The almanac

Today is Monday, Aug. 8, the 220th day of 2011 with 145 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Leo. They include the United States' first professional architect, Charles Bulfinch in 1763; American black explorer Matthew Henson in 1866; Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata in 1879; poet Sara Teasdale in 1884; author Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings ("The Yearling") in 1896; film music composer/conductor Victor Young in 1900; musician Benny Carter in 1907; Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg in 1908; actor Sylvia Sidney in 1910; movie producer Dino De Laurentiis in 1919; aquatic actor Esther Williams in 1921 (age 90); actor Rory Calhoun in 1922; singers Mel Tillis in 1932 (age 79) and Joe Tex in 1933; actor Dustin Hoffman in 1937 (age 74); singer Connie Stevens in 1938 (age 73); actor Keith Carradine in 1949 (age 62); writer/journalist Randy Shilts in 1951; TV personality Deborah Norville in 1958 (age 53); rock musician The Edge (born David Evans) in 1961 (age 50); tennis player Roger Federer in 1981 (age 30); actors Peyton List in 1986 (age 25) and Katie Leung in 1987 (age 24); and Beatrice, Princess of York, in 1988 (age 23).

On this date in history:

In 1911, the newsreel became a standard feature at U.S. movie screenings when the French film company Pathe began releasing weekly black-and-white features to theaters.

In 1940, the German Luftwaffe began a series of daylight air raids on Britain.

In 1945, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan, two days after an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and seven days before Tokyo surrendered.

In 1968, Richard Nixon won the Republican nomination for president. He was elected in November, defeating Democrat Hubert Humphrey and independent George Wallace.

In 1974, facing expected impeachment over the Watergate scandal, Richard Nixon became the first U.S. president to resign. He left office the next day.

In 1988, the first night game at Chicago's Wrigley Field was played. The park was the last major league stadium not to have lights.

In 1990, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein annexed Kuwait.

In 1991, the U.N. Security Council unanimously approved membership applications from North and South Korea.

Also in 1991, British TV journalist John McCarthy was freed in Lebanon by the Islamic Jihad, a Shiite Muslim faction, after being held since 1986.

In 2003, U.S. leaders of the Episcopal Church approved a landmark local option resolution on the issue of same-sex marriages, leaving it to local dioceses whether to bless unions of gay and lesbian couples. Church leaders earlier in the week approved their first openly gay bishop.

In 2005, U.S. President George W. Bush signed a major energy bill as oil and gas prices climbed to record levels. The measure sought to stimulate domestic production in traditional and alternative energy sources.

In 2006, Israel announced the evacuation of 15,000 civilians in the northernmost part of the country. About 250,000 had fled their homes because of the fighting with Hezbollah.

In 2007, U.S. Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct on a charge of making sexual advances to an undercover police officer at a Minneapolis airport restroom.

Also in 2007, the first tornado recorded in the New York City borough of Brooklyn touched down and damaged houses.

In 2008, former U.S. Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., who ran for president in 2004 and dropped out of the 2008 race in January, admitted he had an affair in 2006 with a campaign worker.

Also in 2008, the China Summer Olympics Games opened in Beijing with a spectacular ceremony that introduced more than 10,000 athletes who competed in 302 medal events.

In 2009, Sonia Sotomayor, 55, was sworn in as an associate justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, succeeding the retired David Souter. She is the first Hispanic member of the high court and the third woman.

Also in 2009, Indonesian police reported the foiling of a terrorist plot to assassinate President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. In the Java raid that broke up the plan, major terrorist suspect Noordin Top, alleged to be behind deadly bombings in Bali and Jakarta, was said to have been killed.

And, a sightseeing helicopter with six people aboard collided with a small plane carrying three people over the Hudson River in New York, officials said. There were no survivors.

In 2010, Pakistan estimated 1,600 people were killed in monsoon-triggered flooding with hundreds missing. China's deadliest mudslides claimed more than 1,100 lives also with hundreds still missing, officials said.

Also in 2010, on a day when several suicide bombings struck Iraq, a car bomb exploded, spreading flames throughout a crowded market in Basra, killing at least 43 and injuring another 185.

A thought for the day: Actress Julia Roberts said, "You can be true to the character all you want but you've got to go home with yourself."