The almanac

Today is Monday, April 13, the 103rd day of 2009 with 262 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Aries. They include Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States, in 1743; Frank Woolworth, founder of the five-and-dime stores, in 1852; Alfred Butts, inventor of the game "Scrabble," in 1899; Irish playwright Samuel Beckett in 1906; Harold Stassen, former Minnesota governor who unsuccessfully sought the Republican presidential nomination seven times, in 1907; author Eudora Welty in 1909; actor/singer Howard Keel in 1919; actors Lyle Waggoner in 1935 (age 74), Paul Sorvino in 1939 (age 70) and Tony Dow (Wally on "Leave It To Beaver") in 1945 (age 64); singers the Rev. Al Green in 1946 (age 63) and Peabo Bryson in 1951 (age 58); band leader and Bruce Springsteen drummer Max Weinberg in 1951 (age 58) and actors Ron Perlman in 1950 (age 59) and Rick Schroeder in 1970 (age 39).

On this date in history:

In 1964, Sidney Poitier became the first African-American to win an Oscar for best actor, honored for his work in "Lilies of the Field."

In 1965, Lawrence Bradford Jr., a 16-year-old from New York City, started work as the first black page to serve in either chamber of Congress.

In 1972, the first major league baseball strike ended, eight days after it began.

In 1984, Christopher Wilder, the FBI's "most wanted man," accidentally killed himself as police moved in to arrest him in New Hampshire. Wilder was a suspect in the deaths, rapes and disappearances of 11 young women in eight states.

In 1987, the Population Reference Bureau reported that the world's population had exceeded 5 billion.

In 1990, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev gave Lithuania a two-day ultimatum, threatening to cut off some supplies to the Baltic republic if it didn't rescind laws passed since a March 11 declaration of independence.

In 1991, an advance team of U.N. observers arrived in Kuwait City to set up a peacekeeping force along the Kuwait-Iraqi border.

In 1992, construction workers breeched a retaining wall in the Chicago River, sending water flooding through a tunnel system connecting buildings in the downtown area.

In 1997, Tiger Woods, 21, won the Masters Tournament, the youngest golfer to accomplish that feat and first African-American to win any of the four major professional golf tournaments for men.

In 2004, U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney said in Beijing that the United States doesn't support independence for Taiwan.

In 2005, as part of a deal to avoid the death penalty, Eric Rudolph pleaded guilty to four bombings that killed two people and injured more than 120. Among the attacks were bombings at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta and two abortion clinics. Rudolph was sentenced to life in prison.

In 2007, U.S. regulators sought to determine whether a chemical was intentionally added in China to wheat gluten destined for pet food. Contaminated wheat gluten was in food reported linked to numerous deaths of dogs and cats in North America and prompted the recall of more than 90 brands of pet food.

In 2008, about 1,300 Iraqi police officers and soldiers were fired in Basra and Kut for failing to fight Shiite militias, the Iraqi government announced. Some were said to have merely switched sides during the battle.

Also in 2008, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission said it would recount ballots in 23 constituencies where the presidential totals in the March 29 voting were disputed, further delaying official results.

A thought for the day: "We cannot hold a torch to light another's path without brightening our own." Ben Sweetmand said that.