The almanac

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This is Saturday, May 5, the 126th day of 2012 with 240 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Taurus. They include Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard in 1813; German political theorist Karl Marx in 1818; hatmaker John Stetson in 1830; crusading journalist Nellie Bly in 1864; author Christopher Morley in 1890; radio actor Freeman Gosden, Amos of "Amos and Andy," in 1899; chef and cookbook author James Beard in 1903; actor Tyrone Power in 1914; singer/actor Alice Faye in 1915; actors Ann B. Davis in 1926 (age86); Michael Murphy in 1938 (age 74); singer Tammy Wynette in 1942; journalists Kurt Loder in 1945 (age 67) and Brian Williams in 1959 (age 53); actors Lance Henriksen in 1940 (age 72), Michael Palin in 1943 (age 69), John Rhys-Davies and Roger Rees, both in 1944 (age 68) and Tina Yothers in 1973 (age 39); and singer Adele Adkins in 1988 (age 24).

On this date in history:

In 1821, Napoleon Bonaparte died in exile on the island of St. Helena.

In 1847, the American Medical Association was founded in Philadelphia.

In 1862, Mexican troops, outnumbered 3-1, defeated the invading French forces of Napoleon III.

In 1893, Wall Street stock prices took a sudden drop, sparking the second-worst economic crisis in U.S. history.

In 1904, Cy Young pitched major league baseball's first perfect game in leading the Boston Americans to a 3-0 win over Philadelphia.

In 1925, biology teacher John Scopes was arrested for teaching Darwin's theory of evolution in violation of Tennessee state laws.

In 1945, Allied troops liberated the Netherlands from Nazi Germany.

Also in 1945, Elsie Mitchell and five neighborhood children were killed in Lakeview, Ore., when a Japanese balloon they had found in the woods exploded. They were listed as the only known World War II civilian fatalities in the continental United States.

In 1961, astronaut Alan Shepard became the United States' first man in space in a brief, sub-orbital flight from Cape Canaveral.

In 1981, imprisoned Irish-Catholic militant Bobby Sands died after refusing food for 66 days in protest of his imprisonment as a criminal rather than a political prisoner by British authorities.

In 1985, U.S. President Ronald Reagan ignored an international uproar and visited a cemetery at Bitburg, West Germany, that contained the graves of World War II Nazi S.S. storm troopers.

In 1996, Jose Maria Aznar became prime minister of Spain.

In 2003, a wave of tornadoes killed 40 people in Kansas, Missouri and Tennessee.

Also in 2003, India and Pakistan agreed to renew diplomatic ties but India turned down Pakistan's offer of bilateral nuclear disarmament.

In 2004, Republican senators sought an investigation into charges that Iraq misused revenue from the U.N. oil-for-food program. A report estimated the Saddam Hussein regime collected $10.7 billion in illegal oil revenues.

In 2005, British Prime Minister Tony Blair was elected to a third term.

In 2006, 10 U.S. soldiers were killed in the crash of a helicopter in Afghanistan near the Pakistan border.

In 2007, a Newsweek poll indicated U.S. President George Bush had fallen to 28 percent approval among the nation's voters, worst presidential rating since Jimmy Carter's 28 percent in 1979.

In 2009, the World Health Organization reported the number of lab-confirmed swine flu cases had reached 1,500 people in 22 countries. The CDC put U.S. confirmed cases at 403 in 38 states.

In 2010, Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua died after a long illness at 58. He was succeeded by Goodluck Jonathan, the vice president and acting president.

Also in 2010, a Picasso painting, "Nude, Green Leaves and Bust," depicting the artist's mistress and painted in one day in 1932, sold for a record $106.5 million at a Christie's auction in New York.

In 2011, U.S. Republican presidential hopefuls began a series of televised debates, eventually numbering almost one dozen candidates seeking nomination to run against Democratic incumbent Barack Obama in 2012. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney was the early front-runner.

A thought for the day: "Nobody really cares if you're miserable, so you might as well be happy." Cynthia Nelms said that.