The Almanac

Today is Friday, Dec. 3, the 338th day of 2004 with 28 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Sagittarius. They include presidential portrait painter Gilbert Stuart in 1755; U.S. Weather Bureau meteorologist Cleveland Abbe, who initiated daily weather bulletins, in 1838; English novelist Joseph Conrad in 1857; country singer Ferlin Husky in 1927 (age 77); French film director Jean-Luc Godard and singer Andy Williams, both in 1930 (age 74); rocker Ozzy Osbourne in 1948 (age 56); former race car driver Rick Mears in 1951 (age 53); actresses Daryl Hannah and Julianna Moore, both in 1961 (age 43); Olympic figure skater Katarina Witt in 1965 (age 39); and actors Brendan Fraser in 1968 (age 36) and Brian Bonsall in 1981 (age 23).

On this date in history:

In 1833, Oberlin College in Ohio opened with an enrollment of 29 men and 15 women, the nation's first truly co-educational college.

In 1929, the Ford Motor Co. raised the pay of its employees from $5 to $7 a day despite the collapse of the American stock market.

In 1948, the first news of the Whittaker Chambers spy case disclosed that microfilm of secret American documents was found in a pumpkin on the former magazine editor's Maryland farm, allegedly for delivery to a communist power.

In 1967, Dr. Christian Barnard performed the first successful heart transplant at Capetown, South Africa.

In 1984, poison gas leaked at a Union Carbide pesticide factory in Bhopal, India. The world's most deadly chemical disaster was eventually blamed for 2,889 deaths.

In 1990, soldiers seized Argentina's army headquarters two days before President Bush was due to visit. The rebellion was quickly put down.

In 1992, the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to authorize a U.S.-led multinational force to Somalia.

Also in 1992, Roman Catholic officials in Boston agreed to pay compensation to 68 people who claimed they were sexually abused 25 years ago by then-priest James Porter.

In 1995, South Korean police arrested former president Chun Doo Hwan on charges of orchestrating the December 1979 military coup that brought him to power.

In 1997, delegates from 131 countries met in Ottawa, Canada, to sign the Convention on the Prohibition, Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines. 123 nations signed, but not the United States, Russia or China.

In 2001, responding to a new wave of Palestinian suicide bombings, Israel struck the West Bank with planes, helicopter gunships, tanks and bulldozers, firing missiles into Yasser Arafat's headquarters.

In 2002, senior U.S. officials sought Turkey's full support for a possible attack on Iraq with promises of economic, military and diplomatic rewards.

In 2003, the Pentagon put a hold on Boeing's controversial $20 billion Air Force contract for 100 refueling aircraft pending an investigation into possible questionable behavior by some company executives.

Also in 2003, an international court in Tanzania convicted three Rwandan media executives of genocide for inciting a 1984 killing spree by machete-wielding gangs accused of slaughtering about 800,000 Tutsis.

A thought for the day: poet Stella Benson said, "Call no man foe, but never love a stranger."