The Almanac

Today is Sunday, April 11, the 102nd day of 2004 with 264 to follow.

This is Easter.

The moon is waning. 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 American statesman and orator Edward Everett in 1794; U.S. Supreme Court Justice Charles Evans Hughes in 1862; statesman Dean Acheson, secretary of state under President Truman, in 1893; fashion designer Oleg Cassini in 1913 (age 91); Ethel Kennedy, widow of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, in 1928; actors Joel Grey in 1932 (age 72), Louise Lasser in 1939 (age 65) and Peter Riegert and Meshach Taylor, both in 1947 (age 57); and Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Ellen Goodman in 1948 (age 56).

On this date in history:

In 1945, the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany was liberated by Allied troops.

In 1947, Jackie Robinson became the first black in major league baseball, playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers against the New York Yankees in an exhibition game.

In 1951, President Truman relieved Gen. Douglas MacArthur of his command in Korea.

In 1968, one week after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., President Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1968.

In 1970, the Apollo-3 spacecraft was launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on the third U.S. moon-landing mission. The attempt was aborted when an oxygen tank exploded, but the astronauts safely returned to earth.

In 1983, Harold Washington was elected the first black mayor of Chicago.

In 1987, South Africa, extending a nine-month-old state of emergency, barred all protests on behalf of political detainees.

In 1991, Italian Prime Minister-designate Giulio Andreotti formed a coalition cabinet to serve as Italy's 50th postwar government.

In 1992, loud, foul-mouthed shock comedian Sam Kinison died at age 38 in an auto crash in Needles, Calif., which critically injured his newlywed wife.

In 1993, nine inmates and one guard were killed when a riot erupted at the maximum security Southern Ohio Correctional Facility near Lucasville. The standoff lasted 11 days.

In 1994, President Clinton and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton paid $14,615 in federal and Arkansas back taxes and interest.

In 1996, Israel retaliated for bomb attacks by shelling Hezbollah positions in Lebanon. A U.N. refugee camp was struck, killing more than 100 civilians.

Also in 1996, 7-year-old Jessica Dubroff, her dad and her flight instructor were killed when their plane crashed upon take off from Cheyenne, Wyo.

In 1997, international peacekeepers landed in Albania, torn by months of internal strife.

In 2002, a jury in Cleveland convicted Rep. James Traficant, an Ohio Democrat, of racketeering and corruption.

In 2003, U.S. military officials listed 55 key figures in the Saddam Hussein regime still at large and identified each as a card in a special playing deck. Saddam, whose whereabouts were unknown, was the ace of spades.

A thought for the day: it was Jerry Seinfeld who said, "A bookstore is one of the only pieces of evidence we have that people are still thinking."