The almanac

Today is Sunday, Nov. 29, the 333rd day of 2009 with 32 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Sagittarius. They include Austrian physicist Christian Doppler in 1803; author Louisa May Alcott ("Little Women") in 1832; Chinese Empress Dowager Tz'u Hsi in 1835; English electrical engineer John Fleming, who devised the radio tube-diode, in 1849; film choreographer Busby Berkeley in 1895; Irish novelist C.S. Lewis in 1898; actress Diane Ladd and former French President Jacques Chirac, both in 1932 (age 77); musician/composer Chuck Mangione in 1940 (age 69); comedians Garry Shandling in 1949 (age 60) and Howie Mandel in 1955 (age 54); filmmaker Joel Coen in 1954 (age 55); and actors Cathy Moriarty in 1960 (age 49), Kim Delaney in 1961 (age 48) and Andrew McCarthy in 1962 (age 47).

-0-

On this date in history:

In 1877, Thomas Edison demonstrated his invention, a hand-cranked phonograph that recorded sound on grooved metal cylinders. Edison shouted verses of "Mary Had a Little Lamb" into the machine, which played back his voice.

In 1890, the first Army-Navy football game was played with Navy winning 24-0.

In 1929, U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Richard Byrd and three crewmen became the first people to fly over the South Pole.

In 1947, despite strong Arab opposition, the United Nations voted for the partition of Palestine and the creation of the independent Jewish state of Israel.

In 1963, U.S. President Lyndon Johnson appointed the Warren Commission to investigate the assassination of U.S. President John Kennedy.

In 1986, movie icon Cary Grant died of a stroke at the age of 82.

In 1988, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev told a landmark Supreme Soviet session that the country's system of government needed radical change.

In 1989, Romanian Olympic gymnastic hero Nadia Comaneci fled to Hungary. She eventually reached the United States.

In 1990, the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution authorizing "all necessary means," including military force, against Iraq if it did not withdraw from Kuwait by Jan. 15, 1991.

In 1991, a dust storm in Coalinga, Calif., triggered a massive pileup by more than 250 vehicles on Interstate 5, killing 15 people and injuring more than 100.

In 1992, blacks killed four whites and wounded 17 more in an unusual attack at a South African golf club. The attack was thought to be the first by blacks against white civilians since the 1990 legalization of anti-apartheid groups.

In 1994, voters in Norway rejected a proposal to join the European Union.

In 2001, George Harrison, lead guitarist of the Beatles, died of cancer. He was 58.

In 2003, Iraqi insurgents killed seven members of Spain's National Intelligence Center and two Japanese diplomats in a series of attacks apparently aimed at non-American foreigners.

Also in 2003, plans by Britain, France and Germany to give the European Union a military planning arm, independent of NATO, won backing from the rest of the bloc.

In 2005, Louisiana's Department of Health and Hospitals reported 1,086 bodies were recovered in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Also in 2005, a Vatican policy paper said men who recognize homosexuality as a "transitory problem" can be allowed to pursue ordination to become Roman Catholic priests.

In 2006, U.S. investigators heavily criticized security at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico after classified documents were removed from the building.

In 2007, an Islamic court found a British teacher working in Sudan guilty of inciting religious hatred by allowing her class of 7-year-olds to name a Teddy bear "Mohammed." Gillian Gibbons, 54, was sentenced to 15 days in prison and deportation while street mobs demanded her execution.

In 2008, Thailand officials said tens of thousands of tourists were stranded in Bangkok by a rebel group's takeover and closing of the city's two commercial airports.

Also in 2008, a cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe worsened, authorities said. The United Nations pegged the death toll at more than 400 with almost 10,000 cases reported.

-0-

A thought for the day: Helmuth von Moltke wrote, "A war, even the most victorious, is a national misfortune."