The Almanac

Today is Tuesday, Aug. 5, the 217th day of 2003 with 148 to follow.

The moon is waxing in its first quarter. The morning stars are Saturn, Uranus, Venus, Mars and Neptune. The evening stars are Mercury, Jupiter and Pluto.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Leo. They include French novelist Guy de Maupassant in 1850; poet and critic Conrad Aiken in 1889; film director John Huston in 1906; actor Robert Taylor in 1911; Swedish architect Raoul Wallenberg, who's credited with saving 100,000 Jews from the Nazis during World War II, in 1912; legendary guitarist Les Paul in 1915 (age 88); astronaut Neil Armstrong in 1930 (age 73); actor John Saxon in 1935 (age 68); actress Loni Anderson in 1946 (age 57), singer Samantha Sang in 1953 (age 50); and actor Jonathan Silverman in 1966 (age 37).

On this date in history:

In 1833, Chicago was incorporated as a village with a population of about 200.

In 1858, after several unsuccessful attempts, the first telegraph line across the Atlantic Ocean was completed.

In 1861, President Abraham Lincoln signed into law the first federal income tax. As a wartime measure, all incomes over $800 were to be taxed at the rate of three percent. It was rescinded in 1872.

In 1957, Dick Clark's "American Bandstand" began airing nationally.

In 1962, actress Marilyn Monroe died of an overdose of barbiturates.

In 1963, the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union signed a treaty outlawing nuclear tests in the Earth's atmosphere, in space or under the sea.

In 1974, President Nixon admitted ordering the Watergate investigation halted six days after the break-in. Nixon said he expected to be impeached.

In 1981, President Ronald Reagan begins firing 11,359 air-traffic controllers striking in violation of his order for them to return to work. The executive action, regarded as extreme by many, significantly slowed air travel for months.

In 1990, the United States sent a Marine company into Monrovia, Liberia's capital, to evacuate U.S. citizens because of a rebel threat to arrest Americans to order to provoke foreign intervention in the civil war.

In 1991, the Democrats ordered inquiries into allegations that Ronald Reagan's 1980 campaign team delayed the release of the American hostages in Iran until after the election.

Also in 1991, Iraq admitted it misled U.N. inspectors about secret biological weapons and also admitted extracting plutonium from fuel at a nuclear plant.

In 1994, opponents of Fidel Castro clashed with police in Havana as thousands of Cubans took to the high seas trying to reach the United States.

Also in 1994, U.S. fighter-jets acting under NATO orders attacked Bosnian Serb positions after the Serbs seized weapons from a U.N depot. The weapons were returned.

And in 1994, Kenneth Starr, solicitor general under President Bush, was named as independent prosecutor investigating the Whitewater scandal.

In 1996, Republican presidential hopeful Bob Dole proposed a half-a-trillion-dollar tax cut.

In 1997, North Korea opened talks with the United States, China and South Korea aimed at negotiating a permanent treaty to replace the armistice agreed to after the Korean War.

In 1998, Iraq announced it would no longer cooperate with U.N. weapons inspectors and demanded the lifting of the U.N. sanctions imposed in 1991.

In 1999, the Senate confirmed Richard C. Holbrooke as ambassador to the U.N. Holbrooke's confirmation had been held up for 14 months because of ethics allegations against him.

A thought for the day: Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin reportedly said, "You cannot make a revolution with silk gloves."