The almanac

Today is Sunday, March 7, the 66th day of 2010 with 299 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Pisces. They include English astronomer John Herschel in 1792; English painter Edwin Henry Landseer in 1802; American botanist Luther Burbank in 1849; Dutch abstract painter Piet Mondrian in 1872; French composer Maurice Ravel in 1875; actress Anna Magnani in 1908; NBC weatherman Willard Scott in 1934 (age 76); race car driver Janet Guthrie in 1938 (age 72); former Disney executive Michael Eisner in 1942 (age 68) and TV evangelist Tammy Faye Bakker in 1942; actors Daniel J. Travanti in 1940 (age 70) and John Heard in 1945 (age 65); musician Townes Van Zandt in 1944; pro football players Franco Harris in 1950 (age 60) and Lynn Swann in 1952 (age 58); Czech tennis star Ivan Lendl in 1960 (age 50); comedienne Wanda Sykes in 1964 (age 46).

On this date in history:

In 1869, the Suez Canal opened, connecting the Mediterranean and the Red Sea via Egypt.

In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell was granted a patent for the telephone.

In 1887, North Carolina State University was founded.

In 1932, in the depths of the Great Depression, an estimated 3,000 men rioted at the Detroit plant of the Ford Motor Co. Four were killed.

In 1936, Adolf Hitler ordered Nazi troops into the Rhineland, violating the Treaty of Versailles.

In 1945, the U.S. 1st Army crossed the Rhine at Remagen in Germany. The bridge was the only one across the Rhine that hadn't been destroyed. World War II ended in Europe two months later.

In 1984, the U.S. Senate confirmed William Wilson as the first U.S. ambassador to the Vatican in 117 years.

In 1997, a U.S. veto killed an otherwise unanimous U.N. Security Council resolution condemning new Jewish settlements in Arab East Jerusalem.

In 2002, More than 600 people were reported dead after several days of Hindu-Muslim violence in the state of Gujarat, India.

In 2004, after repeated failures and missed deadlines, the Iraqi governing council signed an interim constitution.

Also in 2004, V. Gene Robinson, openly gay and controversial, became the Episcopal bishop of New Hampshire.

In 2006, U.S. prosecutors sought the death penalty for Zacarias Moussaoui, who pleaded guilty to terrorism conspiracy leading up to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

In 2007, an Indonesian Garuda Airlines Boeing 737-400 with 140 people aboard crashed and burned on landing in Yogyakarta, killing 49 people.

In 2008, a foreign policy aide to Barack Obama apologized for calling Democratic presidential rival Hillary Clinton a "monster."

In 2009, two islands off the Queensland coast in Australia were evacuated as powerful Cyclone Hamish approached. The storm, a category 5 cyclone producing winds of more than 180 miles per hour, passed within 60 miles of the Whitsunday Islands.

A thought for the day: Franklin D. Roosevelt advised, "When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on."