The almanac

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Today is Thursday, Dec. 13, the 348th day of 2012 with 18 to follow.

The moon is new. The morning stars are Mercury, Venus and Saturn. Evening stars included Jupiter, Neptune, Uranus and Mars.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Sagittarius. They include former U.S. first lady Mary Todd Lincoln m 1818; clergyman Phillips Brooks, who wrote the Christmas carol "O Little Town of Bethlehem," in 1835; World War I hero Sgt. Alvin York in 1887; actor Van Heflin in 1910; former U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz in 1920 (age 92); baseball Hall of Fame member Larry Doby, the first American League African-American player, in 1923; comedian/actor/dancer Dick Van Dyke in 1925 (age 87); actor Christopher Plummer in 1929 (age 83); singer/actor John Davidson in 1941 (age 71); baseball Hall of Fame member Ferguson Jenkins in 1942 (age 70); political figure Herman Cain in 1945 (age 67); rock singer Ted Nugent in 1948 (age 64); actors Wendie Malick in 1950 (age 62), Steve Buscemi in 1957 (age 55), Johnny Whitaker in 1959 (age 53) and Jamie Foxx in 1967(age 45); and singer Taylor Swift in 1989 (age 23).

On this date in history:

In 1642, Dutch navigator Abel Tasman discovered New Zealand.

In 1816, the United States' first savings bank, the Provident Institution for Savings, opened in Boston.

In 1862, an estimated 11,000 northern soldiers were killed or wounded in a battle with Confederate troops outside Fredericksburg, Va.

In 1982, the Sentry armored car company in New York discovered the overnight theft of $11 million from its headquarters. It was the biggest cash theft in U.S. history at the time.

In 1990, the last of the U.S. hostages being held by Iraq, five diplomats in Kuwait, flew to freedom.

In 1992, Ricky Ray, 15, one of three hemophiliac brothers barred from attending a Florida school because they had the AIDS virus, died.

In 1998, in a non-binding referendum giving Puerto Ricans the opportunity to express a political preference, most voters indicated they wished to remain a U.S. commonwealth.

In 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court halted the Florida presidential vote recount, in effect giving the presidency to Republican George W. Bush more than a month after the balloting. Winning Florida meant Bush had enough electoral votes to defeat Democrat Al Gore, who won the popular vote.

In 2001, as the extensive manhunt continued for Osama bin Laden, the U.S. government released a tape of the suspected mastermind of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in which he spoke of the attacks and voiced pleasure and surprise that so many of the "enemy" had died.

Also in 2001, calling it a Cold War relic, President George W. Bush announced the United States was pulling out of the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty, opening the way for the U.S. Defense Department to test and deploy a missile defense system without restraints.

And in 2001, 14 people were killed when gunmen tried to storm the Indian Parliament building in New Delhi.

In 2002, Cardinal Bernard Law, under fire for allegedly protecting priests accused of abusing minors, resigned as Roman Catholic archbishop of Boston.

In 2003, a bearded and apparently disoriented Saddam Hussein, the deposed Iraqi president, was captured by U.S. troops in a small underground hideout southeast of his hometown of Tikrit, ending an eight-month manhunt.

In 2007, a landmark report implicated 89 U.S. major league baseball players, some of them the most dominant figures of the era, in the use of steroids and other illegal performance-enhancing drugs.

Also in 2007, a federal jury in Miami acquitted one of seven Florida men charged with conspiring to bomb Chicago's Sears Tower and was unable to reach a verdict on the rest. A mistrial was declared for the other six.

In 2008, President-elect Barack Obama said job creation and a stronger economy are the yardsticks against which his economic recovery plan should be measured.

In 2009, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi suffered a broken nose and two broken teeth when struck by a heavy statuette wielded by a man with a history of mental illness during a political rally in Milan.

In 2010, U.S. President Barack Obama signed into law school nutrition legislation aimed at improving the quality of school breakfasts, lunches and other foods sold in schools and nutrition programs for young children.

Also in 2010, a federal judge in Richmond, Va., ruled a key part of the federal healthcare law, calling for most Americans to have health insurance, was unconstitutional. A month earlier another federal judge in Virginia rejected a similar challenge to the new law.

In 2011, The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board recommended a nationwide ban on using portable electronics while driving. The board cited statistics indicating 3,000 people died in accidents last year related to distracted driving.

Also in 2011, Mario Monti, an economist and former European Union commissioner, was chosen Italy's new prime minister, succeeding Silvio Berlusconi, who resigned amid a deepening economic crisis.

A thought for the day: Willa Cather said, "The history of every country begins in the heart of a man or a woman."