The Almanac

Today is Friday, Sept. 8, the 251st day of 2006 with 114 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Virgo. They include England's King Richard I, "Richard the Lion Hearted," in 1157; composer Antonin Dvorak in 1841; country music pioneer Jimmie Rodgers, "The Singing Brakeman," in 1897; U.S. Sen. Claude Pepper, D-Fla., in 1900; comedian Sid Caesar in 1922 (age 84); actor Peter Sellers in 1925; country music singer Patsy Cline in 1932; former U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., in 1938 (age 68); and actors Henry Thomas ("E.T. -- The Extra-Terrestrial") in 1971 (age 35) and Taylor Thomas" class="tpstyle">Jonathan Taylor Thomas ("Home Improvement") in 1981 (age 25).

On this date in history:

In 1565, the first permanent European settlement in what is now the continental United States was founded on the site of the present St. Augustine, Fla.

In 1900, more than 6,000 people were killed when a hurricane and tidal wave struck Galveston, Texas.

In 1935, an assassin shot autocratic U.S. Sen. Huey P. Long, D-La., at the Capitol building in Baton Rouge, La. Long died two days later.

Also in 1935, 19-year-old Frank Sinatra launched his singing career when he appeared with a group called The Hoboken Four on the Major Bowes Amateur Hour radio talent show.

In 1966, "Star Trek" premiered on NBC-TV.

In 1974, U.S. President Gerald Ford granted former U.S. President Richard Nixon full pardon for any and all offenses he may have committed during his years in office.

In 1993, the Senate approved U.S. President Bill Clinton's national-service bill, which would give participants grants for taking part in community service work.

In 1994, a U.S. Airways jetliner crashed near Pittsburgh, killing 132 people. The accident became the subject of the longest aircraft investigation in the history of the National Transportation Safety Board.

In 1998, the U.S. Justice Department opened a preliminary inquiry into U.S. President Bill Clinton's participation in Democratic fundraising for the 1996 re-election campaign.

In 2004, CBS reported that newly discovered documents bolstered claims that U.S. President George Bush failed to meet his responsibilities with the Texas National Guard in the 1970s. But, serious doubts soon arose as to validity of the documents.

In 2005, U.S. President George Bush paid a visit to the hurricane-stricken Gulf Coast and signed a $51.8 billion bill for additional Katrina relief funds.

Also in 2005, the probe into Iraq's oil-for-food program found that U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's son Kojo used his father's position to profit from the project. Investigators say there was no evidence Annan knew of his son's involvement, however.

And, more than 1,000 mourners attended the Washington funeral of the late U.S. Supreme Court William Rehnquist" class="tpstyle">Chief Justice William Rehnquist, who died of thyroid cancer just shy of his 81st birthday. He was buried in a private ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery.

A thought for the day: in "Middlemarch," English novelist Mary Anne Evans (George Eliot) wrote, "...men know best about everything, except what women know better."