The Almanac

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Today is Sunday, April 13, the 103rd day of 2003 with 262 to follow. This is Palm Sunday.

The moon is waxing.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Aries. They include Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States, in 1743; Frank Woolworth, founder of the five-and-dime stores, in 1852; Alfred Butts, inventor of the game "Scrabble," in 1899; Irish playwright Samuel Beckett in 1906; Harold Stassen, former Minnesota governor who sought the Republican presidential nomination seven times, in 1907; author Eudora Welty in 1909; actor/singer Howard Keel in 1917 (age 86); actors Lyle Waggoner in 1935 (age 68), Paul Sorvino in 1939 (age 64) and Tony Dow (Wally on "Leave It To Beaver") in 1945 (age 58); singers Al Green in 1946 (age 57) and Peabo Bryson in 1951 (age 52); "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" bandleader Max Weinberg also in 1951 (age 52); and actors Ron Perlman ("Beauty and the Beast") in 1950 (age 53) and Rick Schroeder in 1970 (age 33).

On this date in history:

In 1964, Sidney Poitier became the first black man to win an Oscar for best actor. He was so honored for his work in "Lillies of the Field."

In 1965, Lawrence Bradford Jr., a 16-year-old from New York City, started work as the first black page ever to serve in either chamber of Congress.

In 1972, the first major league baseball strike ended, eight days after it began.

In 1984, Christopher Wilder, the FBI's "most wanted man," accidentally killed himself as police moved in to arrest him in New Hampshire. Wilder was a suspect in the deaths, rapes and disappearances of 11 young women in eight states.

In 1987, the Population Reference Bureau reported that the world's population had exceeded 5 billion.

In 1990, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev gave Lithuania a two-day ultimatum, threatening to cut off some supplies to the Baltic republic if it does not rescind laws passed since a March 11 declaration of independence.

In 1991, an advance team of U.N. observers arrived in Kuwait City to set up a peacekeeping force along the Kuwait-Iraqi border.

In 1992, construction workers breeched a retaining wall in the Chicago River, sending water flooding through a tunnel system connecting buildings in the downtown area.

Also in 1992, Princess Anne, daughter of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, began divorce proceedings after a two-year separation from Capt. Mark Phillips.

In 1994, five Israelis were killed and another 30 wounded in a suicide bombing in a bus station in Hadera.

In 1995, Rep. Robert Dornan, R-Calif., announced his candidacy for the GOP presidential nomination.

In 1997, Tiger Woods, 21, won the Masters Tournament. He was the youngest Masters champion and the first African-American to win any of the four major professional golf tournaments for men.

Also in 1997, Indian Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda resigned.

A thought for the day: "We cannot hold a torch to light another's path without brightening our own." Ben Sweetmand said that.