The almanac

Today is Monday, Jan. 11, the 11th day of 2010 with 354 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Capricorn. They include American statesman Alexander Hamilton, first secretary of the U.S. Treasury, in 1757; Ezra Cornell, founder of Western Union Telegraph company and Cornell University, in 1807; John MacDonald, first prime minister of Canada, in 1815; psychologist and philosopher William James in 1842; feminist lawyer Alice Paul in 1885; South African novelist Alan Paton ("Cry, the Beloved Country") in 1903; actors Rod Taylor in 1929 (age 81) and Amanda Peet in 1972 (age 38); Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien in 1934 (age 76); and singers Naomi Judd in 1946 (age 64) and Mary J. Blige in 1971 (age 39).

On this date in history:

In 1785, the Continental Congress convened in New York City.

In 1787, William Herschel discovers two moons of Uranus. They are named Titania and Oberon.

In 1861, Alabama seceded from the Union.

In 1935, U.S. aviator Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly from Hawaii to California.

In 1949, Los Angles notes its first recorded snowfall.

In 1964, U.S. Surgeon General Luther Terry released a report saying smoking cigarettes is a definite "health hazard."

In 1972, East Pakistan is renamed Bangladesh.

In 1984, the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated a $10 million award to the family of Oklahoma nuclear worker Karen Silkwood, who died in 1974.

In 1990, martial law, imposed during the June 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy movement, was lifted in Beijing.

In 1996, the Japanese Diet elected Ryutaro Hashimoto, head of the Liberal Democratic Party, as prime minister.

In 2000, the British government declared Chile's Augusto Pinochet medically unfit to stand trial in Spain. The ruling cleared the way for the former dictator to avoid charges of crimes against humanity.

In 2001, a yearlong investigation by the U.S. Army concluded that U.S. soldiers killed unarmed South Korean civilians in July 1950 during the Korean War.

In 2002, Ford announced it planned to lay off 35,000 employees, drop four car models and close four plants.

Also in 2002, Taliban and al-Qaida fighters captured in Afghanistan were flown to the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

And more from 2002, the father who killed another father after hockey practice in which their sons took part at a Reading, Mass., rink, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter.

In 2003, a few days before leaving office, Illinois Gov. George Ryan commuted the death sentences of 171 inmates to life in prison.

In 2005, NASA scientists studying the tsunami-inducing Indonesia earthquake of Dec. 26 calculated it slightly changed Earth's shape and shifted the poles about 1 inch.

In 2006, India reported as many as 172 deaths have been blamed on a cold wave.

In 2007, the president of Sudan agreed to a 60-day cease-fire in the country's war-torn Darfur region but continued to oppose a U.N. presence in the African country.

In 2007 sports, Florida upset Ohio State for the College Bowl Series championship and, three months later, beat Ohio State again for its second consecutive NCAA basketball title.

In 2009, Russia and Ukraine signed an agreement with the European Union that paves the way for resumption of natural gas deliveries. The Russian utility Gasprom cut off gas supplies to Ukraine in a back payment dispute and, as a result, to Eastern European countries such as Poland and Bulgaria in the midst of bitter cold weather.

A thought for the day: William James said, "There is no worse lie than a truth misunderstood by those who hear it."