The almanac

Today is Saturday, Nov. 5, the 309th day of 2011 with 56 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Scorpio. They include Socialist presidential candidate Eugene V. Debs in 1855; historians Ida Tarbell in 1857 and Will Durant in 1885; inventor and industrialist Raymond Loewy, the "father of streamlining," in 1893; band leader Jan Garber in 1894; actors Natalie Schafer in 1900 and Joel McCrea in 1905; movie singing cowboy star Roy Rogers in 1911; actor Vivien Leigh in 1913; entertainers Ike Turner in 1931 and Art Garfunkel in 1941 (age 70); dramatist/actor Sam Shepard in 1943 (age 68); musician Gram Parsons in 1946; pop singer Peter Noone in 1947 (age 64); singer-songwriter Jimmie Spheeris in 1949; basketball Hall of Fame member Bill Walton in 1952 (age 59); actors Elke Sommer in 1940 (age 71), Robert Patrick in 1958 (age 53), Tilda Swinton in 1960 (age 51), Tatum O'Neal and Andrea McArdle, both in 1963 (age 48) and Sam Rockwell in 1968 (age 43); and pop singer/songwriter Bryan Adams in 1959 (age 52).

On this date in history:

In 1605, Guy Fawkes and fellow conspirators attempted to blow up the English Parliament and failed. They were beheaded.

In 1733, German-born publisher John Peter Zenger began printing The New York Weekly Journal in opposition to the British colonial administration.

In 1854, combined British-French forces scored a decisive victory over the Russians in the Crimea.

In 1930, the first commercial television broadcast was aired.

In 1940, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was re-elected to an unprecedented third term.

In 1990, an Egyptian-born gunman, apparently acting alone, assassinated Meir Kahane, the U.S. native who founded the militant Jewish Defense League.

Also in 1990, the U.S. Supreme Court let stand an order requiring the U.S. Army to permit homosexuals to re-enlist.

In 1991, the body of British media mogul Robert Maxwell was found floating in the Atlantic Ocean off the Canary Islands.

Also in 1991, Kiichi Miyazawa was formally appointed prime minister of Japan, succeeding Toshiki Kaifu.

In 1992, former U.S. world chess champion Bobby Fischer triumphed in his $5 million rematch against Russian arch-rival Boris Spassky.

In 1996, U.S. President Bill Clinton was re-elected, defeating Republican challenger Bob Dole.

In 2002, Republicans seized control of the U.S. Senate and retained their hold on the House, giving President George W. Bush a historic victory in mid-term elections that traditionally go against the incumbent president.

In 2003, fearing a regional military imbalance, the United States supplied Thailand with air-to-air missiles.

In 2004, Saskatchewan became the seventh Canadian province to allow same-sex couples to marry.

In 2005, thousands of U.S. and Iraqi forces engaged in a fight against al-Qaida terrorists in Iraq near the Syrian border.

In 2006, former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, 69, faced death by hanging after his conviction in Baghdad in a yearlong trial for the 1982 slaughter of 148 Shiite boys and men in the village of Dujail.

In 2008, the day after Barack Obama was elected U.S. president, he was alerted by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that short-range missiles would be deployed near Poland that could reach NATO countries if the United States installs a missile defense system in Europe.

In 2009, a lone gunman killed 13 people, including 10 military personnel, and wounded 31 others in a shooting frenzy at the Fort Hood Army post in Texas. Army psychiatrist, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, who was wounded four times but survived, was charged by officials as the shooter.

In 2010, the U.S. economy added 151,000 jobs in October, more than expected but not enough to reduce the unemployment rate to less than 9.6 percent. About 15 million Americans registered as unemployed.

A thought for the day: inventor and industrialist Raymond Loewy said, "Between two products equal in price, function and quality, the better looking will out sell the other."