The almanac

Today is Sunday, Sept. 1, the 244th day of 2013 with 121 to follow.

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

Those born on this day are under the sign of Virgo. They include German composer Engelbert Humperdinck in 1854; "Tarzan" creator Edgar Rice Burroughs in 1875; dancer/singer Marilyn Miller in 1898; labor leader Walter Reuther in 1907; actors Richard Farnsworth in 1920, Yvonne De Carlo in 1922 and George Maharis in 1928 (age 85); undefeated heavyweight boxing champ Rocky Marciano in 1923; country music singers Boxcar Willie in 1931 and Conway Twitty in 1933; symphony conductor Seiji Ozawa in 1935 (age 78); lawyer and commentator Alan Dershowitz in 1938 (age 75); comedian/actor Lily Tomlin in 1939 (age 74); conductor Leonard Slatkin in 1944 (age 69); Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Barry Gibb (Bee Gees) in 1946 (age 67); TV talk show host Dr. Phil McGraw in 1950 (age 63); and singer Gloria Estefan in 1957 (age 58).

On this date in history:

In 1715, France's King Louis XIV dies after ruling the country for 72 years, the longest reign for a French monarch.

In 1807, Aaron Burr, vice president of the United States under Thomas Jefferson, was acquitted of treason charges growing out of an alleged plot to set up an independent empire in the country's south and west.

In 1914, the last known passenger pigeon died at the Cincinnati Zoo.

In 1923, an earthquake struck Yokohama, Japan, killing an estimated 143,000 people.

In 1939, after Germany invaded Poland, Great Britain and France served an ultimatum on Adolf Hitler but it was ignored.

In 1972, American Bobby Fischer defeated Russian Boris Spassky for the world chess championship.

In 1983, a Korean Air Lines Boeing 747 strayed into Soviet air space and was shot down by a Soviet jet fighter. All 269 people aboard died.

In 1985, scientists found the wreck of the British luxury liner Titanic, sunk by an iceberg in 1912, in the Atlantic Ocean south of Newfoundland.

In 1991, U.S. President George H.W. Bush established diplomatic relations with Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.

In 2003, Libya agreed to compensate relatives of the 170 people killed in the 1989 bombing of a French airliner over the Sahara.

In 2006, a fiery airport crash of a Russian-made Tupolev 154 airliner in Mashland, Iran, left 29 people dead but 148 passengers survived.

In 2008, Hurricane Gustav slammed into Louisiana southwest of New Orleans as a Category 2 storm, forcing the evacuation of about 2 million people. New Orleans' levee system, strengthened since 2005's Hurricane Katrina devastated the area, held against a 12-foot storm surge.

In 2010, Israel would be willing to consider dividing Jerusalem if it meant peace with the Palestinians, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said in an interview.

In 2011, embattled Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, believed to be holed up in a desert stronghold after his forces were beaten in Tripoli, said in a television interview he was prepared for a "long drawn-out war" and proclaimed, "Let Libya burn."

In 2012, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney told a campaign audience in Cincinnati 23 million Americans were out of work, underemployed or had stopped looking for jobs.

A thought for the day: Edward Bellamy wrote, "An American credit card ... is just as good in Europe as American gold used to be."