The Almanac

Today is Thursday, Nov. 21, the 325th day of 2002 with 40 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Scorpio. They include French author Francois Voltaire in 1694; William Beaumont, pioneer American army surgeon, in 1785; British steamship company founder Samuel Cunard in 1787; comedian Harpo Marx in 1888; jazz saxophonist Coleman Hawkins in 1904; St. Louis Cardinals batting champion Stan Musial in 1920 (age 82); actor Lawrence Luckinbill in 1934 (age 68); actresses Juliet Mills in 1941 (age 61) and Marlo Thomas in 1943 (age 59); TV producer Marcy Carsey and filmmaker/actor Harold Ramis, both in 1944 (age 58); actresses Goldie Hawn in 1945 (age 57), Lorna Luft in 1952 (age 50), and Nicollette Sheridan in 1963 (age 39); and former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikmann in 1966 (age 36).

On this date in history:

In 1783, in Paris, Jean de Rozier and the Marquis d'Arlandes made the first free-flight ascent in a balloon.

In 1800, Congress met for the first time in Washington, D.C.

in 1877, Thomas Edison announced his invention of the phonograph, a way to record and play back sound.

In 1938, Nazi forces occupied western Czechoslovakia and declared its people German citizens.

In 1974, Congress passed the Freedom of Information Act over President Ford's veto.

In 1985, Jonathan Jay Pollard, a civilian U.S. Nany intelligence analyst and Jewish American, was arrested on charges of illegally passing classified U.S. security information about Arab nations to Israel.

Also in 1985, President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev ended a summit meeting in Switzerland. They promised acceleration of arms-reduction talks.

n 1990, former Drexel Burnham Lambert junk bond "king" Michael Milken was sentenced to 10 years in prison for securities violations.

In 1991, President Bush signed the Civil Rights Act of 1991, making it easier for workers to sue in job discrimination cases.

In 1995, China jailed well-known dissident Wei Jing-sheng and charged him with trying to overthrow the government.

In 2001, a 94-year-old Connecticut woman became the nation's fifth anthrax victim, a death that mystified authorities since she rarely left home. Later it was discovered a family living a mile away had received a letter with anthrax residue on it.

A thought for the day: it was Voltaire who said, "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."