The almanac

Today is Saturday, Sept. 8, the 252nd day of 2012 with 114 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 England's King Richard I, "Richard the Lion-Hearted," in 1157; Czech composer Antonin Dvorak in 1841; country music pioneer Jimmie Rodgers, "The Singing Brakeman," in 1897; U.S. Sen. Claude Pepper, D-Fla., in 1900; comedian Sid Caesar in 1922 (age 90); British actor Peter Sellers in 1925; country music singer Patsy Cline in 1932; former U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., in 1938 (age 74); English rock musician Dave Stewart in 1952 (age 60); actors Heather Thomas in 1957 (age 55), David Arquette in 1971 (age 41) and Jonathan Taylor Thomas in 1981 (age 31); and singer Pink in 1979 (age 33).

On this date in history:

In 1565, the first permanent European settlement in what is now the continental United States was founded on the site of the present St. Augustine, Fla.

In 1900, more than 6,000 people were killed when a hurricane and tidal wave struck Galveston, Texas.

In 1935, an assassin shot U.S. Sen. Huey P. Long, D-La., at the Capitol building in Baton Rouge, La. Long died two days later.

Also in 1935, 19-year-old Frank Sinatra launched his singing career when he appeared with a group called The Hoboken Four on the Major Bowes Amateur Hour radio talent show.

In 1966, "Star Trek" premiered on NBC-TV.

In 1974, U.S. President Gerald Ford granted former U.S. President Richard Nixon full pardon for any and all offenses he may have committed during his years in office.

In 1993, the Senate approved U.S. President Bill Clinton's national-service bill, which would give participants grants for taking part in community service work.

In 1994, a U.S. Airways jetliner crashed near Pittsburgh, killing 132 people.

In 2005, U.S. President George W. Bush visited the hurricane-stricken Gulf Coast and signed a $51.8 billion bill for additional Katrina relief funds.

Also in 2005, the investigation into Iraq's oil-for-food program found that U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's son Kojo used his father's position to profit from the project. Investigators say there was no evidence Annan knew of his son's involvement.

And, more than 1,000 mourners attended the Washington funeral of U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist, who died of thyroid cancer just shy of his 81st birthday.

In 2006, a U.S. Senate committee investigative report said no basis was found to link the regime of Saddam Hussein and the al-Qaida terrorist network.

In 2008, a London jury convicted three British Muslims of conspiracy to commit murder in an alleged plot to carry out suicide bombings aboard airliners bound for the United States and Canada.

In 2010, an ABC News/Washington Post poll indicated that 49 percent of Americans had an unfavorable view of Muslims.

Also in 2010, several factors, including a "sequence of failures involving a number of different parties," contributed to the explosion and collapse of an off-shore oil rig that led to the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a BP report said.

In 2011, U.S. President Barack Obama proposed tax credits, tax relief and tax cuts for the middle class to get the economy going again. In a speech before a joint session of Congress, Obama introduced the American Jobs Act and urged lawmakers to forget politics and do what's right for the country.

A thought for the day: in "Middlemarch," English novelist Mary Ann Evans (George Eliot) wrote, "... men know best about everything, except what women know better."