The almanac

Today is Sunday, Oct, 2, the 275th day of 2011 with 90 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Libra. They include England's King Richard III in 1452; Nat Turner, a black slave and leader of the only effective and sustained U.S. slave revolt, in 1800; German statesman Paul von Hindenburg in 1847; French World War I military commander Ferdinand Foch in 1851; Indian independence leader Mohandas Gandhi, known as Mahatma Gandhi, in 1869; Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Cordell Hull in 1871; comedians Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx in 1890 and Bud Abbott in 1895; writer Graham Greene in 1904; child actor George "Spanky" McFarland of "Our Gang" and "Little Rascals" fame, in 1928; rock 'n' roll Hall of Fame member Eddie Cochran in 1938; movie critic Rex Reed, also in 1938 (age 73); pop singer Don McLean in 1945 (age 66); actor Avery Brooks and fashion designer Donna Karan, both in 1948 (age 63); photographer Annie Leibovitz in 1949 (age 62); rock singer Sting (Gordon Sumner) in 1951 (age 60); and actors Lorraine Bracco in 1954 (age 57) and Kelly Ripa in 1970 (age 41).

On this date in history:

In 1780, British spy Maj. John Andre was convicted in connection with Benedict Arnold's treason and was hanged in Tappan, N.Y.

In 1950, the "Peanuts" comic strip by Charles M. Schulz was published for the first time.

In 1959, "The Twilight Zone," with host Rod Serling, premiered on U.S. television.

In 1967, Thurgood Marshall was sworn in as the first African-American justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

In 1969, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas resigned after admitting he had made a financial deal with the Louis Wolfson Foundation.

In 1970, a plane crash in Colorado killed 31 people, including members of the Wichita State University football team.

In 1984, Richard Miller became the first FBI agent to be charged with espionage. He was convicted of passing government secrets to the Soviet Union through his Russian lover.

In 1985, actor Rock Hudson died of AIDS. He was 59 years old.

In 1991, the Organization of American States resolved to isolate Haiti's military junta and restore Aristide's government to power.

In 1993, ousted Russian Vice President Aleksandr Rutskoi called for people to take to the streets against President Boris Yeltsin's "dictatorship."

In 2001, NATO said that the United States had shown evidence, sufficient to justify NATO military action, that Osama bin Laden and his organization were responsible for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

In 2002, the first in a series of apparent random sniper attacks that terrorized the Washington area for three weeks occurred on this date with the slaying of a 55-year-old Maryland man.

In 2003, a federal judge barred prosecutors of accused terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui from seeking the death penalty or linking him with the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks because he wasn't allowed to interview al-Qaida operatives who might help his case.

In 2004, at least 48 people were killed in a series of attacks across the Indian states of Nagaland and Assam.

In 2005, 21 people died after a tour boat flipped over on Lake George in New York's Adirondacks.

Also in 2005, Connecticut issued its first licenses for "civil unions," becoming the third state to offer same-sex couples a legal way to unite.

In 2006, five Amish girls were fatally wounded in a series of shootings in a rural, one-room schoolhouse in Nickle Mines, Pa. The suspect, a milk truck driver who also killed himself, had told his wife that he needed to avenge something that had happened 20 years ago.

In 2007, Yemen's coast guard and NATO ships worked to recover bodies from the Red Sea after a volcano erupted on an island some 85 miles off the coast.

In 2008, suicide bombers struck two Shiite mosques, killing at least 20 worshipers during early morning prayers in two areas of Baghdad. The attacks occurred as Muslims were marking the end of the Ramadan fasting month.

In 2009, a presidential executive order banned some 4.5 million federal employees, including military personnel, from text-messaging while driving.

Also in 2009, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, was awarded the 2016 Olympic Games, the first South American city to host the event, beating out Tokyo, Madrid and Chicago.

And, late-night TV host David Letterman told viewers he had been the victim of an extortion plot involving sexual liaisons with female staff members.

In 2010, at least 36 people were reported killed and dozens more injured when a train from Jakarta slammed into a stationary train in pre-dawn darkness near the Indonesian city of Pemalang in central Java. Officials said a signal error was the most likely cause.

A thought for the day: Queen Elizabeth I of England said, "A fool too late bewares when all the peril is past."