The almanac

Today is Tuesday, Feb. 23, the 54th day of 2010 with 311 to follow.

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

Those born on this day are under the sign of Pisces. They include diarist Samuel Pepys in 1633; German composer George Frideric Handel in 1685; Mayer Amschel Rothschild, European banker and founder of the Rothschild financial dynasty, in 1744; writer and philosopher W.E.B. DuBois in 1868; film director Victor Fleming ("Gone With The Wind," "Wizard of Oz") in 1883; journalist-author William Shirer in 1904; Paul Tibbets, pilot of the Enola Gay on the flight that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, in 1915; former congressman and longtime University of Nebraska football coach Tom Osborne in 1937 (age 73); journalist Sylvia Chase in 1938 (age 72); actor Peter Fonda in 1939 (age 71); rock musician Johnny Winter, brother of Edgar Winter, and novelist John Roswell Camp (who writes as John Sanford), both in 1944 (age 66); and actors Patricia Richardson ("Home Improvement") in 1951 (age 59), Emily Blunt in 1983 (age 27) and Dakota Fanning in 1994 (age 16).

On this date in history:

In 1903, The United States was granted a lease "in perpetuity" on Guantanamo Bay by Cuban officials.

In 1942, a Japanese submarine surfaced off the coast of California and fired 25 shells at an oil refinery near Santa Barbara.

In 1945, members of the 5th Division of the U.S. Marines planted a U.S. flag atop Mount Suribachi on the strategically important Pacific island of Iwo Jima at the end of one of World War II's bloodiest battles.

In 1982, Canada, Japan and the Common Market nations of Europe joined the United States in economic and diplomatic sanctions against Poland and the Soviet Union to protest imposition of martial law in Poland.

In 1991, military forces in Thailand overthrew the elected government and imposed martial law.

In 1994, Bosnia's warring Croats and Muslims signed a cease-fire agreement. The Croats agreed to pull back from the Muslim city of Mostar, which had been under siege.

In 1995, the Dow Jones industrial average closed at more than 4,000 for the first time -- at 4,003.33.

In 1996, two sons-in-law of Saddam Hussein, who had fled Iraq to exile in Jordan, returned after being pardoned and told they'd be safe back home. The next day, they were killed -- within hours of an Iraqi government announcement that their wives, Saddam's daughters, were granted divorces.

In 1997, Scottish scientists introduced Dolly the cloned sheep to the world. She was the first mammal successfully cloned from a cell from an adult animal.

Also in 1997, a gunman identified as a Palestinian teacher killed a tourist from Denmark and wounded six other people on the observation deck of the Empire State Building in New York City before turning the gun on himself.

In 1998, a series of tornadoes raked central Florida, killing 42 people and injuring more than 200 others.

In 1999, a jury in Jasper, Texas, convicted self-described white supremacist John King in the June 1998 killing of a black man who'd been dragged to his death behind a pickup truck. King was sentenced to death two days later.

In 2003, Israeli attacks on Hamas-related facilities in Gaza and the West Bank over the past week left at least 40 Palestinians dead.

In 2005, official efforts to identify victims from the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York ended, leaving more than 1,000 bodies unidentified.

Also in 2005, the death toll from the heavy snowfall and avalanches in Kashmir reached 300.

In 2006, the snow-covered roof of a Moscow market collapsed, killing at least 60 people and injuring more than two dozen others.

In 2008, a Sri Lanka military attack on a Tamil Tiger rebel camp left 51 dead as violence in the Asian country intensified.

Also in 2008, Japanese officials called for a crackdown on reported increases in crime and disorderly conduct by U.S. military personnel living off base in Okinawa. Alleged offenses included rape, drunken driving, trespassing and counterfeiting.

In 2009, U.S. stocks dived for the fifth consecutive day with major indexes falling to their lowest level since 1997. The Dow Jones industrial average was down 3.4 percent and the Standard and Poor's 500 lost 3.5 percent.

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