The Almanac

Today is Sunday, Dec. 19, the 354th day of 2004 with 12 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Sagittarius. They include women's suffrage leader Mary Livermore in 1820; novelist Eleanor Porter ("Pollyanna") in 1868; trombonist/singer Jack Teagarden in 1895; actor Ralph Richardson in 1902; Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev in 1906; French dramatist Jean Genet, a pioneer in the theater of the absurd, in 1910; singer Edith Piaf in 1915; and actors Cicely Tyson in 1933 (age 71), Tim Reid in 1944 (age 60), Robert Urich in 1946, Jennifer Beals in 1963 (age 41) and Alyssa Milano in 1972 (age 32).

On this date in history:

In 1777, Gen. George Washington and the Continental Army began a winter encampment at Valley Forge, Pa.

In 1958, the U.S. satellite Atlas transmitted the first radio voice broadcast from space, a 58-word recorded Christmas greeting from President Eisenhower.

In 1972, the splashdown of Apollo XVII ended America's manned moon exploration program.

In 1984, the United States formally withdrew from UNESCO in a effort to force reform of the U.N. cultural organization's budget and alleged Third World bias.

Also in 1984, the prime ministers of Britain and China signed an accord, returning Hong Kong to China in 1997.

In 1986, Attorney General Edwin Meese said President Reagan did not know that money Iran paid for U.S. arms was going to Nicaraguan rebels.

In 1990, a judge in Oshkosh, Wis., dismissed the case against a man convicted of sex assault against a woman with at least 46 personalities.

In 1991, the Bank of Credit and Commerce International agreed to plead guilty to federal racketeering charges, forfeiting $550 million.

In 1996, O.J. Simpson was called to the witness stand in his civil trial for damages in the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.

In 1998, President Clinton became only the second U.S. president to be impeached when the House of Representatives approved two articles of impeachment, charging him with perjury and obstruction of justice. The allegations stemmed from the actions he took to conceal his relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

Also in 1998, House Speaker-designate Bob Livingston, R-La, announced he would not be a candidate and would be leaving Congress. Two days earlier, Livingston admitted having extra-marital affairs "on occasion."

In 2002, Secretary of State Colin Powell warned Iraq it was risking war by lying and refusing to cooperate on the issue of weapons of mass destruction.

Also in 2002, South Korea elected Roh Moo Hyun as its new president.

In 2003, Libya announced it would abandon efforts to develop nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.

A thought for the day: George Bernard Shaw said, "There are no secrets better kept than the secrets that everybody guesses."