The Almanac

Today is Monday, Nov. 6, the 310th day of 2006 with 55 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Scorpio. They include Belgian instrument-maker Adolphe Sax, inventor of the saxophone, in 1814; band leader and composer John Philip Sousa ("the march king") in 1854; Charles Henry Dow, co-founder of Dow Jones and Co. and first editor of The Wall Street Journal, in 1851; James Naismith, inventor of the game of basketball, in 1861; musician Ray Conniff in 1916; director Mike Nichols in 1931 (age 75); actress Sally Field in 1946 (age 60); singer/songwriter Glenn Frey in 1948 (age 58); TV journalist and California first lady Maria Shriver in 1955 (age 51); actors Lance Kerwin in 1960 (age 46) and Ethan Hawke in 1970 (age 36); and actress Rebecca Romijn-Stamos in 1972 (age 34).

On this date in history:

In 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected 16th president of the United States.

In 1869, in the first formal intercollegiate football game, Rutgers beat Princeton, 6-4.

In 1917, the Bolshevik revolution began in Russia. Because it took place under the old czarist calendar, it is known as the October Revolution.

In 1921, the cult of Rudolph Valentino was launched with the release of his silent film "The Sheik," which despite negative reviews immediately caught the attention of women across the country.

In 1952, the United States exploded the world's first hydrogen bomb at Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific.

In 1968, Republican Richard Nixon was elected 37th president of the United States, defeating Democrat Hubert Humphrey.

In 1984, U.S. President Ronald Reagan was elected to a second term, winning 49 states.

In 1986, U.S. intelligence sources confirmed an earlier report that the United States had been secretly selling arms to Iran in an effort to secure the release of seven U.S. hostages held by pro-Iranian groups in Lebanon.

Also in 1986, U.S. President Ronald Reagan signed the landmark immigration reform bill, the first U.S. immigration law authorizing penalties for employers who hire illegal aliens.

In 1990, a gunman opened fire as Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev presided over the Revolution Day parade. Gorbachev was not hurt.

In 1991, Ukraine signed the Soviet economic-union treaty at the Kremlin.

In 1993, the ruling New Zealand National Party won a one-seat majority in general elections.

In 1995, numerous world leaders gathered in Jerusalem for the funeral of assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

In 2001, speaking at a Warsaw summit, U.S. President George W. Bush said for the first time that Osama Bin Laden was trying to get chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.

In 2002, the U.N. Security Council began considering the revised U.S. draft resolution that would declare Iraq in continuing "material breach" of previous measures and warn Baghdad of "serious consequences" if it failed to cooperate with weapons inspectors.

In 2003, U.S. President George W. Bush responded to growing doubts about his Iraq policy by claiming that success in Iraq -- and the entire Middle East -- was inevitable.

In 2005, at least 23 people were killed and some 230 injured when a tornado swept through parts of Indiana and Kentucky.

Also in 2005, U.S. gasoline prices fell an average of 23 cents per gallon -- to pre-Hurricane Katrina levels. The average price of a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline was $2.43, about 20 cents lower than it had been a few days before Aug. 29 storm.

A thought for the day: John Maynard Keynes said, "Words ought to be a little wild for they are the assault of thought on the unthinking."