The almanac

Today is Tuesday, Feb. 9, the 40th day of 2010 with 325 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Aquarius. They include William Henry Harrison, ninth president of the United States, in 1773; actor Ronald Colman in 1891; former Secretary of State Dean Rusk in 1909; exotic dancer Gypsy Rose Lee, country singer Ernest Tubb and baseball entrepreneur Bill Veeck, all in 1914; Irish playwright Brendan Behan in 1923; actress Kathryn Grayson in 1922 (age 88); television journalist Roger Mudd in 1928 (age 82); evangelist Garner Ted Armstrong in 1930; Nobel laureate South African author J. M. Coetzee in 1940 (age 70); singer Carole King in 1942 (age 68); author Alice Walker in 1944 (age 66); actors Joe Pesci in 1943 (age 67), Mia Farrow in 1945 (age 65), Judith Light in 1949 (age 61) and Charles Shaughnessy in 1955 (age 55); and country singer Travis Tritt in 1963 (age 47).

On this date in history:

In 1775, the American colony of Massachusetts is declared in rebellion by the British Parliament.

In 1825, after no presidential candidate won the necessary majority, the House of Representatives elected John Quincy Adams the sixth president of the United States.

In 1900, the solid silver trophy known as the Davis Cup was first put up for competition when American collegian Dwight Filley Davis challenged British tennis players to compete against his Harvard team.

In 1943, in a major World War II strategic victory, the Allies retook Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands from the Japanese.

In 1950, U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy, R-Wis., charged the U.S. State Department was infested with communists, touching off the infamous "McCarthy era."

In 1960, the Hollywood Walk of Fame is instituted with Joanne Woodward honored with the first star.

In 1964, the Beatles appear on television's "The Ed Sullivan Show." An estimated 73 million people watched.

In 1971, an earthquake shook Los Angeles and killed 64 people.

Also in 1971, Satchel Paige becomes the first Negro League player voted to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

In 1984, Soviet President Yuri Andropov, in power 15 months, died at age 69.

In 1987, Robert McFarlane, former Reagan administration national security adviser, was hospitalized for an overdose of Valium just hours before he was to testify to a presidential commission about the Iran-Contra scandal.

In 1990, the U.S. stock of Perrier water was recalled because of levels of benzene in violation of EPA standards. The recall was later extended worldwide.

In 1991, Lithuanians overwhelmingly voted to secede from the Soviet Union in an independence plebiscite ruled illegal by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

In 1992, 30 people were reported killed in Senegal in the crash of a plane chartered by Air Senegal for Club Mediterranean.

In 1994, in Cairo, PLO chief Yasser Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres initialed an agreement that resolved some contentious issues in the Middle East peace talks.

In 1996, a bomb exploded in a London rail station, killing two and wounding 100. The IRA announced that the Northern Ireland cease-fire was over.

In 2001, nine people were killed when the U.S. submarine USS Greenville collided with a Japanese fishing boat off the coast of Hawaii. The accident took place during a surfacing drill.

In 2003, Egypt said the upcoming Arab League summit wouldn't ask Iraq's Saddam Hussein to step down as some Arab nations had urged. The Egyptian foreign minister said he didn't think any Arab country would "interfere in Iraq's internal affairs."

In 2005, hospitalized Pope John Paul II, recovering from flu-related respiratory problems, missed celebrating mass to begin Lent for the first time in 26 years.

In 2006, U.S. President George Bush said international cooperation had derailed a terrorist plot to fly an airplane into the 73-story Library Tower in Los Angeles.

In 2007, the Pentagon's inspector general told a U.S. Senate committee the Defense Department had tailored intelligence findings on Iraq to suit its audience.

In 2008, the three-month Writers' Guild of America strike that cost the entertainment industry more than $2 billion ended with a three-year deal.

Also in 2008, the U.S. space shuttle Atlantis delivered a $2 billion science lab to the International Space Station, doubling the station's zero-gravity research capacity.

In 2009, with the death toll expected to reach 200, Australian officials blamed arsonists for at least a portion of their country's worst brushfire rampage.

A thought for the day: U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson said, "Yesterday is not ours to recover but tomorrow is ours to win or lose."