The almanac

Today is Saturday, Jan. 5, the fifth day of 2008 with 361 to follow.

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

Those born on this date were under the sign of Capricorn. They include Zebulon Pike, discoverer of Pike's Peak in Colorado, and Navy Capt. Stephen Decatur, both in 1779; King Camp Gillette, inventor of the safety razor, in 1855; German statesman Konrad Adenauer in 1876; astrologer Jeane Dixon in 1918; Walter Mondale, former vice president and 1984 Democratic presidential candidate, in 1928 (age 80); actor Robert Duvall in 1931 (age 77); and actresses Diane Keaton in 1946 (age 62), Pamela Sue Martin in 1953 (age 55) and Suzy Amis in 1962 (age 46).

On this date in history:

In 1643, in the first record of a legal divorce in the American colonies, Anne Clarke of the Massachusetts Bay Colony was granted a divorce from her absent and adulterous husband, Denis Clarke.

In 1914, Ford Motor Co. increased its daily wage from $2.34 for a nine-hour day to $5 for eight hours of work.

In 1919, the National Socialist (Nazi) Party was formed in Germany.

In 1925, Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming was sworn in as the first woman governor in the United States.

In 1948, the first color newsreel, filmed at the Tournament of Roses in Pasadena, Calif., was released on this date by Warner Brothers-Pathe.

In 1964, Pope Paul VI and Greek Orthodox Patriarch Athenagoras met in Jerusalem, the first meeting of a pope and a patriarch in more than five centuries.

In 1993, the state of Washington executed multiple child killer Westley Allan Dodd by hanging in the nation's first gallows execution in 28 years.

In 1994, the United States and North Korea agreed, in principle, that the latter would allow inspections of its declared nuclear facilities.

Also in 1994, the White House announced the Justice Department had subpoenaed documents belonging to U.S. President Bill Clinton and first lady Hillary Clinton in connection with the Whitewater land investigation.

In 1995, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill requiring Congress to comply with its own civil rights and labor laws. The Senate followed suit six days later.

In 1996, the longest U.S. government shutdown ended after 21 days when Congress passed a stopgap spending measure that would allow federal employees to return to work. U.S. President Bill Clinton signed the bill the next day.

In 1998, U.S. Rep. Sonny Bono, R-Calif., of Sonny and Cher fame, was killed when he ran into a tree while skiing at South Lake Tahoe, Calif.

In 2000, the Clinton administration decided that Elian Gonzalez, a 6-year-old Cuban refugee whose mother drowned while trying to enter the United States, should be returned to his father in Cuba. The next day, hundreds of Cuban-Americans marched in protest in Miami.

In 2002, a 15-year-old student pilot, flying alone, was killed when he crashed his single-engine Cessna into the 28th floor of the Bank of America building in Tampa, Fla. No one else was hurt.

In 2004 sports, Pete Rose, one of major league baseball's greatest stars but barred from the sport for gambling, admitted he had bet on games involving his own team.

In 2005, at least 24 people, including policemen, were killed in two car bomb explosions in Iraq in mounting violence ahead of upcoming elections.

Also in 2005, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan launched a $977 million emergency appeal to cover six months of aid for 5 million victims of the southeast Asia tsunami.

In 2006, at least 134 people were killed in two car bombings in Iraq and more than 120 others were wounded in a second day of heavy violence.

In 2007, U.S. President George Bush named Director of Intelligence John Negroponte to become deputy secretary of state and retired Adm. John McConnell to replace him.

Also in 2007, 43 people died in a two-day series of militant assaults on migrants, mostly milkmen, in two districts of India.

A thought for the day: Maya Angelou said, "If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude. Don't complain."