The Almanac

Today is Tuesday, Dec. 3, the 337th day of 2002 with 28 to follow.

The moon is waning, in its last quarter. The morning stars are Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. The evening stars are Mercury, Neptune, Uranus and Pluto.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Sagittarius. They include presidential portrait painter Gilbert Stuart in 1755; U.S. Weather Bureau meteorologist Cleveland Abbe, who initiated daily weather bulletins, in 1838; English novelist Joseph Conrad in 1857; country singer Ferlin Husky in 1927 (age 75); French film director Jean-Luc Godard and singer Andy Williams, both in 1930 (age 72); rocker Ozzy Osbourne in 1948 (age 54); former race car driver Rick Mears in 1951 (age 51); actresses Daryl Hannah and Julianna Moore, both in 1961 (age 41); Olympic figure skater Katarina Witt in 1965 (age 37); and actors Brendan Fraser in 1968 (age 34) and Brian Bonsall in 1981 (age 21).

On this date in history:

In 1833, Oberlin College in Ohio opened with an enrollment of 29 men and 15 women, the nation's first truly co-educational college.

In 1929, the Ford Motor Co. raised the pay of its employees from $5 to $7 a day despite the collapse of the American stock market.

In 1948, the first news of the Whittaker Chambers spy case disclosed that microfilm of secret American documents was found in a pumpkin on the former magazine editor's Maryland farm, allegedly for delivery to a communist power.

In 1967, Dr. Christiaan Barnard performed the first successful heart transplant at Capetown, South Africa.

In 1984, poison gas leaked at a Union Carbide pesticide factory in Bhopal, India. The world's most deadly chemical disaster was eventually blamed for 2,889 deaths.

In 1990, soldiers seized Argentina's army headquarters two days before President Bush was due to visit. The rebellion was quickly put down.

In 1991, White House Chief of Staff John Sununu resigned.

In 1992, the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to authorize a U.S.-led multinational force to Somalia.

Also in 1992, Roman Catholic officials in Boston agreed to pay compensation to 68 people who claimed they were sexually abused 25 years ago by then-priest James Porter.

In 1995, South Korean police arrested former president Chun Doo Hwan on charges of orchestrating the December 1979 military coup that brought him to power.

In 1996, two people were killed in a Paris subway explosion.

In 1997, delegates from 131 countries met in Ottawa, Canada, to sign the Convention on the Prohibition, Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines. 123 nations signed, but not the United States, Russia or China.

In 2001, responding to a new wave of Palestinian suicide bombings, Israel struck the West Bank with planes, helicopter gunships, tanks and bulldozers, firing missiles into Yasser Arafat's headquarters.

A thought for the day: poet Stella Benson said, "Call no man foe, but never love a stranger."