The Almanac

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Today is Monday, May 1, the 121st day of 2006 with 244 to follow.

The moon is waxing. 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 Taurus. The include Arthur Wellesley, the first duke of Wellington, in 1769; U.S. labor leader Mary Harris "Mother" Jones in 1830; U.S. Gen. Mark Clark in 1896; singer Kate Smith in 1909; actor Glenn Ford in 1916 (age 90); television personality Jack Paar in 1918; author Joseph Heller in 1923; Mercury astronaut Scott Carpenter in 1925 (age 81); and singers Sonny James in 1929 (age 77); Judy Collins in 1939 (age 67), Rita Coolidge in 1945 (age 61), and Tim McGraw in 1967 (age 39).

On this date in history:

In 1884, construction began on the world's first skyscraper -- the 10-story Home Insurance Company building in Chicago.

In 1855, when nationally known feminist Lucy Stone married Henry Blackwell the word "obey" was omitted from their wedding vows.

In 1893, U.S. President Grover Cleveland opened the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

In 1898, during the Spanish-American war, Adm. George Dewey routed the Spanish fleet in the Philippines.

In 1931, the Empire State Building was dedicated in New York City. It remained the world's tallest building for 40 years.

In 1960, the Soviet Union shot down a U.S. U-2 spy plane flown by Francis Gary Powers, who was captured.

In 1963, James Whittaker of Redmond, Wash., became the first American to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

In 1971, Amtrak, the national passenger rail service that combined the operations of 18 passenger railroads, went into service.

In 1992, U.S. President George H.W. Bush ordered 4,000 military troops into the riot-ravaged streets of Los Angeles.

In 1993, Sri Lankan President Ranasinghe Premadasa and others in his entourage were killed in a suicide bomb blast.

In 1997, 18 years of Conservative Party rule in Great Britain ended with a Labor Party victory in elections, which allowed party leader Tony Blair to succeed John Majors as prime minister.

In 1999, Charismatic, a 31-1 long shot, won the 125th Kentucky Derby in Louisville. It was the third highest payoff in Derby history.

In 2000, Time Warner yanked ABC-owned TV channels from several of its cable systems in a dispute about payments with Disney, which owned ABC. Public outrage forced Time Warner to restore the network's signal a day later.

In 2001, a former member of the Ku Klux Klan was convicted in state court in Birmingham, Ala., in the 1963 bombing of a church that killed four black girls. He was handed four life sentences.

In 2003, President George W. Bush, speaking from the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln, declared that major combat in Iraq was over.

And, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announced the end of major U.S. combat operations in Afghanistan.

Also in 2003, an earthquake killed 176 in Turkey, including scores of children in a school dormitory.

In 2004, the European Union added 10 member countries, including Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, running the total to 25.

In 2004 sports, Smarty Jones won the Kentucky Derby, first unbeaten thoroughbred to do so since 1977.

In 2005, at least 35 Iraqis were killed by insurgents with car bombs at a Kurdish funeral near Mosul.

Also in 2005, five men in Madain, Iraq, confessed to the kidnapping and slaying of British aid worker Margaret Hassan, who was abducted in October.

A thought for the day: "Spoon feeding in the long run teaches us nothing but the shape of the spoon." E.M. Forster said that.