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The almanac

By United Press International
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This is Friday, April 5, the 95th day of 2013 with 270 to follow.

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

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Those born on this date are under the sign of Aries. They include English philosopher Thomas Hobbes in 1588; Elihu Yale, namesake of Yale University, in 1649; Benjamin Harrison, signer of the Declaration of Independence and father of U.S. President William Henry Harrison, in 1726; English physician Joseph Lister, who introduced antiseptic surgery, in 1827; educator Booker T. Washington in 1856; actors Spencer Tracy in 1900, Melvyn Douglas in 1901, Bette Davis in 1908 and Gregory Peck in 1916; novelist Arthur Hailey in 1920; singer/actor Gale Storm in 1922; filmmaker Roger Corman in 1926 (age 87); impressionist Frank Gorshin in 1933; former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell in 1937 (age 76); actors Michael Moriarty in 1941 (age 72), Max Gail in 1943 (age 70) and Jane Asher in 1946 (age 67); astronaut Judith Resnik in 1949; and actor Mitch Pileggi in 1952 (age 61).

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On this date in history:

In 1614, Pocahontas, daughter of a chief, married English tobacco planter John Rolfe in Jamestown, Va., a marriage that ensured peace between the settlers and the Powhatan Indians for several years.

In 1768, the first U.S. Chamber of Commerce was founded in New York City.

In 1792, U.S. President George Washington exercised veto power, the first time it was done in the United States.

In 1951, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were sentenced to death in New York for stealing atomic secrets for the Soviet Union.

In 1968, violence erupted in several U.S. cities following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

In 1976, reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes died of kidney failure during a flight from Acapulco, Mexico, to Houston. He was 71.

In 1982, the British fleet sailed to recapture the Falkland Islands from Argentina.

In 1986, two U.S. servicemen and a Turkish woman were killed in the bombing of a West Berlin disco that Washington blamed on Libya. In retaliation, U.S. jetfighters bombed Tripoli and Benghazi 10 days later.

In 1991, former U.S. Sen. John Tower, R-Texas, and 22 others were killed in a commuter plane crash in Brunswick, Ga.

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In 1993, a Salvadoran Boeing 767 jetliner ran off the runway on landing in Guatemala City, Guatemala, and crashed into a residential area. All 213 people aboard the plane survived.

In 1999, one of two men charged in the October 1998 beating death of gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two life-in-prison sentences.

Also in 1999, Libya handed over for trial two suspects in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. The men were tried in the Netherlands under Scottish law.

In 2003, members of the U.S. 3rd Infantry moved through southwest Baghdad and reached the center of the Iraqi capital.

In 2005, ABC News anchor Peter Jennings told colleagues and friends that he had lung cancer.

In 2007, Iran released the 15-member British naval crew seized in the Persian Gulf and held for 13 days. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who accused the Britons of trespassing in Iranian waters, said their pardons were a "gift" to the British.

In 2009, North Korea failed to put a rocket into orbit, contrary to its earlier claim of a successful launch, U.S. and South Korean officials said. The payload reportedly fell into the Pacific Ocean, along with the second stage of the rocket.

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In 2010, in China, rescuers pulled 115 miners from a flooded coal mine where they had been trapped for eight days. In West Virginia, 29 people died in an explosion at a coal mine about 30 miles south of Charleston.

Also in 2010, the Obama administration announced a revised U.S. defense strategy including a commitment not to use nuclear weapons against most non-nuclear nations.

In 2011, Southwest Airlines said cracks were found on two of its Boeing 737s, bringing the total to five since one of its jetliners developed a gaping hole in the roof during flight.

In 2012, U.S. President Barack Obama signed a bipartisan bill he called a "potential game-changer" for start-ups and small businesses. He said the new law would make it easier for business owners to take their companies public and would remove certain regulatory investment barriers.


A thought for the day: Mother Teresa said, "If you judge people, you have no time to love them."

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