The Almanac

Today is Sunday, Nov. 13, the 317th day of 2005 with 48 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Scorpio. They include St. Augustine of Hippo, a theologian, in 354; King Edward III of England in 1312; Scottish physicist James Maxwell in 1831; Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson in 1850; U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis in 1856; actor Richard Mulligan in 1932; TV producer/director Garry Marshall in 1934 (age 71); and actors Dack Rambo in 1941, Joe Mantegna in 1947 (age 58), Whoopi Goldberg in 1949 (age 56), Chris Noth in 1957 (age 48) and Tracy Scoggins in 1959 (age 46).

On this date in history:

In 1927, the Holland Tunnel was opened under the Hudson River, linking New York City and New Jersey.

In 1933, the first recorded "sit-down" strike in the United States was staged by workers at the Hormel Packing Company in Austin, Minn.

In 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a case from Montgomery, Ala., that segregation on interstate buses was unconstitutional.

In 1967, Carl Stokes became the first black American mayor when he was elected in Cleveland.

In 1974, Yasser Arafat told the U.N. General Assembly that the goal of the Palestine Liberation Organization was to establish an independent state of Palestine.

In 1982, the Vietnam War memorial was dedicated in Washington.

In 1985, a volcano erupted in Colombia, killing 25,000 people. It was the third-deadliest volcano disaster in history.

In 1992, a group of Peruvian military officers tried unsuccessfully to assassinate President Alberto Fujimori and overthrow the government.

In 1993, Pakistan's Foreign Minister Farooq Leghari was chosen president.

In 1997, Iraq expelled the U.S. members of the U.N. team that had been sent to verify Iraq's compliance with U.N. directives.

In 2001, President George W. Bush and Russian leader Putin agreed to reduce stockpiles of nuclear weapons by about two-thirds.

In 2002, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan told Congress that while the U.S. economic recovery had softened, policy-makers at the nation's central bank don't expect a double-dip recession.

In 2003, a U.N. specialist said counter-terrorist legislation in the United States was having a negative impact on human rights.

In 2004, doctors said Vice President Dick Cheney, taken to a Washington hospital because of shortness of breath, most likely had a respiratory infection. Cheney has had four heart attacks.

Also in 2004, one day after Yasser Arafat's burial, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei called for the continuation of peace talks with Israel.

And, an Iraqi national security adviser said up to 1,000 insurgents were killed in the six-day battle for Fallujah.

A thought for the day: Gen. Douglas MacArthur said, "In war there is no substitute for victory."