The almanac

Today is Thursday, Oct. 25, the 299th day of 2012 with 67 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Scorpio. They include British historian Thomas Macaulay in 1800; Austrian composer Johann Strauss in 1825; French composer Georges Bizet in 1838; automobile entrepreneur John Francis Dodge in 1864; Spanish artist Pablo Picasso in 1881; actor Leo G. Carroll in 1892; explorer Richard Byrd in 1888; Roman Catholic radio evangelist Rev. Charles Coughlin in 1891; country comedian Minnie Pearl in 1912; actors Billy Barty in 1924, Tony Franciosa in 1928 and Marion Ross, also in 1928, (age 84); basketball Hall of Fame member Bob Knight in 1940 (age 72); author Anne Tyler and pop singer Helen Reddy, both in 1941 (age 71); rock singer Jon Anderson and political strategist James Carville, both in 1944 (age 68); basketball Hall of Fame member Dave Cowens and Olympic gold medal wrestler Dan Gable, both in 1948 (age 64); Olympic gold medal U.S. hockey team member Mike Eruzione in 1954 (age 58); actors Nancy Cartwright in 1957 (age 55) and Tracy Nelson in 1963 (age 49); violinist Midori Goto in 1971 (age 41); and singer Katy Perry in 1984 (age 28).

On this date in history:

In 1825, the Erie Canal, America's first man-made waterway, was opened, linking the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean via the Hudson River.

In 1854, known to history as the Charge of the Light Brigade, 670 British cavalrymen fighting in the Crimean War attacked a heavily fortified Russian position and were killed.

In 1881, Pablo Picasso, one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, was born in Malaga, Spain.

In 1929, during the Teapot Dome scandal, Albert B. Fall, who served as U.S. President Warren Harding's interior secretary, was found guilty of accepting a bribe while in office, first individual convicted of a crime committed while a presidential Cabinet member.

In 1971, the United Nations admitted China as a member, ousting the Nationalist Chinese government of Taiwan.

In 1983, U.S. troops, supported by six Caribbean nations, invaded the tiny, leftist-ruled island of Grenada. Nineteen Americans died in the fighting.

In 1986, the International Red Cross ousted South African delegates from a Geneva meeting because of Pretoria's policy of apartheid. It was the first such ejection in the organization's 123 years.

In 1993, Canadian voters rejected the Progressive Conservative party of Prime Minister Kim Campbell and gave the Liberal Party, led by Jean Chretien of Quebec, a firm majority in Parliament.

In 2000, AT&T announced it would break into four separate businesses in a bid to renew investor support.

In 2001, the U.S. Senate, by a 90-1 vote, approved a final package of anti-terror reforms designed to help law enforcement monitor and detain suspected terrorists.

In 2002, Democratic U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone of Minnesota and seven others were killed in the crash of a small plane about 180 miles northeast of Minneapolis.

In 2004, at least 78 Muslim detainees suffocated or were crushed to death in southern Thailand after the police rounded up 1,300 people and packed them into trucks following a riot.

In 2005, civil rights icon Rosa Parks died in Detroit at age 92. Parks, an African-American woman, gave new impetus to the rights movement when in 1955 she refused to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Ala., bus.

In 2006, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples "must be afforded on equal terms the same rights and benefits enjoyed by opposite-sex couples."

In 2007, the U.S. government issued a new wave of sanctions against Iran, focusing on the country's military, for its nuclear development activities.

In 2008, Yemen authorities reported 48 people dead or missing in flash flooding in the country's Hadramout region. An estimated 22,000 people were driven from their homes.

In 2009, twin suicide bombings in Baghdad killed a reported 160 people and wounded about 530 others in the deadliest attacks in the country in two years.

Also in 2009, the World Health Organization reported a global death toll from the H1N1 virus, known as swine flu, at 5,700 from among a growing number of 440,000 people confirmed with the disease.

In 2010, more than 400 coastal residents in western Sumatra were killed and thousands left homeless by a tsunami triggered by a 7.7-magnitude earthquake.

On the same day, about 750 miles away in central Java, the Mount Merapi volcano began a series of three eruptions that left a reported death toll of more than 300 with about 6,000 homeless.

In 2011, U.S. officials reached an agreement with North Korea to resume recovery of the remains of soldiers killed during the Korean War. About 5,500 troops are believed missing in North Korea.

Also in 2011, authorities in Mexico said anti-drug operations cost drug cartels in the Tijuana area more than $1 billion this year.

A thought for the day: Pablo Picasso said, "I am only a public entertainer who understands his time."