The almanac

Today is Friday, April 23, the 113th day of 2010 with 252 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Taurus. They include English playwright William Shakespeare in 1564; James Buchanan, 15th president of the United States, in 1791; Nobel Prize-winning physicist Max Planck in 1858; Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev in 1891; Hall of Fame baseball pitcher Warren Spahn in 1921; actor/diplomat Shirley Temple Black in 1928 (age 82); singer Roy Orbison in 1936; actors Lee Majors and David Birney, both in 1939 (age 71), Herve Villechaize in 1943, Sandra Dee in 1942, Joyce DeWitt in 1949 (age 61), Jan Hooks in 1957 (age 53), Valerie Bertinelli in 1960 (age 50), Melina Kanakaredes in 1967 (age 43) and Kal Penn in 1977 (age 33); and Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh in 1968.

On this date in history:

In 1635, the first public school in America, the Boston Latin School, opened.

In 1898, the first movie theater opened at Koster and Bials Music Hall in New York City.

In 1898, the U.S. government asked for 125,000 volunteers to fight against Spain in Cuba.

In 1965, more than 200 U.S. planes struck North Vietnam in one of the heaviest raids of the Vietnam War.

In 1985, former U.S. Sen. Sam Ervin died at age 88. The North Carolina Democrat directed the Senate Watergate investigation that led to U.S. President Richard Nixon's resignation.

In 1987, an apartment building under construction in Bridgeport, Conn., collapsed, killing 28 construction workers.

In 1990, the West German government bowed to East German demands and agreed to a 1-1 exchange rate between East and West marks, clearing the path to a planned currency union.

In 1991, Virgilio Pablo Paz Romero was arrested for the 1976 car-bomb killing of Chilean Ambassador Orlando Letelier in Washington.

In 1992, McDonald's opened its first restaurant in Beijing.

In 1993, United Farm Workers founder Cesar Chavez died at age 66 of apparent natural causes.

In 2002, Pope John Paul II met at the Vatican with U.S. cardinals to discuss the sexual abuse scandal that had rocked the Roman Catholic clergy. He expressed an apology to victims of abuse, saying what had happened to them was a crime and "an appalling act in the eyes of God."

In 2003, after a 10-day stalemate, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat reached agreement on a new Cabinet with his choice for prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas.

In 2006, Hungary's Socialist-Liberal coalition recaptured government control by a comfortable majority in parliamentary elections.

In 2007, former Russian President Boris Yeltsin, who faced down army tanks during the fall of the Soviet Union, died of cardiac arrest at the age of 76.

Also in 2007, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered a halt to construction of a wall separating a Sunni neighborhood from other parts of Baghdad.

In 2008, U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus, top U.S. military official in Iraq, was promoted to head of Central Command, overseeing military affairs in the Middle East and Central Asia, including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In 2009, the U.S. government told Chrysler, the third member of Detroit's "Big 3" automakers, to prepare to file for bankruptcy. Chrysler was given a few days to complete a deal with Fiat, the Italian carmaker.

A thought for the day: Douglas Adams observed, "I may not have gone where I intended to go but I think I have ended up where I intended to be."