The Almanac

Today is Wednesday, Nov. 26, the 330th day of 2003 with 35 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Sagittarius. They include English poet William Cowper in 1731; air conditioning engineer Willis Carrier in 1876; surgeon and women's rights leader Mary Walker Edwards in 1832; French playwright Eugene Ionesco and TV journalist Eric Sevareid, both in 1912; cartoonist Charles Schulz in 1922; singer Robert Goulet in 1933 (age 70); impressionist Rich Little in 1938 (age 65); and singer Tina Turner in 1939 (age 64).

On this date in history:

In 1789, President Washington declared Nov. 26, 1789, to be Thanksgiving Day. It was the first U.S. holiday by presidential proclamation.

In 1832, the first streetcar railway in America started public service in New York City from City Hall to 14th Street. The car was pulled by a horse and the fare was 12 1/2 cents.

In 1922, In Egypt's Valley of the Kings, British archaeologists Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon became the first souls to enter King Tutankhamen's treasure-laden tomb in more than 3,000 years.

In 1940, German Nazis forced 500,000 Jews in Warsaw to live in a ghetto surrounded by an eight-foot concrete wall.

In 1941, Secretary of State Cordell Hull submitted American proposals to the Japanese peace envoys in Washington.

In 1956, bandleader Tommy Dorsey died at age 51. His records sold more than 110,000,000 copies.

In 1965, France successfully launched a satellite into space, becoming the world's third space power after the U.S. and the Soviet Union.

In 1984, the United States and Iraq restored diplomatic relations, ending a 17-year break.

In 1990, Matsushita clinched a $6.1 billion deal to buy MCA, the fourth Hollywood studio to be sold to a foreign owner in recent years.

In 1992, the United States offered to send up to 20,000 U.S. ground troops to civil war-torn Somalia as part of a United Nations force to get relief supplies to the starving populace.

In 1997, the international price of gold in New York City fell to $298 per ounce, the lowest level in 12 years.

In 2001, The Afghanistan prison revolt, which was crushed the third day, claimed the life of a CIA operative, Johnny Michael Spann, 32, a former Marine captain. He was the first U.S. combat casualty of the war. Five other Americans were injured.

In 2002, Iran rejected a recent report that Tehran and Washington have agreed to cooperate in the event the United States attacks Iraq., according to the official Islamic Republic News Agency.

Also in 2002, fast-food restaurants, among the last all-cash holdouts, have begun experimenting with systems that allow customers to say, "Charge it" as easily as, "I'll take fries with that."

A thought for the day: Richard Bentley said, "No man was ever written out of reputation but by himself."