The almanac

Today is Monday, April 15, the 105th day of 2013 with 260 to follow.

The moon is waxing. The morning stars are Saturn, Neptune and Uranus. The evening star is Jupiter.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Aries. They include Italian painter and inventor Leonardo da Vinci in 1452; British polar explorer James Clark Ross in 1800; distiller Joseph E. Seagram in 1841; author Henry James in 1843; painter Thomas Hart Benton in 1889; former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev and singer Bessie Smith, both in 1894; actor Marian Jordan, "Molly" in the long-running "Fibber McGee and Molly" radio show, in 1898; North Korean leader Kim Il Sung in 1912; businessman Alfred S. Bloomingdale in 1916; Harold Washington, the first black mayor of Chicago, in 1922; country singer Roy Clark in 1933 (age 80); actors Elizabeth Montgomery in 1933, Claudia Cardinale in 1938 (age 75) and Amy Wright in 1950 (age 63); musician Dave Edmunds in 1944 (age 69); newspaper columnist Heloise Cruse Evans ("Hints from Heloise") in 1951 (age 62); and actors Emma Thompson in 1959 (age 54), Seth Rogen in 1982 (age 31) and Emma Watson in 1990 (age 23).

On this date in history:

In 1755, Samuel Johnson published "A Dictionary of the English Language."

In 1817, the first U.S. public school for the deaf, Connecticut Asylum for the Education and Instruction of Deaf and Dumb Persons (now the American School for the Deaf), was founded at Hartford, Conn.

In 1861, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln sent Congress a message recognizing a state of war with the Southern states and calling for 75,000 volunteer soldiers.

In 1865, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln died of an assassin's bullet. Vice President Andrew Johnson was sworn in as chief executive.

In 1912, the luxury liner "Titanic" sank in the northern Atlantic Ocean off Newfoundland after striking an iceberg the night before. Some 1,500 lives were lost.

In 1924, the first Rand McNally road atlas was published.

In 1947, Major League Baseball's color line was broken with the debut of Jackie Robinson for the Brooklyn Dodgers.

In 1955, the first franchised McDonald's was opened in Des Plaines, Ill., by Ray Kroc, who got the idea from a hamburger restaurant in San Bernardino, Calif., run by the McDonald brothers.

In 1991, the European Community lifted its remaining economic sanctions against South Africa, allowing the import of gold coins, iron and steel -- despite pleas by the African National Congress to continue the sanctions.

In 1998, Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge leader who presided over a reign of terror in Cambodia in the late 1970s, died at a jungle outpost near the Cambodian-Thailand border.

In 1999, astronomers announced they discovered evidence of a planetary system in the constellation Andromeda. At the time it was the only known planet system other than the one around the sun.

In 2007, Iran announced it was accepting bids for a contract to build two nuclear power plants in the southern city of Bushehr.

In 2008, on his first papal visit to the United States, Pope Benedict XVI met with U.S. President George W. Bush, addressed the United Nations, conducted masses at stadiums in Washington and New York, celebrated his 81st birthday and apologized for the scandal that grew from alleged child abuse by priests.

In 2009, Tea Party protests, largely critical of U.S. President Barack Obama and his policies, had their biggest turnout to date on April 15, tax day, with demonstrations in a reported in 750 cities.

In 2010, in a speech at the Kennedy Space Center, U.S. President Barack Obama outlined long-range space goals, including a manned flight to Mars by the mid-2030s.

In 2011, two days after U.S. President Barack Obama outlined plans for a fiscal 2012 budget designed to cut $4 trillion from projected deficits over a 12-year period, the House of Representatives introduced its own version that, among other things, promised to balance the budget by 2040, reduce taxes, cut spending and privatize Medicare.

In 2012, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's contention that women had most of the job losses during Barack Obama's presidency was "misleading and ridiculous."

A thought for the day: "The reason why so few good books are written is that so few people who can write know anything." Walter Bagehot said that.