The Almanac

Today is Sunday, Aug. 29, the 242nd day of 2004 with 124 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Leo. They include English philosopher John Locke in 1632; author and poet Oliver Wendell Holmes in 1809; Henry Bergh, founder of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, in 1811; automotive inventor Charles Kettering in 1876; trombonist/bandleader Jack Teagarden in 1905; actor Barry Sullivan in 1912; actress Ingrid Bergman in 1915; jazz saxophonist Charlie "Bird" Parker in 1920; British filmmaker Sir Richard Attenborough in 1923 (age 81); jazz and pop singer Dinah Washington in 1924; Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in 1936 (age 68); actor Elliott Gould in 1938 (age 66); filmmaker William Friedkin in 1939 (age 65); TV personality Robin Leach ("Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous") in 1941 (age 63); pop singer Michael Jackson in 1958 (age 46); and actress Rebecca De Mornay in 1962 (age 42).

On this date in history:

In 1533, Atahualpa, last of the Inca rulers, was strangled under orders of Spanish conqueror Francisco Pizarro. The Inca Empire died with him.

In 1949, the Soviet Union exploded its first atomic bomb at a remote test site at Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan.

In 1965, astronauts Gordon Cooper and Charles Conrad landed safely to end the eight-day orbital flight of Gemini-5.

In 1973, Judge John Sirica ordered President Nixon to turn over secret Watergate tapes. Nixon refused and appealed the order.

In 1991, in Kiev, the republics of Russia and Ukraine signed an agreement to remain in the Soviet Union and negotiate a loose federation.

In 1992, an FBI report said the number of violent crimes increased 5 percent in 1991; people under 25 accounted for nearly half of those arrested.

In 1994, Israel and the PLO signed a new agreement to shift West Bank administrative functions to the Palestinian National Authority.

In 1995, Eduard Shevardnadze, the head of state in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, was slightly injured when a bomb exploded near his motorcade in Tbilisi, the capital.

In 1996, Clinton political adviser Dick Morris resigned after the tabloids reported he had been seeing a prostitute and letting her listen in on phone conversations with the president.

In 2003, a car bomb explosion killed more than 100 worshippers at the Imam Ali Mosque in the Iraqi Shite holy city of Najaf.

Also in 2003, North Korea said further rounds of nuclear talks were "in danger" because the United States had refused to drop its "hostile policy" against the communist nation.

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A thought for the day: Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote, "A moment's insight is sometimes worth a life experience."