The almanac

Today is Sunday, Nov. 16, the 321st day of 2008 with 45 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Scorpio. They include Tiberius, emperor of Rome, in 42 B.C.; composer W.C. Handy, known as the "Father of the Blues," in 1873; Broadway director and playwright George S. Kaufman in 1889; jazz guitarist and bandleader Eddie Condon in 1905; actors Burgess Meredith in 1909, Marg Helgenberger in 1958 (age 50) and Lisa Bonet in 1967 (age 41); and Olympic figure skater Oksana Baiul in 1977 (age 31).

On this date in history:

In 1892, the University of Chicago, a founding member of the Big 10 Conference, won its first football game, beating Illinois, 10-4.

In 1907, Oklahoma became the 46th state admitted to the union.

In 1933, the United States established diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union.

In 1984, the space shuttle Discovery returned to Earth with the first two satellites ever plucked from space.

In 1989, six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her teenage daughter were shot to death at their residence in San Salvador. Three years later, in 1991, U.S. House of Representatives Democrats reported that Salvadoran Defense Minister Gen. Rene Ponce had planned the killings.

In 1989, seven children were killed when a tornado struck an elementary school near Newburgh, N.Y.

In 1990, the Soviet Union indicated its approval of the use of military force to oust Iraq from Kuwait.

In 1997, 85 percent of voters in Hungary cast ballots in favor of joining NATO.

In 2001, a letter containing anthrax was found at the Capitol in Washington, addressed to Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.

Also in 2001, U.S. officials said a bomb had killed Muhammad Atef, one of Osama bin Laden's oldest and closest strategists who was believed to have helped plan the Sept. 11 attacks.

In 2003, powerful explosions rocked Baghdad, while electric power went out in broad sections of the city as U.S. troops attacked suspected insurgent hideouts.

In 2004, Margaret Hassan, the kidnapped Iraqi CARE director, was believed to have been killed after al-Jazeera television received a video of a woman's slaying. The act drew widespread condemnation from world leaders.

In 2005, a secret White House document is said to confirm reports that oil company executives met with White House officials when the Bush administration was fashioning its 2001 energy policy.

In 2006, a U.S. Army specialist became the first of five suspects to plead guilty in the rape of a young Iraqi teenager and the killing of her and her family.

Also in 2006, Turkey severed military ties with France over a century-old dispute involving the deaths of some 1.2 million Armenians.

In 2007, in its last of four reports on climate change, the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned global warming of 1-3 degrees would lead to a rise in sea levels that would swallow up island nations, decimate one-quarter or more of the world's species, cause famine in Africa and spark increasingly violent hurricanes.

A thought for the day: it was Henry Kissinger who said, "History knows no resting places and no plateaus."