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The almanac

By United Press International
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This is Wednesday, March 5, the 64th day of 2014 with 301 to follow.

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

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Those born on this date are under the sign of Pisces. They include Flemish mapmaker Gerardus Mercator in 1512; the Rev. William Blackstone, the first settler in what is now Boston, in 1595; Antoine Cadillac, founder of Detroit, in 1658; poet Lucy Larcom and lithographer James Ives, partner of Nathaniel Currier, both in 1824; author Frank Norris in 1870; water treatment pioneer Emmett J. Culligan in 1893; actors Rex Harrison in 1908, Jack Cassidy in 1927, Paul Sand in 1935 (age 79), Dean Stockwell in 1936 (age 78), Samantha Eggar in 1939 (age 75), Michael Warren in 1946 (age 68) and Marsha Warfield in 1954 (age 60); magician Penn Jillette of Penn and Teller in 1955 (age 59); journalist Ray Suarez in 1957 (age 57); singer Andy Gibb in 1958; televangelist Joel Osteen in 1963 (age 51); football Hall of Fame member Michael Irvin in 1966 (age 48); actor Eva Mendes in 1974 (age 40).

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On this date in history:

In 1770, British troops killed five colonials in the so-called Boston Massacre, one of the events that led to the American Revolution.

In 1933, in German elections, Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party won nearly half the seats in the Reichstag (the Parliament).

In 1946, Winston Churchill made his famous "Iron Curtain" speech in Fulton, Mo.

In 1953, the Soviet Union announced that dictator Josef Stalin had died at age 73.

In 1984, the Standard Oil Co. of California, also known as Chevron, bought Gulf Corp. for more than $13 billion in the largest business merger in U.S. history at the time.

In 1993, Canada's Ben Johnson, once called the world's fastest human, tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs and was banned for life from track competition.

In 1998, NASA announced that ice had been found at the moon's north and south poles.

In 2011, archeologists renovating the Rio de Janeiro harbor for the 2016 Olympics reported uncovering the remains of a 19th-century port where thousands of people arrived from Africa and were sold into slavery.

In 2013, U.S. transportation officials said they would relax rules on what passengers may carry on airline flights and focus more on "higher threat items."

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A thought for the day: "It is no use saying, 'We are doing our best.' You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary." -- Winston Churchill

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