The Almanac

Today is Friday, Jan. 31, the 31st day of 2003 with 334 to follow.

The moon is waning.

The morning stars are Neptune, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Pluto. The evening stars are Saturn and Uranus.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Aquarius. They include Austrian composer Franz Schubert in 1797; western novelist Zane Grey in 1872; actress Tallulah Bankhead in 1903; television personality Garry Moore in 1915; Jackie Robinson, the first black to play major league baseball, in 1919; singer Mario Lanza in 1921; actress Carol Channing and novelist Norman Mailer, both in 1923 (age 80); civil rights leader Benjamin Hooks in 1925 (age 78); actresses Jean Simmons in 1929 (age 74), Suzanne Pleshette in 1937 (age 66) and Jessica Walter in 1944 (age 59); Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands in 1938 (age 65); former baseball stars r Ernie Banks in 1931 (age 72) and Nolan Ryan in 1947 (age 56); and actress Minnie Driver in 1971 (age 32).

On this date in history:

In 1929, the Soviet Union expelled communist revolutionary Leon Trotsky. He was later assassinated in Mexico.

In 1945, U.S. Army Pvt. Eddie Slovik, 24, was executed by firing squad for desertion. His was the first execution for desertion since the Civil War.

In 1950, President Truman announced he had ordered development of the hydrogen bomb.

In 1958, Explorer-1, the first successful U.S. satellite, was launched from Cape Canaveral.

In 1982, the Israeli Cabinet agreed to a multi-national peacekeeping force to act as a buffer between Israel and Egypt in the Sinai Peninsula.

In 1990, the first McDonald's opened in Moscow.

In 1991, allied troops with U.S. air support pushed Iraqi troops out of Khafji and back across the Saudi-Kuwaiti border.

In 1993, the Dallas Cowboys swept away the Buffalo Bills in the Super Bowl, 52-17.

In 1994, Gerry Adams, leader of Sinn Fein, the political branch of the Irish Republican Army, traveled to the United States.

In 1995, after Congress failed to act quickly, President Clinton used his emergency authority to provide financially troubled Mexico with a $20 billion loan.

Also in 1995, the prosecution in the double-murder trial of O.J. Simpson began presenting its case.

In 1996, a suicide bombing at Sri Lanka's main bank killed nearly 100 people and injured more than a thousand.

In 1999, a team of international scientists reported it had traced the predominant strain of the AIDS virus to a subspecies of chimpanzee that lived in parts of Africa.

In 2000, Illinois Gov. George Ryan halted all executions in his state after several death row inmates were found to be innocent of the crimes for which they were about to be put to death.

Also in 2000, the European Union warned that its members would diplomatically isolate Austria if its anti-immigrant Freedom Party, led by avowed Nazi sympathizer Jorg Haider, entered a coalition government.

In 2001, a Scottish court meeting in the Netherlands convicted a Libyan man in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. The plane exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people, including 11 on the ground.

A thought for the day: it was Dag Hammarskjold who said, "Never measure the height of a mountain until you have reached the top. Then you will see how low it was."