The almanac

Today is Thursday, Aug. 16, the 228th day of 2007 with 137 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Leo. They include the French physicist Gabriel Lippman, inventor of color photography, in 1845; Amos Alonzo Stagg, basketball, football hall of fame coach in 1862; labor leader George Meany in 1894; former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin in 1913; actors Fess Parker in 1924 (age 83), Ann Blyth in 1928 (age 79) and Robert Culp in 1930 (age 77); football star and sports commentator Frank Gifford, also in 1930 (age 77), TV personality Kathie Lee Gifford, in 1953 (age 54); singer Eydie Gorme in 1931 (age 76); actresses Julie Newmar in 1933 (age 74) and Lesley Anne Warren in 1946 (age 61); actor Reginald VelJohnson in 1952 (age 55); director James Cameron in 1954 (age 53); actor Jeff Perry in 1955 (age 52); actress Angela Bassett and singer Madonna, both in 1958 (age 49); and actors Laura Innes in 1959 (age 48) and Timothy Hutton in 1960 (age 47).

On this date in history:

In 1812, British forces foiled plans for a U.S. invasion of Canada by capturing the city of Detroit.

In 1896, the North Country gold rush began with the discovery of gold in the Klondike region of Canada's Yukon Territory.

In 1939, New York's famous vaudeville house, the Hippodrome, closed after 34 years.

In 1948, baseball legend Babe Ruth died in New York of cancer at age 53.

In 1977, Elvis Presley, the king of rock 'n' roll, died of heart failure at his home in Memphis at age 42.

In 1987, a Northwest Airlines jet bound for Phoenix crashed on takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, killing 156 people. A 4-year-old girl was the sole survivor.

In 1990, U.S. naval forces were ordered to prevent ships from reaching or leaving the ports of Iraq and Iraqi-occupied Kuwait.

In 2004, as many as seven helicopters were pressed into service to rescue hundreds of flood victims stranded on roof and car tops near Cornwall, England. Rescue workers called the situation "horrendous."

In 2005, a magnitude 7.2 earthquake hit northern Japan triggering a tsunami alert along the Pacific coast.

In 2006, authorities in Bangkok, Thailand, arrested American John Mark Karr for the widely publicized 1996 slaying of JonBenet Ramsey, a 6-year-old beauty queen from Boulder, Colo. Karr publicly confessed but said it was an accident. He was later cleared of any involvement.

Also in 2006, flooding in Ethiopia, which already had killed hundreds and stranded thousands, spread across the country as more rivers burst through their banks.

A thought for the day: Nicholas Murray Butler said, "An expert is one who knows more and more about less and less."