The almanac

Today is Saturday, Sept. 18, the 261st day of 2010 with 104 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Virgo. They include English poet and lexicographer Samuel Johnson, writer of the first English dictionary, in 1709; U.S. Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story in 1779; French physicist Jean Foucault, inventor of the gyroscope, in 1819; choreographer Agnes de Mille in 1905; actors Greta Garbo in 1905, Leon Askin in 1907; Jack Warden in 1920 and Robert Blake in 1933 (age 77); film producer Bud Greenspan in 1926 (age 84); singer/actor Frankie Avalon and comedian Fred Willard, both in 1939 (age 71); basketball coach Rick Pitano (age 58) and rock 'n' roll musician Dee Dee Ramone, both in 1952; baseball Hall of Fame member Ryne Sandberg in 1959 (age 51); actor Holly Robinson Peete in 1964 (age 46); actor Jada Pinkett Smith and champion cyclist Lance Armstrong, both in 1971 (age 39).

On this date in history:

In 1850, the U.S. Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act, allowing slave owners to reclaim slaves who escaped into another state.

In 1851 The New-York Daily Times publishes first issues. The newspaper is now known as The New York Times.

In 1927, the Columbia Broadcasting System was born. Originally known as the Tiffany Network, its first program was an opera, "The King's Henchman."

In 1928, a hurricane that lashed Florida and the West Indies for five days left an estimated 4,000 people dead and $30 million in damage.

In 1961, U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold died when his plane crashed under mysterious circumstances near Ndola in Northern Rhodesia.

In 1970, rock star Jimi Hendrix died at the age of 28 following a drug overdose in London.

In 1975, FBI agents in San Francisco captured heiress Patricia Hearst and two of her Symbionese Liberation Army comrades, William and Emily Harris.

In 1983, British adventurer George Meegan finished a 19,021-mile, 6-year walk from the tip of South America to the Arctic Ocean at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska.

In 1990, Winnie Mandela, wife of South African black leader Nelson Mandela, was charged with assault and kidnapping in the 1988 abduction and slaying of a 14-year-old boy by her chief bodyguard.

In 1991, U.S. President George H.W. Bush authorized U.S. warplanes to fly into Iraq to protect U.N. inspectors.

In 1994, a U.S. delegation headed by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter persuaded Haiti's military leaders to step aside in favor of the democratically elected president after learning U.S. troops were en route to the Caribbean nation.

In 1996, the shuttle Atlantis docked with the Mir space station to pick up U.S. astronaut Shannon Lucid, who had set a U.S. record for time spent in space.

Also in 1996, the doctors of Russian President Boris Yeltsin revealed he had a heart attack during his re-election campaign.

In 1998, the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee voted along party lines to release the videotape of U.S. President Bill Clinton's grand jury testimony, during which he denied lying about his relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

In 2001, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Prime Minister Arial Sharon of Israel both ordered a halt of offensive actions and Israeli troops and tanks began pulling out of the areas around Jericho and Jenin.

In 2003, Hurricane Isabel slammed into the North Carolina coast, eventually causing a reported 40 deaths and inflicting property damage estimated at $5 billion.

In 2004, the U.N. Security Council called for Sudan to put an end to the killings in the Darfur region where an estimated 50,000 people died in militia raids over 18 months.

In 2005, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has told the United Nations his country won't back down on its "right to pursue peaceful nuclear energy."

Also in 2005, voters in the German parliamentary election failed to give any party a majority with Prime Minister Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats trailing Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats.

And in 2005, Afghanistan had its first free election in 25 years, drawing millions of voters despite Taliban threats.

In 2008, the U.S. House of Representatives joined the Senate in approving a civil rights bill that broadens the definition of disability to include epilepsy, diabetes, cancer, multiple sclerosis and other illnesses.

Also in 2008, the U.S. Federal Reserve expanded swap lines to allow banks to borrow at lower rates. The Fed authorized an additional $110 billion for European banks, $60 billion for the Bank of Japan and $10 billion for the Bank of Canada.

In 2009, investigators in New Haven, Conn., arrested a co-worker in the strangulation slaying of a Yale University graduate student who was to have been married on the day her body was found behind a lab wall. Police called Annie Le, 24, a victim of "workplace violence."

Also in 2009, Christian conservatives meeting in Washington showed favoritism for minister-politician-commentator Mike Huckabee for U.S. president in 2012, a straw poll indicated.

And, the final episode of "The Guiding Light" broadcast. The soap opera had run on radio or television for 72 years.

A thought for the day: American reformer Elizabeth Cady Stanton said, "The Bible and the Church have been the greatest stumbling blocks in the way of women's emancipation."