The Almanac

Today is Wednesday, Oct. 4, the 277th day of 2006 with 88 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Libra. They include Rutherford B. Hayes, 19th president of the United States, in 1822; Frederic Remington, painter of the American West, in 1861; journalist/author Damon Runyan in 1884; pioneer movie comedian Buster Keaton in 1895; actors Charlton Heston in 1924 (age 82), Clifton Davis in 1945 (age 61), Susan Sarandon in 1946 (age 60), Armand Assante in 1949 (age 57) and Liev Schreiber in 1967 (age 39); authors Jackie Collins and Anne Rice, both in 1941 (age 65); and actresses Alicia Silverstone in 1976 (age 30) and Rachel Leigh Cook in 1979 (age 27).

On this date in history:

In 1777, American forces under Gen. George Washington were defeated by the British in a battle at Germantown, Pa.

In 1890, Mormons in Utah renounced polygamy.

In 1957, the Soviet Union launched the first man-made space satellite, Sputnik-1.

In 1965, Pope Paul VI arrived at Kennedy International Airport in New York City on the first visit by a reigning pope to the United States.

In 1976, Earl Butz resigned as U.S. Agriculture secretary with an apology for what he called the "gross indiscretion" of uttering a racist remark.

In 1989, Art Shell was hired as head coach of the Oakland Raiders, the first black coach in the modern NFL.

In 1991, 24 countries, including the United States, signed an agreement banning mineral and oil exploration in Antarctica for 50 years.

In 1992, as many as 250 people were killed when an El Al 747 cargo plane crashed into an apartment building on the outskirts of Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Also in 1992, the Mozambique government and RENAMO rebels signed a historic peace accord, ending 16 years of civil war in the southeast African nation.

In 1993, U.S. President Bill Clinton ordered several hundred more U.S. troops to Somalia one day after the deaths of three Marines in Mogadishu.

In 1997, hundreds of thousands of Christian men gathered on the Mall in Washington to reaffirm their faith and to pledge to preserve the structure of the family.

In 2001, a Siberian Airlines jetliner exploded and plunged into the Black Sea, killing all 64 passengers and 12 crewmembers. The United States said evidence showed the plane had been hit by a missile fired during a Ukrainian military training exercise.

Also in 2001 sports, Rickey Henderson of the San Diego Padres scored his 2,246th run, breaking Ty Cobb's Major League Baseball record.

In 2002, the so-called shoe bomber, Richard Reid, pleaded guilty to charges against him stemming from his alleged effort to detonate explosives hidden in his sneakers during a 2001 Paris-to-Miami flight.

In 2003, a suicide bomber killed herself and 19 other people in an attack on a crowded restaurant in the northern Israeli port of Haifa.

In 2004, SpaceShipOne, the first, privately funded rocket to reach the edge of space, flew to an altitude above 62 miles over the California desert.

Also in 2004, Gordon Cooper, one of the first U.S. astronauts, who logged more than 225 hours in space, died at his California home. He was 77.

In 2005, the U.S. Justice Department said it was investigating claims New Orleans prison inmates were abused during the Hurricane Katrina evacuation.

Also in 2005, a landslide in eastern China triggered by Typhoon Longwang swept away a building housing 80 people, many of them police recruits.

A thought for the day: author Damon Runyan wrote, "... always try to rub up against money, for if you rub up against money long enough, some of it may rub off on you."