The Almanac

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Today is Sunday, Aug. 8, the 221st day of 2004 with 145 to follow.

The moon is waning. The morning stars are Venus, Uranus and Saturn. The evening stars are Mercury, Jupiter, Neptune, Mars 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 85); actor Rory Calhoun in 1922; aquatic actress Esther Williams in 1923 (age 81); actor Carl Switzer (Alfalfa in the "Our Gang" series) in 1927; country singer Mel Tillis in 1932 (age 72); actor Dustin Hoffman in 1937 (age 67); singer Connie Stevens in 1938 (age 66); Mary Elizabeth "Tipper" Gore, wife of former Vice President Al Gore, in 1948 (age 56); actor Keith Carradine in 1949 (age 55); journalist Randy Shilts in 1951 (age 53); TV personality Deborah Norville in 1958 (age 46); and Beatrice, Princess of York, in 1988 (age 16).

On this date in history:

In 1911, the newsreel became a standard feature at American movie screenings when French film company Pathe‚ 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 won election 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.

In 2003, U.S. leaders of the Episcopal Church approved a landmark, local option resolution on the thorny issue of gay marriages, leaving it up to local dioceses whether to bless unions of gay and lesbian couples. Church leaders earlier in the week approved their first openly gay bishop.

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."