The Almanac

Today is Saturday, April 3, the 94th day of 2004 with 272 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Aries. They include historian and story writer Washington Irving in 1783; author and naturalist John Burroughs in 1837; publisher Henry Luce in 1898; actress and inventor of the "fan dance" Sally Rand in 1904; actress Doris Day and actor Marlon Brando, both in 1924 (age 80); astronaut Virgil "Gus" Grissom in 1926; anthropologist Jane Goodall in 1934 (age 70); actress Marsha Mason and entertainer Wayne Newton, both in 1942 (age 62); singer Tony Orlando in 1944 (age 60); actors Alec Baldwin in 1958 (age 46) and David Hyde Pierce in 1959 (age 45); actor/comedian Eddie Murphy in 1961 (age 43); and actress Jennie Garth ("Beverly Hills 90210") and Olympic skier Picabo Street, both in 1971 (age 33).

On this date in history:

In 1860, the Pony Express postal service began with riders leaving St. Joseph, Mo., and Sacramento, Calif., at the same time.

In 1865, as the Civil War drew to a close, Richmond, Va., and nearly Petersburg surrendered to Union forces.

In 1882, the notorious outlaw Jesse James was shot to death by Robert Ford, a former gang member who hoped to collect the reward on James' head.

In 1936, Richard Bruno Hauptmann was executed for the murder of the 20-month-old son of Charles A. Lindbergh.

In 1944, in a case out of Texas, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that barring blacks from voting violated the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

In 1948, President Truman signed into law the Marshall Plan, aimed to help European countries recover from World War II.

In 1962, the federal government ordered New Orleans to integrate the first six grades of its public schools.

In 1968, the landmark sci-fi motion picture "2001: A Space Odyssey" premiered.

In 1975, President Ford said the rest of the world should not regard losses in South Vietnam as a sign that American commitments would not be fulfilled elsewhere.

In 1989, Richard M. Daley was elected mayor of Chicago, the post his father had held for 21 years.

In 1991, the U-N Security Council passed the cease-fire resolution to end the Persian Gulf War.

In 1993, President Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin held their first summit in Vancouver, B.C., Canada.

In 1995, the owners and players of major league baseball approved an agreement, ending the longest strike in sports history.

In 1996, a plane crash in Croatia killed 35 people, including U.S. Commerce Secretary Ron Brown and other officials and business leaders.

Also in 1996, the FBI raided a Montana cabin and arrested former college professor Theodore Kaczynski, accusing him of being the Unabomber whose mail bombs had killed three people and injured 23 more since the 1970s.

In 1997, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said construction of a Jewish settlement in Arab East Jerusalem would continue, despite a series of fatal confrontations between Israeli troops and Palestinians.

In 2000, U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson ruled that Microsoft had violated U.S. antitrust laws. Microsoft immediately announced that it would appeal the decision.

In 2002, Afghan officials said they had arrested hundreds of people suspected of trying to subvert the country.

In 2003, President George W. Bush told U.S. Marines at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina that victory was at hand in Iraq. On that day, coalition troops crossed the Tigris River and moved to within 25 miles of Baghdad.

Also in 2003, as new cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome mounted the World Health Organization advised against travel to Hong Kong and the Chinese province of Guangdong because of the risk posed by the mysterious, pneumonia-like illness known as SARS.

A thought for the day: "Money, the root of all evil ... but the cure for all sadness." Mike Gill said that.