/2 cents.
In 1922, In Egypt's Valley of the Kings, British archaeologists Howard Carter and George Carnarvon became the first humans to enter King Tutankhamen's treasure-laden tomb in more than 3,000 years.
In 1940, German Nazis forced 500,000 Jews in Warsaw to live in a ghetto surrounded by an 8-foot concrete wall.
In 1941, U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull submitted U.S.
