The Almanac

Today is Friday, Aug. 8, the 220th day of 2003 with 145 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Leo. They include the United States' first professional architect, Charles Bullfinch, in 1763; American black explorer Matthew Henson in 1866; Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata in 1879; poet Sara Teasdale in 1884; author Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings ("The Yearling") in 1896; composer/conductor Victor Young in1900; musician Benny Carter in 1907; former Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg in 1908; actress Sylvia Sidney in 1910; movie producer Dino DeLaurentis in 1919 (age 84); actor Rory Calhoun in 1922; actress Esther Williams in 1923 (age 80); actor Carl Switzer (Alfalfa in the Our Gang series) in 1927; country singer Mel Tillis in 1932 (age 71); actor Dustin Hoffman in 1937 (age 66); singer Connie Stevens in 1938 (age 65); Mary Elizabeth "Tipper" Gore, wife of former Vice President Al Gore, in 1948 (age 55); actor Keith Carradine in 1949 (age 54); journalist Randy Shilts in 1951 (age 52); TV personality Deborah Norville in 1958 (age 45); and Beatrice, Princess of York, in 1988 (age 15).

On this date in history:

In 1911, the newsreel became a standard feature at American movie screenings when French film company Path‚ began releasing weekly black-and-white newspictures to theaters.

In 1940, the German Luftwaffe began a series of daylight air raids on Britain.

In 1945, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan, two days after the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and seven days before Tokyo surrendered.

In 1968, Richard Nixon won the Republican nomination for president. He was elected in November, defeating Democrat Hubert Humphrey and Independent George Wallace.

In 1974, facing expected impeachment over the Watergate scandal, Richard Nixon became the first U.S. president to announce his resignation. He left office the next day.

In 1988, the Duchess of York, the former Sarah Ferguson, wife of Britain's Prince Andrew, gave birth to their first child, a girl they named Beatrice.

In 1990, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein annexed Kuwait.

In 1991, the U.N. Security Council unanimously approved membership applications from North and South Korea.

Also in 1991, British TV journalist John McCarthy was freed in Lebanon by the Islamic Jihad, a Shiite Moslem faction, after being held since 1986.

In 1992, eight people were injured when more than 10,000 fans rioted inside a stadium in Montreal after Guns N' Roses canceled its concert in mid-show. It was the second riot linked to the rock group and its lead singer, Axl Rose.

In 1995, the regime of Iraq's Saddam Hussein was shaken when his two eldest daughters, their husbands and other senior army officers defected.

A thought for the day: Actress Julia Roberts said, "You can be true to the character all you want but you've got to go home with yourself."