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The almanac

By United Press International
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This is Saturday, April 5, the 95th day of 2014 with 270 to follow.

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

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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 88); impressionist Frank Gorshin in 1933; former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell in 1937 (age 77); actors Michael Moriarty in 1941 (age 73), Max Gail in 1943 (age 71) and Jane Asher in 1946 (age 68); astronaut Judith Resnik in 1949; and actor Mitch Pileggi in 1952 (age 62).

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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, 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. (They were executed in 1953.)

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

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

In 1999, Russell Henderson, one of two men charged in the October 1998 beating death of gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard, pleaded guilty and was given two life prison sentences. (The second man, Aaron McKinney, who delivered the fatal blows, also received two life terms.)

In 2005, ABC News anchor Peter Jennings told colleagues and friends he had lung cancer. (Jennings died four months later.)

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

In 2010, 29 people died in an explosion in a coal mine about 30 miles south of Charleston, W.Va.

In 2012, U.S. President Barack Obama signed a 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.

In 2013, South Korean President Park Geun-hye called for tougher laws to ensure that people don't avoid punishment or get light sentences "just because they are rich or influential."


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

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