The Almanac

Today is Saturday, Sept. 6, the 249th day of 2003 with 116 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Leo. They include the Marquis de Lafayette, French hero of the American Revolutionary War, in 1757; pioneer social worker Jane Addams in 1860; financier-diplomat Joseph P. Kennedy in 1888; theatrical producer Billy Rose in 1899; comedienne Joanne Worley ("Laugh-In") in 1937 (age 66); actresses Swoozie Kurtz in 1944 (age 59) and Jane Curtin in 1947 (age 56); comedian Jeff Foxworthy ("You Know You're a Redneck...") in 1958 (age 45); and actors Rosie Perez in 1964 (age 39) and Justin Whalin in 1974 (age 29).

On this date in history:

In 1522, one of Ferdinand Magellan's five ships--the Vittoria--arrived at Sanlúcar de Barrameda in Spain, thus completing the first circumnavigation of the world.

In 1620, 149 Pilgrims set sail from England aboard the Mayflower, bound for the New World.

In 1901, President William McKinley was shot and critically wounded in Buffalo, N.Y. He died eight days later.

In 1909, word was received that Adm. Robert Peary had discovered the North Pole five months earlier, on April 6, 1909.

In 1966, South African Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd, an architect of his nation's apartheid policies, was stabbed to death by a deranged messenger during a parliamentary meeting in Cape Town.

In 1982, Polish dissidents seized the Polish Embassy in Bern, Switzerland, and demanded an end to martial law in Poland. They eventually surrendered.

In 1991, the Soviet State Council recognized the independence of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania after 51 years of Soviet occupation.

In 1995, the Senate Ethics Committee voted unanimously to recommend that Sen. Bob Packwood, R-Oregon, be expelled from the Senate. Packwood faced allegations of sexual misconduct and influence peddling. He would announce his resignation two days later.

Also in 1995, Baltimore Orioles shortstop Cal Ripken, Jr., played his 2,131st consecutive game, breaking the record of 2,130 set in 1939 by Lou Gehrig, legendary first baseman for the New York Yankees.

In 1996, Hurricane Fran made landfall at Cape Fear, N.C., with 115 mph winds. It killed 28 people.

In 1997, Britain bid an emotional farewell to Princess Diana -- killed in a car accident a week earlier -- with a funeral service at London's Westminster Abbey that was broadcast worldwide. Her body was buried in a private service at Althorp House, her family's home in Northamptonshire.

In 2001, the Justice Department reversed an earlier decision and said it would no longer seek to split the Microsoft Corp. into more than one company or pursue the claim that the company had illegally tied its network browser to its operating system.

A thought for the day: it was Frank Lloyd Wright who said, "The physician can bury his mistakes, but the architect can only advise his client to plant vines."

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