The Almanac

Today is Sunday, Dec. 29, the 363rd day of 2002 with two to follow.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Capricorn. They include Madame de Pompadour, mistress of French King Louis XV, in 1721; Scottish chemist Charles Macintosh, who patented a waterproof fabric, in 1766; industrialist Charles Goodyear in 1800; Andrew Johnson, 17th president of the United States, in 1808; British statesman William Gladstone, in 1809; Spanish cellist Pablo Casals in 1876; World War I aviation hero Gen. Billy Mitchell in 1879; former Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley in 1917; actors Ed Flanders ("St. Elsewhere") in 1934, Mary Tyler Moore in 1937 (age 65) and Jon Voight in 1938 (age 64); singer Marianne Faithfull in 1946 (age 56); actors Ted Danson in 1947 (age 55) and Jon Polito ("Homicide: Life on the Street") in 1950 (age 52); and comedian Paula Poundstone in 1959 (age 43).

On this date in history:

In 1170, Anglican churchman/politician Thomas a' Becket was murdered at Canterbury Cathedral in England.

In 1845, Texas was admitted into the United States as the 28th state.

In 1848, gaslights were installed at the White House for the first time.

In 1851, the first Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) chapter opened in Boston.

In 1890, more than 200 Indian men, women and children were massacred by the U.S. 7th Cavalry at Wounded Knee Creek, S.D.

In 1940, London suffered its most devastating air raid when Germans firebombed the city.

In 1975, a terrorist bomb exploded at LaGuardia Airport in New York City, killing 11 people and injuring 75.

In 1983, the United States announced its withdrawal from UNESCO, charging the U.N. cultural and scientific organization was biased against Western nations.

In 1989, playwright Vaclav Havel was sworn in as the first non-communist president of Czechoslovakia since 1948.

In 1992, a Cuban airliner was hijacked to Miami as part of a mass defection. 48 of the 53 people aboard sought and were granted political asylum.

Also in 1992, convicted "Scarsdale Diet Doctor" killer Jean Harris was granted clemency just minutes before undergoing open-heart surgery.

And in 1992, a suburban Chicago couple returning from a nine-day Mexican vacation was arrested for leaving their young daughters home alone. The couple would later give the children up for adoption.

In 2001, London scientists studying seized documents concluded that accused terrorist leader Osama binn Laden's al Qaida organization had tried to develop a range of weapons that include a ''dirty'' nuclear bomb.

A thought for the day: poet Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it."