The almanac

Today is Thursday, Sept. 6, the 250th day of 2012 with 116 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Virgo. They include the Marquis de Lafayette, French hero of the American Revolutionary War, in 1757; pioneer social worker and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jane Addams in 1860; financier-diplomat Joseph P. Kennedy in 1888; theatrical producer Billy Rose in 1899; comedienne Jo Anne Worley in 1937 (age 75); singer-songwriter David Allen Coe in 1939 (age 73); British rock musician Rogers Waters in 1943 (age 69); actors Swoosie Kurtz in 1944 (age 68) and Jane Curtin in 1947 (age 65); comedians Jeff Foxworthy and Michael Winslow, both in 1958 (age 54); actors Rosie Perez in 1964 (age 48) and Justin Whalin in 1974 (age 38); and rapper Foxy Brown in 1978 (age 34).

On this date in history:

In 1522, one of Ferdinand Magellan's five ships -- the Vittoria -- arrived at Sanlucar de Barrameda in Spain, completing the first circumnavigation of the world.

In 1620, 149 Pilgrims set sail from England aboard the Mayflower, bound for the New World.

In 1901, U.S. President William McKinley was shot by an anarchist at the Pan American Exposition in Buffalo, N.Y. He died eight days later.

In 1909, word was received that U.S. Navy Adm. Robert Peary had reached the North Pole five months earlier, on April 6, 1909.

In 1966, South African Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd, an architect of his nation's apartheid policies, was stabbed to death by a deranged messenger during a parliamentary meeting in Cape Town.

In 1991, the Soviet State Council recognized the independence of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania after 51 years of Soviet occupation.

In 1995, the Senate Ethics Committee unanimously recommended that Sen. Bob Packwood, R-Ore., be expelled from the Senate on charges of sexual misconduct and influence peddling. He resigned two days later.

In 1995 sports, Baltimore Orioles shortstop Cal Ripken, Jr., played his 2,131st consecutive game, breaking the record set in 1939 by Lou Gehrig of the New York Yankees.

In 1996, Hurricane Fran made landfall at Cape Fear, N.C., with 115 mph winds. It killed 28 people.

In 1997, Britain bid an emotional farewell to Princess Diana -- killed in a car accident a week earlier -- with a funeral service at London's Westminster Abbey that was broadcast worldwide.

In 2003, Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas resigned less than four months in the position.

Also in 2003, an unemployed electrician was charged in Northern Ireland's worst violence, the bombing of an open market in Omagh that killed 29 and injured 220.

In 2004, former U.S. President Bill Clinton underwent a 4-hour quadruple heart bypass operation at New York Presbyterian Hospital.

In 2005, New Orleans' mayor ordered everyone to leave the city or face possible removal by force. Most of the 500,000 displaced people were staying in nearby states but some were housed as far away as Massachusetts.

In 2006, U.S. President George W. Bush acknowledged that suspected terrorist prisoners had been held in secret prisons in other countries.

In 2007, Luciano Pavarotti, one of opera's foremost tenors, died of cancer at his home in Modena, Italy. He was 71.

Also in 2007, Hurricane Felix killed at least 130 people in Nicaragua.

In 2008, Asif Ali Zardari, husband of slain politician Benazir Bhutto, was elected president of Pakistan by a wide margin. Bhutto, a two-time prime minister who had returned from self-imposed exile a short time earlier, was assassinated two weeks before the 2007 presidential election in which she was a leading candidate.

In 2009, Yemini rebels killed six women and 10 children in Saada province for allegedly cooperating with the government.

Also in 2009, some 350,000 people were caught up in flooding that swept across West Africa, killing at least 32 in Ghana and Burkina Faso.

In 2010, U.S. President Barack Obama proposed a $50 billion public works program to create jobs directed at rebuilding and modernizing roads, rails and runways.

Also in 2010, officials said they feared as many as 270 people died in two weekend riverboat accidents in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

In 2011, Solyndra, a California solar energy company, became a major political embarrassment for the Obama administration when it filed for bankruptcy after getting $535 million in federal loan guarantees.

A thought for the day: it was Jane Addams who said, "Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we often might win, by fearing to attempt."