The moon is waxing, moving toward its full phase.

The morning star is Jupiter.

The evening stars are Mars and Saturn.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Capricorn. They include Madame de Pompadour, mistress of French King Louis XV, in 1721; Scottish chemist Charles Macintosh, who patented a waterproof fabric, in 1766; industrialist Charles Goodyear in 1800; Andrew Johnson, 17th president of the United States, in 1808; British statesman William Gladstone, in 1809; Spanish cellist Pablo Casals in 1876; World War I aviation hero Gen. Billy Mitchell in 1879; former Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley in 1917; actors Ed Flanders ("St. Elsewhere") in 1934, Mary Tyler Moore in 1937 (age 64) and Jon Voight in 1938 (age 63); singer Marianne Faithfull in 1946 (age 55); actors Ted Danson in 1947 (age 54) and Jon Polito ("Homicide: Life on the Street") in 1950 (age 51); and comedian Paula Poundstone in 1959 (age 42).

On this date in history:

In 1170, Anglican churchman/politician Thomas a' Becket was murdered at Canterbury Cathedral in England.

In 1848, gaslights were installed at the White House for the first time.

In 1851, the first Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) chapter opened in Boston.

In 1890, more than 200 Indian men, women and children were massacred by the U.S. 7th Cavalry at Wounded Knee Creek, S.D.

In 1916, the Russian mystic Rasputin, an influential favorite of the Romanov court, was shot and killed after a failed attempt to poison him.

In 1975, a terrorist bomb exploded at LaGuardia Airport in New York City, killing 11 people and injuring 75.

In 1983, the United States announced its withdrawal from UNESCO, charging the U.N. cultural and scientific organization was biased against Western nations.

In 1989, playwright Vaclav Havel was sworn in as the first non-communist president of Czechoslovakia since 1948.

In 1992, a Cuban airliner was hijacked to Miami as part of a mass defection. 48 of the 53 people aboard sought and were granted political asylum.

Also in 1992, convicted "Scarsdale Diet Doctor" killer Jean Harris was granted clemency just minutes before undergoing open-heart surgery.

And in 1992, a suburban Chicago couple returning from a nine-day Mexican vacation was arrested for leaving their young daughters home alone. The couple would later give the children up for adoption.

A thought for the day: poet Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it."