The Almanac

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Today is Sunday, Feb. 22, the 53rd day of 2004 with 313 to follow.

This is George Washington's Birthday.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Pisces. They include George Washington, first president of the United States, in 1732; German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer in 1788; poet, diplomat and editor James Lowell in 1819; Englishman Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scout movement, and German physicist Heinrich Hertz, discoverer of radio waves, both in 1857; poet Edna St. Vincent Millay in 1892; actor and TV producer Sheldon Leonard in 1907; Robert Pershing Wadlow, at 8 ft. 11.1 inches tall, the tallest person in recorded history, in 1918; actors Robert Young in 1907, John Mills in 1908 (age 96), and Paul Dooley in 1928 (age 76; Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., in 1932 (age 72; filmmaker Jonathan Demme in 1944 (age 60); former basketball star "Dr. J" Julius Erving in 1950 (age 54); and actors Kyle MacLachlan in 1959 (age 45), Jeri Ryan ("Star Trek: Voyager") in 1968 (age 36), and Drew Barrymore in 1975 (age 29).

On this date in history:

In 1819, a treaty with Spain ceded Florida to the United States.

In 1862, Jefferson Davis was inaugurated as the regular president of the Confederate States of America.

In 1879, Woolworths, the first chain store, opened in Utica, N.Y.

In 1972, President Nixon arrived in Beijing on a historic visit to China. It was the first presidential visit to the world's most populous country.

In 1973, Israeli fighter planes shot down an unarmed Libyan commercial airliner, killing 106 of the 113 people aboard.

In 1980, in one of the most dramatic upsets in Olympic history, the underdog U.S. hockey team, made up of collegians and second-rate professional players, defeated the defending champion Soviet team, regarded as the world's finest, 4-3 at the XIII Olympic Winter Games in Lake Placid, N,Y.

In 1987, the United States, Japan, West Germany, Britain, France and Canada agreed to cooperate to stem the decline of dollar.

Also in 1987, artist Andy Warhol died of heart failure at age 58.

In 1991, Iraq began setting fire to dozens of oil facilities in occupied Kuwait.

In 1993, the U.N. Security Council voted to form an international war crimes tribunal to try those accused of such offenses during the ethnic fighting in the former Yugoslavia.

In 1995, at a news conference, British Prime Minister John Major and his Irish counterpart, John Bruton, unveiled a plan they hoped would bring peace to Northern Ireland.

In 1998, Iraq averted U.S. military intervention when it agreed to allow UN weapons inspectors to resume their work.

In 2000, Sen. John McCain won the Republican primary elections in Michigan and in his home state of Arizona.

In 2002, the General Accounting Office, investigative arm of Congress, sued Vice President Dick Cheney in an effort to find out who met with him and his task force while they were developing a proposed national energy policy.

In 2003, President George W. Bush said time has run out for Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's non-compliance with disarmament mandates.

Also in 2003, Mexican teenager Jesica Santillan died after undergoing two heart-lung transplants, first of which was botched.

A thought for the day: it was the Roman poet Ovid who advised, "Let your hook be always cast. In the pool where you least expect it, will be fish."