The Almanac

Today is Tuesday, Aug. 8, the 220th day of 2006 with 145 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Leo. They include the United States' first professional architect, Charles Bulfinch, in 1763; American black explorer Matthew Henson in 1866; Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata in 1879; poet Sara Teasdale in 1884; author Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings ("The Yearling") in 1896; composer/conductor Victor Young ("Around The World in 80 Days") in 1900; musician Benny Carter in 1907; Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg in 1908; actress Sylvia Sidney in 1910; movie producer Dino DeLaurentis in 1919 (age 87); actor Rory Calhoun in 1922; aquatic actress Esther Williams in 1922 (age 84); country singer Mel Tillis in 1932 (age 74); actor Dustin Hoffman in 1937 (age 69); singer Connie Stevens in 1938 (age 68); actor Keith Carradine in 1949 (age 57); writer/journalist Randy Shilts in 1951; TV personality Deborah Norville in 1958 (age 48); and Beatrice, Princess of York, in 1988 (age 18).

On this date in history:

In 1911, the newsreel became a standard feature at U.S. movie screenings when the French film company Pathe began releasing weekly black-and-white newspictures to theaters.

In 1940, the German Luftwaffe began a series of daylight air raids on Britain.

In 1945, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan, two days after the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and seven days before Tokyo surrendered.

In 1968, Richard Nixon won the Republican nomination for president. He was elected in November, defeating Democrat Hubert Humphrey and independent George Wallace.

In 1974, facing expected impeachment over the Watergate scandal, U.S. President Richard Nixon became the first U.S. president to announce his resignation. He left office the next day.

In 1988, the Duchess of York, the former Sarah Ferguson, wife of Britain's Prince Andrew, gave birth to their first child, a girl they named Beatrice.

In 1990, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein annexed Kuwait.

In 1991, the U.N. Security Council unanimously approved membership applications from North and South Korea.

Also in 1991, British TV journalist John McCarthy was freed in Lebanon by the Islamic Jihad, a Shiite Muslim faction, after being held since 1986.

In 1995, the regime of Iraq's Saddam Hussein was shaken when his two eldest daughters, their husbands and other senior army officers defected.

In 2003, U.S. leaders of the Episcopal Church approved a landmark local option resolution on the thorny issue of gay marriages, leaving it up to local dioceses whether to bless unions of gay and lesbian couples. Church leaders earlier in the week approved their first openly gay bishop.

In 2004, Red Adair, the true-life hero of the oil fields for having quenched hundreds of wellhead fires, died at the age of 89.

In 2005, U.S. President George Bush signed a major energy bill as oil and gas prices climbed to record levels. The measure sought to stimulate domestic production in traditional and alternative energy sources.

Also in 2005, thousands were evacuated from mountainous areas around Beijing as Typhoon Matsa headed for the Chinese capital.

A thought for the day: Actress Julia Roberts said, "You can be true to the character all you want but you've got to go home with yourself."