The almanac

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Today is Thursday, Nov. 8, the 313th day of 2012 with 53 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Scorpio. They include British astronomer Edmond Halley in 1656; games producer Milton Bradley in 1836; Irish author Bram Stoker ("Dracula") in 1847; author Margaret Mitchell ("Gone With the Wind") in 1900; actors June Havoc in 1912 and Esther Rolle in 1920; heart transplant pioneer Dr. Christiaan Barnard in 1922; football Hall of Fame Coach Bobby Bowden in 1929 (age 83); TV journalist Morley Safer in 1931 (age 81); singers Patti Page in 1927 (age 85), Bonnie Bramlett in 1944 (age 68), Minnie Riperton in 1947 and Bonnie Raitt in 1949 (age 63); National Rifle Association official Wayne LaPierre in 1948 (age 64); TV personality Mary Hart in 1950 (age 62); actor Alfre Woodard in 1952 (age 60); singer Rickie Lee Jones in 1954 (age 58); and actors Courtney Thorne-Smith in 1967 (age 45) and Parker Posey in 1968 (age 44); TV chef Gordon Ramsay in 1966 (age 46); actor Tara Reid in 1975 (age 37).

On this date in history:

In 1793, the Louvre in Paris, containing one of the world's richest art collections, became a public museum after two centuries as a royal palace.

In 1837, Mount Holyoke Seminary in Massachusetts became the first U.S. college founded exclusively for women.

In 1864, amid the U.S. Civil War, Abraham Lincoln was elected to his second term as president. He was assassinated five months later.

In 1889, Montana was admitted to the union as the 41st state.

In 1895, physicist Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen discovered X-rays.

In 1942, as World War II raged on, more than 400,000 Allied soldiers invaded North Africa.

In 1982, a smoky fire set by a prisoner in a Biloxi, Miss., jail killed 28 people.

In 1985, a judge overturned Rubin "Hurricane" Carter's conviction for a 1966 triple killing in a Patterson, N.J., bar, freeing the former boxer after 19 years in prison.

In 1988, U.S. Vice President George H.W. Bush was elected the 41st president of the United States.

In 1994, in a stunning upset, Republican candidates swept the general election, regaining control of both chambers of the U.S. Congress. It marked the first time in 40 years the Republicans controlled both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

In 2002, the U.N. Security Council unanimously approved a U.S.-British sponsored resolution authorizing the return of weapons inspectors to Iraq and "serious consequences" if Baghdad failed to cooperate.

Also in 2002, U.S. President George W. Bush assured a Muslim audience that the United States' war was against a network of terrorists and not against the Islamic religion or Muslim civilization.

In 2003, a suicide bomb attack on an Arab residential compound in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, killed 18 and wounded 110.

In 2005, French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin declared a state of emergency in a bid to quell the nation's worst rioting in decades.

In 2006, U.S. President George W. Bush introduced former CIA Director Robert Gates as secretary of defense, succeeding Donald Rumsfeld.

In 2007, the U.S. Senate handed George W. Bush the first veto override of his presidency, voting 79-to-14 in favor of a $23 billion water projects bill.

In 2008, a deadly malfunction aboard the nuclear-powered Russian sub K152-Nerpa claimed the lives of 20 civilians and sailors and injured another 25.

In 2009, at least 91 people were killed, more than 50 others were missing and thousands were evacuated as heavy rain, flooding and mudslides swept through El Salvador.

In 2011, U.S. voters rejected some key conservative-backed measures in the general election, among them an anti-abortion proposal in Mississippi and an anti-labor law in Ohio. Further, voters overall showed support for city and state incumbents, officials said.

Also in 2011, remains of U.S. soldiers were mishandled and body parts were lost at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, a scathing Washington report concluded. Three senior officials at the base were disciplined following an 18-month investigation.

A thought for the day: author George Sand wrote, "We cannot tear out a single page of our life but we can throw the whole book in the fire."