The almanac

Today is Sunday, Nov. 14, the 318th day of 2010 with 47 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Scorpio. They include Robert Fulton, inventor of the steamboat, in 1765; French Impressionist painter Claude Monet, in 1840; Indian statesman Jawaharlal Nehru in 1889; Mamie Doud Eisenhower, wife of U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower, in 1896; U.S. composer Aaron Copland in 1900; singers Morton Downey in 1901 and Johnny Desmond in 1920; actor/singer Dick Powell in 1904; Swedish writer Astrid Lindgren in 1907; U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy, R-Wis., in 1908; actor Veronica Lake in 1922; former U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali in 1922 (age 88); actors Brian Keith in 1921 and McLean Stevenson in 1927; astronaut Edward White, killed in the 1967 Apollo I launch pad fire, in 1930; King Hussein of Jordan in 1935; writer P.J. O'Rourke in 1947 (age 63); Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, in 1948 (age 62); fofmer U.s. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and New Age singer/songwriter Yanni in 1954 (age 56); actors D.B. Sweeney in 1961 (age 49), Laura San Giacomo in 1962 (age 48) and Patrick Warburton in 1964 (age 46); and television newscaster Bill Hemmer in 1964 (age 46).

On this date in history:

In 1666, the first blood transfusion took place in London. Blood from one dog was transfused into another.

In 1832, the first horse-drawn streetcar made its appearance in New York City.

In 1889, newspaper reporter Nellie Bly set off to break the fictional record of voyaging around the world in 80 days set by Jules Verne's character Phileas Fogg. She made the trip in 72 days, 6 hours, 11 minutes and 14 seconds.

In 1926, the NBC radio network made its debut.

In 1940, German planes bombed Coventry, England, destroying or damaging 69,000 buildings.

In 1972, for the first time in its 76-year history, the Dow Jones industrial average closed at more than 1,000.

In 1984, former Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon went to court in New York with a $50 million libel suit against Time magazine. He lost after a two-month trial.

In 1986, the White House acknowledged the CIA role in secretly shipping weapons to Iran.

In 1988, the PLO proclaimed an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, endorsing a renunciation of terrorism and an implicit recognition of Israel.

In 1990, a gunman in Dunedin, New Zealand, killed 12 neighbors and was killed by police in the nation's worst mass slaying.

In 1991, U.S. and British officials accused two Libyan agents in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in which 270 people died.

In 1993, in a referendum, residents of Puerto Rico voted in favor of continuing their U.S. commonwealth status.

In 1994, the 31-mile Chunnel Tunnel under the English Channel opened to passenger traffic between England and France.

In 2002, Iraq told the United Nations it accepted -- without condition or special requests -- the U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing the return of weapons inspectors to Baghdad.

In 2003, an Alabama jury ordered Exxon Mobil to pay the state $11.8 billion in damages relating to gas royalties for offshore drilling projects. The jury also awarded compensatory damages of $63.6 million.

In 2005, private U.S. donations to victims of Hurricane Katrina were reported to be near the $2.7 billion mark in 11 weeks, close to the record $2.8 billion said to have gone to Sept. 11, 2001, charities.

Also in 2005, North Korea reportedly proposed a five-step plan to give up its nuclear weapons program but officials said the plan appeared to depend on certain aid demands.

In 2006, all of the hostages seized from the Ministry of Higher Education in Baghdad were reported released in a series of police raids.

Also in 2006, a German chemist went on trial in Mannheim, Germany, on charges of denying the World War II Holocaust killed millions of Jews and others in Auschwitz gas chambers. Germar Rudolf called the Holocaust "a giant fraud." Holocaust denial is a crime in Germany.

In 2007, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a military spending bill that authorized $50 billion of the $200 billion sought by U.S. President George W. Bush for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and proposed dates for troop withdrawal.

In 2008, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in Santa Barbara County as an out-of-control, wind-driven wildfire raged near Montecito. As other fires cropped up, in San Fernando Valley and Orange County, at least 600 homes were damaged or destroyed and more than 10,000 residents were evacuated in two days.

In 2009, NASA scientists report finding at least 26 gallons of water on the moon after studying results of their L-cross satellite mission, demonstrating what they called the possibility of sustaining life there.

Also in 2009, former U.S. Rep. William Jefferson of Louisiana, 62, a nine-term Democratic congressman, was sentenced to 13 years in federal prison for bribery and racketeering.

A thought for the day: Russian author Boris Pasternak wrote, "Life itself, the phenomenon of life, the gift of life, is so breathtakingly serious."