The Almanac

Today is Sunday, Feb. 9, the 40th day of 2003 with 325 to follow.

The moon is waxing.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Aquarius. They include William Henry Harrison, ninth president of the United States, in 1773; former Secretary of State Dean Rusk in 1909; exotic dancer Gypsy Rose Lee in 1914; Irish playwright Brendan Behan in 1923; actress Kathryn Grayson in 1923 (age 80); television journalist Roger Mudd in 1928 (age 75); singer Carole King in 1942 (age 61); author Alice Walker in 1944 (age 59); actors Joe Pesci in 1943 (age 60), Mia Farrow in 1945 (age 58), Judith Light in 1950 (age 53) and Charles Shaughnessy ("The Nanny") in 1955 (age 48); and country singer Travis Tritt in 1963 (age 40).

On this date in history:

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In 1825, after no presidential candidate won the necessary majority, the House of Representatives elected John Quincy Adams the sixth president of the United States.

In 1900, the solid silver trophy known today as the Davis Cup was first put up for competition when American collegian Dwight Filley Davis challenged British tennis players to come across the Atlantic and compete against his Harvard team.

In 1943, in a major World War II strategic victory, the Allies retook Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands from the Japanese.

In 1950, Sen. Joseph McCarthy, R-Wis., charged the U.S. State Department was infested with communists.

In 1971, an earthquake shook Los Angeles and killed 64 people.

In 1984, Soviet President Yuri Andropov, in power only 15 months, died at age 69.

In 1987, former Reagan administration national security adviser Robert McFarlane was hospitalized for an overdose of Valium just hours before he was to testify to a presidential commission about the Iran-Contra scandal.

In 1990, U.S. stock of Perrier water was recalled because of levels of benzene in violation of EPA standards. The recall was later extended worldwide.

In 1991, Lithuanians overwhelmingly voted to secede from the Soviet Union in an independence plebecite ruled illegal by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

In 1992, 30 people were reported killed in Senegal in the crash of a plane chartered by Air Senegal for Club Mediterranean.

In 1993, U.S. authorities announced they were seeking a Pakistani national in the previous month's shooting spree outside the CIA headquarters that killed two employees and wounded three other people.

Also in 1993, violence erupted following the Dallas Cowboys' Super Bowl victory parade. 14 people were arrested.

In 1994, in Cairo, PLO chief Yasser Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres initialed an agreement that resolved some contentious issues in the Middle East peace talks.

In 1996, a bomb exploded in a London rail station, killing two and wounding 100. The IRA announced that the Northern Ireland ceasefire was over.

In 2001, nine people were killed when the American submarine USS Greenville collided with a Japanese fishing boat off the coast of Hawaii. The accident took place during a surfacing drill.

A thought for the day: President Lyndon B. Johnson said, "Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose."