The Almanac

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Today is Wednesday, May 5, the 126th day of 2004 with 240 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Taurus. They include Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard in 1813; German political theorist Karl Marx in 1818; hatmaker John Stetson in 1830; crusading journalist Nelly Bly in 1867; author Christopher Morley in 1890; radio actor Freeman Gosden, Amos of "Amos and Andy," in 1899; actors Spencer Tracy in 1900 and Tyrone Power in 1913; singer/actress Alice Faye in 1915; actor Michael Murphy in 1938 (age 66); singer Tammy Wynette in 1942; and actors Michael Palin ("Monty Python's Flying Circus") and Lance Henriksen ("Millenium"), both in 1943, (age 61), and Tina Yothers ("Family Ties") in 1973 (age 31).

On this date in history:

In 1821, Napoleon Bonaparte died in exile on the island of St. Helena.

In 1847, the American Medical Association was founded in Philadelphia.

In 1862, Mexican troops, outnumbered 3-1, defeated the invading French forces of Napoleon III.

In 1893, Wall Street stock prices took a sudden drop, sparking the second worst economic crisis in U.S. history.

In 1904, Cy Young pitched major league baseball's first perfect game to lead the Boston Americans to a 3-0 win over Philadelphia.

In 1925, biology teacher John Scopes was arrested for teaching Darwin's theory of evolution in violation of Tennessee state laws.

In 1945, Allied troops liberated the Netherlands from Nazi Germany.

Also in 1945, Mrs. Elsie Mitchell and five neighborhood children were killed in Lakeview, Ore., when a Japanese balloon they had found in the woods exploded. They were listed as the only known World War II civilian fatalities in the continental United States.

In 1961, astronaut Alan Shepard became America's first man in space in a brief, sub-orbital flight from Cape Canaveral.

On May 5, 1981, imprisoned Irish-Catholic militant Bobby Sands died after refusing food for 66 days in protest of his treatment as a criminal rather than a political prisoner by British authorities.

In 1985, President Reagan ignored an international uproar and visited a cemetery at Bitburg, West Germany, that contained the graves of World War II Nazi S.S. storm troopers.

In 1987, Congress began hearings into the Iran-Contra affair.

In 1992, two courtroom shootings in one day: in Clayton, Mo, a man involved in a divorce proceeding opened fire, killing his wife and wounding four people before being shot and wounded by police; and in Grand Forks, N.D., a state district judge was critically wounded by a former city councilman who apparently was in court on a child support case.

In 1993, the self-declared Bosnian-Serb parliament rejected the international peace plan that was supposed to end the yearlong war in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

In 1994, American teenager Michael Fay was caned four strokes in a Singapore prison after being convicted of vandalism.

Also in 1994, civil war erupted in Yemen.

In 1996, Jose Maria Aznar became the new prime minister of Spain.

In 2000, the FBI and Justice Department announced an investigation into whether former CIA director John Deutch mishandled classified material.

In 2003, a fierce wave of tornadoes killed 40 people in Kansas, Missouri and Tennessee.

Also in 2003, India and Pakistan agreed to renew diplomatic ties but India turned down Pakistan's offer of bilateral nuclear disarmament.

A thought for the day: "Nobody really cares if you're miserable, so you might as well be happy." Cynthia Nelms said that.