The almanac

Today is Saturday, Jan. 12, the 12th day of 2008 with 354 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Capricorn. They include British statesman Edmund Burke in 1729; American patriot John Hancock in 1737; painter John Singer Sargent in 1856; novelist Jack London in 1876; World War II Nazi leader Hermann Goering in 1893; western singer/actor Tex Ritter in 1905; champion heavyweight boxer Joe Frazier in 1944 (age 64); radio personalities Rush Limbaugh in 1951 (age 57) and Howard Stern in 1954 (age 54); actress Kirstie Alley in 1951 (age 57); and Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos in 1964 (age 44).

On this date in history:

In 1828, boundary disputes were settled between the United States and Mexico.

In 1932, Ophelia Wyatt Caraway, a Democrat from Arkansas, became the first woman to be elected to the U.S. Senate.

In 1943, the U.S. wartime Office of Price Administration said standard frankfurters would be replaced during World War II by "Victory Sausages" consisting of a mixture of meat and soy meal.

In 1971, a U.S. grand jury indicted the Rev. Philip Berrigan and five other people, including a nun and two priests, on charges of plotting to kidnap presidential adviser Henry Kissinger.

In 1976, the U.N. Security Council voted 11-1 to seat the Palestine Liberation Organization for its debate on the Middle East. The United States cast the only dissenting vote.

In 1990, Salvadoran President Alfredo Cristiani named eight soldiers, including chief of the military academy, as suspects in the November 1989 slayings of six Jesuit priests.

In 1994, U.S. President Bill Clinton asked Attorney General Janet Reno to appoint an independent counsel to investigate the Whitewater land deal affair that involved him and the first lady.

In 1995, U.S. President Bill Clinton and congressional leaders agreed on a bailout package that would give Mexico as much as $40 billion in loan guarantees. After Congress filed to vote quickly on the deal, Clinton invoked his emergency authority to lend Mexico $20 billion.

In 2001, scientists in Oregon announced the birth of the first genetically engineered primate. The rhesus monkey had a jellyfish gene that caused jellyfish to glow; however, the monkey did not glow.

In 2003, Maurice Gibb, 53, one of three singing brothers who made up the Bee Gees, died of complications from an intestinal blockage.

In 2004, former U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, in a harshly critical new book, likened U.S. President George Bush in a Cabinet meeting to a "blind man in a roomful of deaf people."

In 2005, The Southern California death toll from rain, flood and mudslides rose to 19.

Also in 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that an alien can be deported to a country without the advance consent of that country's government.

And, aftershocks continued to hit northwestern Indonesia and the Indian Ocean basin more than two weeks after a giant earthquake struck the area.

In 2006, around 350 people were crushed to death by a stampeding crowd at the entrance to Jamarat Bridge in Mina, Saudi Arabia, during an annual pilgrimage to Mecca.

In 2007, a proposed law to require the U.S. government to negotiate Medicare drug prices was soundly approved by the House of Representatives in what Speaker Nancy Pelosi called "a resounding victory for America's seniors over the special interests."

Also in 2007, the former head of the Bangladesh central bank, Fakhruddin Ahmed, was named head of the caretaker government, replacing President Iajuddin Ahmed.

A thought for the day: It was Otto von Bismarck who said, "Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made."