The Almanac

Today is Saturday, Nov. 26, the 330th day of 2005 with 35 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Sagittarius. They include English poet William Cowper in 1731; air conditioning engineer Willis Carrier in 1876; surgeon and women's rights leader Mary Walker Edwards in 1832; French playwright Eugene Ionesco and TV journalist Eric Sevareid, both in 1912; cartoonist Charles Schulz in 1922; singer Robert Goulet in 1933 (age 72); impressionist Rich Little in 1938 (age 67); and singer Tina Turner in 1939 (age 66).

On this date in history:

In 1789, President Washington declared Nov. 26, 1789, to be Thanksgiving Day. It was the first U.S. holiday by presidential proclamation.

In 1832, the first streetcar railway in the United States started public service in New York City from City Hall to 14th Street. The car was pulled by a horse and the fare was 12 1/2 cents.

In 1922, In Egypt's Valley of the Kings, British archaeologists Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon became the first souls to enter King Tutankhamen's treasure-laden tomb in more than 3,000 years.

In 1940, German Nazis forced 500,000 Jews in Warsaw to live in a ghetto surrounded by an 8-foot concrete wall.

In 1941, Secretary of State Cordell Hull submitted U.S. proposals to the Japanese peace envoys in Washington.

In 1956, bandleader Tommy Dorsey died at age 51. His records sold more than 110 million copies.

In 1965, France successfully launched a satellite into space, becoming the world's third space power after the United States and the Soviet Union.

In 1984, the United States and Iraq restored diplomatic relations, ending a 17-year break.

In 1992, the United States offered to send up to 20,000 U.S. ground troops to civil war-torn Somalia as part of a U.N. force to get relief supplies to the starving populace.

In 1997, the international price of gold in New York City fell to $298 per ounce, the lowest level in 12 years.

In 2001, the Afghanistan prison revolt, which was crushed the third day, claimed the life of a CIA operative, Johnny Michael Spann, 32, a former Marine captain. He was the first U.S. combat casualty of the war. Five other Americans were injured.

In 2002, Iran rejected a recent report that Tehran and Washington have agreed to cooperate in the event the United States attacks Iraq, according to the official Islamic Republic News Agency.

Also in 2002, fast-food restaurants, among the last all-cash holdouts, have begun experimenting with systems that allow customers to say, "Charge it" as easily as, "I'll take fries with that."

In 2003, Capt. Michael Gansas, in command of a Staten Island, N.Y. ferry that crashed in October killing 10 people, was fired for not cooperating with investigators.

Also in 2003, the U.N. nuclear watchdog passed a resolution condemning Iran's nuclear program but stopped short of recommending sanctions.

In 2004, violence continued in Iraq with four private contractors killed in an explosion in Baghdad and six more bodies discovered in Mosul, bringing that grim two-day toll to 21. It reached 35 a day later.

Also in 2004, a man broke into a high school dormitory in central China and killed eight students with a knife as they were sleeping. The killer got away.

A thought for the day: Richard Bentley said, "No man was ever written out of reputation but by himself."