The Almanac

Today is Saturday, March 25, the 84th day of 2006 with 281 to follow.

The moon is waning.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Aries. They include symphony conductor Arturo Toscanini in 1867; Mount Rushmore sculptor Gutzon Borglum in 1867; composer Bela Bartok in 1881; film director David Lean in 1908; sports commentator Howard Cosell in 1920; French actress Simone Signoret in 1921; astronaut James Lovell in 1928 (age 78); feminist writer Gloria Steinem in 1935 (age 71); singer Anita Bryant in 1940 (age 66); soul singer Aretha Franklin in 1942 (age 64); actor/director Paul Michael Glaser in 1943 (age 63); pop star Elton John in 1947 (age 59); actresses Bonnie Bedelia in 1948 (age 58) and Sarah Jessica Parker in 1965 (age 41); and Olympic silver medalist figure skater Debi Thomas in 1967 (age 39).

On this date in history:

In 1634, the first colonists to Maryland arrive at St. Clement's Island on Maryland's western shore and founded the settlement of St. Mary's.

In 1807, the English Parliament abolished the slave trade.

In 1911, 147 people died when they were trapped by a fire that swept the Triangle Shirt Waist factory in New York City.

In 1947, a mine explosion in Centralia, Ill., killed 111 men, most of them asphyxiated by gas.

In 1954, the Radio Corporation of America began commercial production of color television sets.

In 1957, France, West Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg signed a treaty in Rome establishing the European Economic Community, also known as the common market.

In 1975, King Faisal of Saudi Arabia was shot to death by a deranged nephew at his palace in Riyadh.

In 1990, an arson fire swept an overcrowded, illegal Bronx social club, killing 87 people in the worst mass slaying in U.S. history at the time and the deadliest New York blaze since the Triangle Shirt Waist factory disaster exactly 79 years earlier. Julio Gonzalez, 36, was charged with arson and murder.

In 1992, in a further sign of the capitalist revolution, veterans of the former Soviet KGB announced plans to sell cloak-and-dagger tales to Hollywood for movies and TV.

In 1993, four of the five suspects arrested in the World Trade Center bombing pleaded innocent in a Manhattan federal court. A fifth suspect did not enter a plea.

In 1994, the last U.S. soldiers left Mogadishu, Somalia, although a handful remained behind to protect U.S. diplomats and to provide support for U.N. peacekeepers.

In 1996, the FBI surrounded the Montana compound of a tax-evading group called the Freemen, beginning a lengthy standoff.

In 1997, Chinese Premiere Li Peng, during a meeting in Beijing with U.S. Vice President Al Gore, denied reports that China had funneled campaign cash to the Clinton-Gore campaign.

In 1998, the first known physician-assisted suicide to be legal under Oregon state law was reported by the group Compassion In Dying.

In 2002, a massive earthquake devastated rural areas of Afghanistan. The quake, with a 6.1 magnitude, killed at least 600 people and officials said the death toll could be twice that.

In 2003, the battle of Baghdad was on hold, delayed by a howling sandstorm that cut visibility, hampered combat helicopters and forced U.S. forces around Najaf to wrap tanks and vehicles in tarpaulins against the grinding sand. But aerial bombing around Baghdad continued.

In 2004, a U.S. Army report said less than one-third of U.S. soldiers suffering from depression, anxiety or traumatic stress after combat in Iraq received mental health treatment for their condition. Officials were looking into 23 U.S. suicides.

In 2005, President George W. Bush's approval rating dropped to 45 percent, the lowest mark of his presidency, a new Gallup Poll showed.

Also in 2005, the United States announced plans to sell about two dozen fighter jets to Pakistan.

A thought for the day: Mahatma Gandhi said, "It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of nonviolence to cover impotence."