The almanac

Today is Thursday, Nov. 27, the 332nd day of 2008 with 34 to follow.

This is Thanksgiving Day in the United States.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Sagittarius. They include Anders Celsius, Swedish astronomer and inventor of the centigrade thermometer, in 1701; American historian Charles Beard and Israeli statesman Chaim Weizmann, both in 1874; producer David Merrick in 1911; entertainer "Buffalo Bob" Smith ("The Howdy Dowdy Show") in 1917; actor and martial arts star Bruce Lee in 1940; rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix in 1942; singer Eddie Rabbitt in 1941; and actors Fisher Stevens in 1963 (age 45), Robin Givens in 1964 (age 44), and Jaleel White in 1976 (age 32).

On this date in history:

In 1759, town officials in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, evicted the Rev. Francis Gastrell from William Shakespeare's home after he cut down a 150-year-old tree that had been planted by the writer.

In 1901, the U.S. War Department authorized creation of the Army War College to instruct commissioned officers. It was built in Leavenworth, Kan.

In 1940, two months after Gen. Ion Antonescu seized power in Romania and forced King Carol II to abdicate, more than 60 aides of the exiled king, including Nicolae Iorga, a former minister and acclaimed historian, were executed.

In 1970, a man with a knife attempted to injure Pope Paul VI at Manila Airport in the Philippines.

In 1989, University of Chicago doctors implanted part of a woman's liver in her 21-month-old daughter in the nation's first living donor liver transplant.

Also in 1989, Virginia certified Douglas Wilder as the nation's first elected black governor by a margin of 0.38 percent.

In 1990, British Treasury chief John Major was elected Conservative Party leader, succeeding Margaret Thatcher as prime minister.

In 1992, military dissidents attempted to overthrow Venezuelan President Carlos Andres Perez.

In 1994, Bosnian Serbs took 150 U.N. peacekeepers hostage to prevent NATO airstrikes.

In 1997, tens of thousands of German students took to the streets of Bonn to protest the decline of Germany's higher education system.

In 2002, U.S. President George Bush created a bipartisan, independent commission to investigate the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and to glean lessons to help thwart future strikes.

In 2003, U.S. President George Bush swooped into Iraq under the cover of darkness in a surprise visit to U.S. forces in Baghdad to help serve them Thanksgiving dinner.

In 2004, the U.N. Committee on Torture asked Britain to review its policy of detaining foreign terror suspects without trial.

In 2005, earthquakes struck China and Iran. At least 17 people died in the quake that rattled eastern China and at least 10 were killed when another tremor hit southern Iran.

In 2006, while deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein awaited court-ordered execution on his earlier mass murder conviction, Baghdad prosecutors resumed his second trial in which he and six others were charged with crimes against humanity in the deaths of as many as 180,000 Kurds in 1987-88.

In 2007, U.S. President George Bush, addressing representatives from more than 40 countries before a meeting over Mideast peace, said Israeli and Palestinian leaders had agreed to initiate immediate talks on a peace treaty.

A thought for the day: King Louis XVIII of France had a favorite saying, "Punctuality is the politeness of kings."