The Almanac

Today is Sunday, Jan. 15, the 15th day of 2006 with 350 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Capricorn. They include outlaw Cole Younger in 1844; Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis in 1906; nuclear physicist Edward Teller in 1908; drummer Gene Krupa in 1909; actor Lloyd Bridges in 1913; folk music scholar Alan Lomax in 1915; Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1918; civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in 1929; actress Margaret O'Brien in 1937 (age 69); actress Andrea Martin in 1947 (age 59); singer/actress Charo (Maria Martinez) in 1951 (age 55); and actors Mario Van Peebles in 1957 (age 49) and Chad Lowe in 1968 (age 38).

On this date in history:

In 1759, the British Museum opened.

In 1870, a cartoon by Thomas Nast appeared in Harper's weekly with a donkey symbolizing the Democratic Party for the first time. The symbol stuck.

In 1922, the Irish Free State was formed.

In 1943, the Pentagon, the world's largest building of its kind, was completed on the Virginia side of the Potomac River just outside Washington.

In 1967, the first Super Bowl was played at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The Green Bay Packers defeated the Kansas City Chiefs, 35-10, to win the first NFL-AFL World Championship Game.

In 1973, President Richard Nixon called a halt to U.S. military offensives in Vietnam.

In 1986, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev proposed a sweeping new arms control plan to eliminate all nuclear weapons by the year 2000 and rid "mankind of the fear of nuclear catastrophe."

In 1993, the U.S. Coast Guard announced it would beef up patrols off the coast of Haiti in hopes of halting an expected exodus of refugees headed for the United States.

Also in 1993, a Colorado judge blocked enforcement of a voter-approved state constitutional amendment banning laws protecting homosexuals from discrimination.

And in 1993, four-time Oscar-winning songwriter Sammy Cahn, who wrote such hits as "Fly Me to the Moon" and "Three Coins in the Fountain," died of heart failure at age 79.

In 1997, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat reached an agreement on the Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank city of Hebron.

In 1999, Serb forces killed 45 ethnic Albanian civilians in Kosovo.

In 2000, the notorious Serbian paramilitary leader known as Arkan (Zeljko Raznotovic) was shot to death in a hotel lobby in Belgrade.

In 2002, John Walker Lindh, a 20-year-old American seized with the Taliban in Afghanistan in December, was charged with conspiring to kill U.S. citizens and abetting terrorist groups.

In 2003, the White House budget chief predicted deficits in $200 billion to $300 billion range over next two years.

In 2004, the U.S. Defense Department's top auditor asked for a formal Pentagon investigation into whether Halliburton Co. overcharged for Iraqi fuel deliveries.

In 2005, President George W. Bush outlined his plan to secure Social Security with current benefit levels, no payroll tax rise and partial private investment accounts.

Also in 2005, Iraqi Defense Minister Hazem Shaalan said an Iraqi woman trained in Syria tried to assassinate him, but collapsed and could not go through with it.

A thought for the day: John Milton wrote in "Paradise Lost":

"Here at last

"We shall be free;

"the Almighty hath not built

"Here for his envy, will not drive us hence:

"Here we may reign secure, and in my choice

"To reign is worth ambition though in Hell:

"Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven."