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The almanac

By United Press International
Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter

Today is Tuesday, Oct. 15, the 288th day of 2013 with 77 to follow.

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

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Those born on this date are under the sign of Libra. They include Roman poet Virgil in 70 B.C.; German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche in 1844; boxing champion John L. Sullivan in 1858; English writer and humorist P.G. Wodehouse in 1881; film producer Mervyn LeRoy in 1900; photograph archivist Otto Bettmann in 1903; economist John Kenneth Galbraith in 1908; writer and historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. in 1917; author Mario Puzo ("The Godfather") in 1920; former Chrysler Corp. Chairman Lee Iacocca in 1924 (age 89); singer Barry McGuire in 1935 (age 78); actor Linda Lavin in 1937 (age 76); actor/director Penny Marshall in 1942 (age 71); Nobel Peace Prize recipient David Trimble in 1944 (age 69); baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Palmer in 1945 (age 68); pop singers Richard Carpenter in 1946 (age 67) and Tito Jackson in 1953 (age 60); Sarah, duchess of York, and chef Emeril Lagasse, both in 1959 (age 54); and singer Keyshia Cole in 1981 (age 32).

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On this date in history:

In 1793, the first human flight in a hot-air balloon was reported in France.

In 1917, the most famous spy of World War I, Gertrude Zelle, better known as Mata Hari, was executed by a firing squad outside Paris.

In 1946, Nazi Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering, sentenced to death as a war criminal, committed suicide in his prison cell on the eve of his scheduled execution.

In 1951, "I Love Lucy," TV's first long-running sitcom, made its debut.

In 1964, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev was ousted and replaced by Alexei Kosygin and Leonid Brezhnev.

In 1984, astronomers in Pasadena, Calif., displayed the first photographic evidence of another solar system 293 trillion miles from Earth.

In 1989, Wayne Gretzky broke the all-time NHL scoring record.

In 1990, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In 1991, the Senate confirmed Clarence Thomas as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court by a vote of 52-48, the closest confirmation vote in court history.

In 1992, a man who terrorized the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don for more than a decade with a series of more than 50 grisly killings was sentenced to death.

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In 1993, the Pentagon censured three U.S. Navy admirals who organized the 1991 Tailhook Association convention during which scores of women had been subjected to abuse and indignities by junior officers.

In 1994, Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide returned to Haiti three years after being driven into exile by a military coup.

In 1999, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the international group Doctors Without Borders.

In 2001, a package containing a substance believed to be anthrax was opened in the personal office of U.S. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D.

In 2003, 10 people were killed and dozens injured when a New York ferry, transporting passengers from Manhattan, slammed into a pier on Staten Island.

In 2004, the United Nations said it was getting reports of attacks against internally displaced people in Sudan's strife-torn Darfur region where tens of thousands had been killed and 1.6 million others displaced.

In 2010, the U.S. Social Security Administration announced that more than 58 million Americans receiving monthly benefits wouldn't get a cost-of-living adjustment in 2011.

In 2011, a monthlong protest over wealth disparity that began in New York went global. Reports said "Occupy" protests took place in 950 cities in 82 countries, including several major cities in the United States.

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In 2012, Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousufzai, shot in the head by the Taliban for advocating education for girls, arrived at a hospital in Britain. After her release, she continued to promote education and spoke at the United Nations.


A thought for the day: Arthur Conan Doyle wrote, "Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself but talent instantly recognizes genius."

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