The almanac

Today is Saturday, Dec. 19, the 353rd day of 2009 with 12 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 women's suffrage leader Mary Livermore in 1820; novelist Eleanor Porter ("Pollyanna") in 1868; actor Ralph Richardson in 1902; Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev in 1906; French dramatist Jean Genet, a pioneer in the theater of the absurd, in 1910; singer Edith Piaf in 1915; and actors Cicely Tyson in 1933 (age 76), Tim Reid in 1944 (age 65), Robert Urich in 1946, Jennifer Beals in 1963 (age 46) and Alyssa Milano in 1972 (age 37).

On this date in history:

In 1777, Gen. George Washington and the Continental Army began a winter encampment at Valley Forge, Pa.

In 1958, the U.S. satellite Atlas transmitted the first radio voice broadcast from space, a 58-word recorded Christmas greeting from U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower.

In 1972, the splashdown of Apollo 17 ended the United States' manned moon exploration program.

In 1984, the United States formally withdrew from UNESCO in a effort to force reform of the U.N. cultural organization's budget and alleged Third World bias.

Also in 1984, the prime ministers of Britain and China signed an accord, returning Hong Kong to China in 1997.

In 1986, U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese said U.S. President Ronald Reagan didn't know that money Iran paid for U.S. arms was going to Nicaraguan rebels.

In 1991, the Bank of Credit and Commerce International agreed to plead guilty to federal racketeering charges, forfeiting $550 million.

In 1998, U.S. President Bill Clinton became only the second U.S. president to be impeached when the House of Representatives approved two articles of impeachment, charging him with perjury and obstruction of justice. He was acquitted in the subsequent trial.

In 2002, South Korea elected Roh Moo-hyun as its president.

In 2003, Libya announced it would abandon efforts to develop nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.

In 2004, at least 60 people were killed in Iraq by car bombings in the Shiite Muslim holy cities of Karbala and Najaf.

In 2005, a Shiite Muslim coalition showed a strong overall lead in preliminary returns from Iraq's parliamentary election.

In 2006, U.S. President George W. Bush said he would increase the number of Americans in the military to deal with terrorism worldwide. Bush acknowledged that U.S. military forces were stretched too thin.

Also in 2006, a Libyan court sentenced five Bulgarian nurses and a doctor to death for deliberately infecting 426 children with HIV.

In 2007, U.S. President George W. Bush signed energy legislation that increases average vehicle's fuel economy by 2020 to 35 miles per gallon, a 40 percent hike.

Also in 2007, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said states cannot set their own emission standards. Seventeen states, including California, sought tougher restrictions.

And, conservative Lee Myung-bak won the South Korea presidential election.

In 2008, U.S. President George W. Bush announced he would lend General Motors and Chrysler $17.4 billion to help the automakers survive the next three months.

Also in 2008, a landmark $200 billion program intended to support consumer credit will allow hedge funds to borrow from the Federal Reserve for the first time.

And, Mark Felt, an FBI official who became known as the Washington Post journalists' shadowy source "Deep Throat" in the Watergate scandal, died at the age of 95.

A thought for the day: George Bernard Shaw said, "There are no secrets better kept than the secrets that everybody guesses."