The Almanac

Today is Monday, Jan. 14, the 14th day of 2002 with 351 to follow.

The moon is waxing, moving toward its first quarter.

There are no morning stars.

The evening stars are Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Capricorn. They include American general and turncoat Benedict Arnold in 1741; Thornton Waldo Burgess, author of "Peter Rabbit," in 1874; philosopher and medical missionary Albert Schweitzer in 1875; silent comedy film director Hal Roach in 1892; novelist John dos Passos in 1896; "60 Minutes" commentator Andy Rooney in 1919 (age 83); actor Guy Williams ("Lost In Space") in 1924; singer Jack Jones in 1938 (age 64); actress Faye Dunaway in 1941 (age 61); astronaut Shannon Lucid in 1943 (age 59); evangelist-turned-actor-and-singer Marjoe Gortner in 1945 (age 57); actor Carl Weathers in 1948 (age 54); filmmaker Lawrence Kasdan in 1949 (age 53); and actor Jason Bateman in 1969 (age 33).

On this date in history:

In 1794, Dr. Jesse Bennett of Edom, Va., performed the first successful Caesarean section.

In 1914, Henry Ford introduced the assembly line method of manufacturing cars, allowing completion of one Model-T Ford every 90 minutes.

In 1943, President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill opened a 10-day World War II strategy conference in Casablanca, Morocco.

In 1952, NBC's "Today," the program that started the morning news show format as we know it, premiered.

In 1969, a series of explosions aboard the nuclear aircraft carrier USS Enterprise off Hawaii killed 10 men.

In 1985, the British pound sank to a record low, $1.11, and the Bank of England raised interest rates to halt the decline.

In 1991, two PLO leaders and a third man were killed in Tunis. Al Fatah, the PLO's main-line faction, blamed a dissident group for the assassinations.

In 1993, David Letterman accepted a multimillion-dollar deal to move his late night talk show to CBS in August after his NBC contract expires.

In 1994, the man believed to have carried out the attack on skater Nancy Kerrigan surrendered in Phoenix, Az.

In 2000, thousands of Cubans marched in Havana to demand that 6-year-old refugee Elian Gonzalez be returned to his father in Cuba. The boy's mother had drowned as they tried to enter the United States; the child was turned over to a great-uncle in Miami.

A thought for the day: "Truth," the philosopher Schopenhauer said, "is the reference of a judgment to something outside that stands as its ground."