The almanac

Today is Thursday, Feb. 5, the 36th day of 2009 with 329 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Aquarius. They include former British Prime Minister Robert Peel, founder of the London Police Force, in 1788; evangelist Dwight Moody in 1837; Scotsman John Dunlop, inventor of the pneumatic tire, in 1840; outlaw Belle Starr in 1848; U.S. statesman Adlai E. Stevenson in 1900; actor John Carradine in 1906; novelist William Burroughs in 1914; comedian/actor Red Buttons in 1919; author Rev. Andrew Greeley in 1928 (age 81); former baseball home run king Henry Aaron in 1934 (age 75); financial writer Jane Bryant Quinn in 1939 (age 70); writer/comedian Christopher Guest and actress Barbara Hershey, both in 1948 (age 61); actresses Jennifer Jason Leigh in 1962 (age 47) and Laura Linney in 1964 (age 45); and singer Bobby Brown in 1969 (age 40).

On this date in history:

In 1631, British clergyman Roger Williams arrived in Salem, Mass., seeking religious freedom. He founded the colony of Rhode Island.

In 1971, Apollo 14 astronauts Alan Shepard and Edward Mitchell walked on the moon for four hours.

In 1981, U.S. President Ronald Reagan, in a nationwide address, said the United States was in "the worst economic mess since the Great Depression" and called for sweeping spending and tax cuts.

In 1986, world oil prices plunged toward $15 per barrel from $30 three months earlier after OPEC failed to curb production. Prices dropped to $9 by the summer of 1986.

In 1988, two U.S. grand juries in Florida announced indictments of Panama military strongman Manuel Antonio Noriega and 16 associates on drug smuggling and money laundering charges.

In 1989, Radio Moscow announced the last Soviet soldier had left Kabul, Afghanistan.

In 1990, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev proposed the Communist Party give up its monopoly on power in the Soviet Union. Two days later, the party's Central Committee agreed.

In 1991, U.S. President George H.W. Bush sent his top military advisers to Saudi Arabia to decide whether a ground assault was needed to liberate Iraqi-occupied Kuwait.

In 1992, euthanasia advocate Jack "Dr. Death" Kevorkian was freed on bond following his arrest in the assisted suicides of two women.

In 1994, a mortar shell fell onto a crowded weekend market in Sarajevo, Bosnia, killing 69 people and injuring 200.

Also in 1994, white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith was convicted of the 1963 killing of Mississippi civil rights leader Medgar Evers.

In 1996, a judge ordered U.S. President Bill Clinton to testify in the Whitewater land dispute trial. He later did so via videotape.

In 2003, making a case for U.N.-endorsed military action in Iraq, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell accused the Saddam Hussein regime of deceiving U.N. weapons inspectors and having ties with the al-Qaida terrorist network.

In 2004, speaking out strongly against his war critics, U.S. President George Bush said Iraq's nightmare was over and the United States was safer because he made the tough call to go to war.

In 2005, a Moroccan family of four was charged in Spain in the March 11 Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people.

In 2006, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad added more heat to his country's nuclear controversy by telling the International Atomic Energy Agency that Iran was halting all voluntary cooperation, reports said.

Also in 2006, the far-flung, often violent Muslim protest against Danish-published caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed spread to Turkey, Indonesia, India, Thailand and New Zealand.

In 2007, U.S. astronaut Lisa Marie Nowak was arrested on several charges, including attempted kidnapping, after she drove from Houston to Orlando, Fla., to confront another officer whom she viewed as a rival for a fellow astronaut.

In 2008, on "Super Tuesday," Barack Obama took a slim lead in delegates over Hillary Clinton in the Democratic contest while John McCain outscored all of his opponents combined in the delegate battle for the Republican nomination.

Also in 2008, Mike McConnell, the U.S. director of national intelligence, warned Congress that al-Qaida had progressed to the point that it could carry out an attack in the United States.

A thought for the day: William D. Brown said, "Failure is an event, never a person."