The Almanac

Today is Monday, Nov. 5, the 309th day of 2001 with 56 to follow.

The moon is waning, moving toward its last quarter.

The morning stars are Venus, Jupiter and Saturn.

The evening stars are Mercury and Mars.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Scorpio. They include Socialist presidential candidate Eugene V. Debs in 1855; historians Ida Tarbell in 1857 and Will Durant in 1885; inventor and industrialist Raymond Loewy, the "father of streamlining," in 1893; actor Joel McCrea in 1905; singer/actor Roy Rogers in 1912; musicians Ike Turner in 1931 (age 70) and Art Garfunkel in 1941 (age 60); actresses Vivien Leigh in 1913, Elke Sommer in 1941 (age 60) and Tatum O'Neal in 1963 (age 38); dramatist/actor Sam Shepard in 1943 (age 58); and pop singer/songwriter Bryan Adams in 1959 (age 42).

On this date in history:

In 1605, Guy Fawkes and fellow conspirators failed in their plot to blow up the English Parliament. They were beheaded.

In 1733, German-born publisher John Peter Zenger began printing The New York Weekly Journal in opposition to the British colonial administration.

In 1854, combined British-French forces scored a decisive victory over the Russians in the Crimea.

In 1930, the first commercial television broadcast was aired.

In 1940, President Roosevelt was re-elected to an unprecedented third term.

In 1990, an Egyptian-born gunman, apparently acting alone, assassinated Meir Kahane, the U.S. native who founded the militant Jewish Defense League and was thrown out of Israel's parliament for his racist anti-Arab views.

Also in 1990, the U.S. Supreme Court let stand an order requiring the U.S. Army to permit homosexuals to re-enlist.

In 1991, the body of British media mogul Robert Maxwell was found floating in the Atlantic Ocean off the Canary Islands.

Also in 1991, Kiichi Miyazawa was formally appointed premier of Japan, succeeding Toshiki Kaifu.

In 1992, former U.S. world chess champion Bobby Fischer triumphed in his $5 million rematch against Russian arch-rival Boris Spassky. The match in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, was staged in defiance of U.N. sanctions against the Yugoslav federation.

In 1996, President Clinton was re-elected.

A thought for the day: inventor and industrialist Raymond Loewy said, "Between two products equal in price, function and quality, the better looking will outsell the other."