The Almanac

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Today is Sunday, Feb. 5, the 36th day of 2006 with 329 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Aquarius. They include former British Prime Minister Robert Peel, founder of the London Police Force, in 1788; evangelist Dwight Moody in 1837; Scotsman John Dunlop, inventor of the pneumatic tire, in 1840; outlaw Belle Starr in 1848; American statesman Adlai E. Stevenson in 1900; actor John Carradine in 1906; novelist William Burroughs in 1914; comedian/actor Red Buttons in 1919 (age 87); author Andrew Greeley in 1928 (age 78); baseball home run king Hank Aaron in 1934 (age 72); financial writer Jane Bryant Quinn in 1941 (age 65); Jamaican reggae singer/songwriter Bob Marley in 1945; writer/comedian Christopher Guest and actress Barbara Hershey, both in 1948 (age 58); actresses Jennifer Jason Leigh in 1962 (age 44) and Laura Linney in 1964 (age 42); and singer Bobby Brown in 1969 (age 37).

On this date in history:

In 1631, British clergyman Roger Williams arrived in Salem, Mass., seeking religious freedom. He founded the colony of Rhode Island.

In 1971, Apollo 14 astronauts Alan Shepard and Edward Mitchell walked on the moon for four hours.

In 1981, President Ronald Reagan, in a nationwide address, said the United States was in "the worst economic mess since the Great Depression" and called for sweeping spending and tax cuts.

In 1986, world oil prices plunged toward $15 per barrel from $30 three months earlier after OPEC failed to curb production. Prices dropped to $9 by the summer of 1986.

In 1987, the Dow Jones industrial average closed above 2,200 for the first time.

In 1988, two federal grand juries in Florida announced indictments of Panama military strongman Manuel Antonio Noriega and 16 associates on drug smuggling and money laundering charges.

In 1989, Radio Moscow announced the last Soviet soldier had left Kabul, Afghanistan.

In 1990, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev proposed the Communist Party give up its monopoly on power in the Soviet Union. Two days later, the party's Central Committee agreed.

In 1991, President George H.W. Bush sent his top military advisers to Saudi Arabia to decide whether a ground assault was needed to liberate Iraqi-occupied Kuwait.

In 1992, euthanasia advocate Jack "Dr. Death" Kevorkian was freed on bond following his arrest in the assisted suicides of two women.

In 1993, U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood withdrew from consideration as President Bill Clinton's attorney general after revelations that she'd employed, although paid the taxes for, an illegal alien.

Also in 1993, Oscar-winning writer-director Joseph Mankiewicz died at age 83.

In 1994, a mortar shell fell onto a crowded weekend market in Sarajevo, Bosnia, killing 69 people and injuring 200.

Also in 1994, white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith was convicted of the 1963 killing of civil rights leader Medgar Evers.

In 1996, a judge ordered President Bill Clinton to testify in the Whitewater trial. He later did so via videotape.

In 1997, Morgan Stanley Group, Inc. announced it would merge with Dean Witter, Discover & Co. to become the biggest U.S. securities company.

Also in 1997, thousands of Albanians, many of whom had lost their life savings, protested to demand government reimbursement following the collapse of a pyramid fund.

In 2003, making a case for U.N.-endorsed military action in Iraq. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell accused the Saddam regime of deceiving U.N. weapons inspectors and having ties with the al-Qaida terrorist network.

In 2004, speaking out strongly against his war critics, President George W. Bush said Iraq's nightmare was over and the United States was safer because he made the tough call to go to war.

In 2005, a Moroccan family of four was charged in Spain in the March 11 Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people.

Also in 2005, the United States said it had disbursed more than $118 million for relief works in tsunami-affected areas of the Indian Ocean.

A thought for the day: William D. Brown said, "Failure is an event, never a person."