The almanac

Today is Friday, Sept. 27, the 270th day of 2013 with 95 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 date are under the sign of Libra. They include patriot Samuel Adams in 1722; political cartoonist Thomas Nast in 1840; magician Harry Blackstone Sr. in 1885; composers Joseph McCarthy ("You Made Me Love You") also in 1885 and Vincent Youmans ("Tea for Two") in 1898; former U.S. Sen. Sam Ervin, D-N.C., in 1896; actor Jayne Meadows in 1919 (age 94); filmmaker Arthur Penn in 1922; actors William Conrad in 1920, Sada Thompson in 1927, Greg Morris in 1933 and Wilford Brimley in 1934 (age 79); golf Hall of Fame member Kathy Whitworth in 1939 (age 74); rock musician Randy Bachman in 1943 (age 70); singer Meat Loaf in 1947 (age 66); baseball Hall of Fame member Mike Schmidt in 1949 (age 64); actor/singer Shaun Cassidy in 1958 (age 55); gold medal winning speed skater Beth Heiden in 1959 (age 54); actor Gwyneth Paltrow in 1972 (age 41); rapper Lil Wayne in 1982 (age 31); and singer Avril Lavigne in 1984 (age 29).

On this date in history:

In 1540, the Society of Jesus, known as the Jesuits, was chartered by the Roman Catholic Church.

In 1825, in England, George Stephenson operated the first locomotive to pull a passenger train.

In 1905, Albert Eisenstein published a paper introducing his equation E=mc2.

In 1930, golfer Bobby Jones won the U.S. Amateur Championship, capturing the era's Grand Slam. Earlier in the year, he won the British Amateur, British Open and U.S. Open.

In 1935, 13-year-old Judy Garland signed her first contract with MGM.

In 1939, after 19 days of heavy air raids and artillery bombardment, Polish defenders of Warsaw surrendered to the Germans.

In 1954, "The Tonight Show" made its television debut with host Steve Allen.

In 1964, the Warren Commission report on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy was released after a 10-month investigation, concluding that there was no conspiracy and that Lee Harvey Oswald, the alleged assassin, acted alone.

In 1987, mudslides in slum areas of Medellin, Colombia, killed up to 500 people.

In 1994, U.S. forces in Haiti took control of the Parliament building and began paying Haitians to turn in weapons to reduce firepower on the streets.

In 1998, Gerhard Schroeder led Germany's Social Democratic Party to victory in parliamentary elections, bringing to an end 16 years of power by Chancellor Helmut Kohl and his Christian Democratic Party.

In 2003, U.S. President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin said they would join forces to oppose nuclear proliferation in Iran and North Korea.

In 2008, Zhai Zhigang left the Shenzhou VII spacecraft and became the first Chinese astronaut to take a space walk.

In 2009, German Chancellor Angela Merkel was assured of another term when her party, the Christian Democrats, easily won the nation's parliamentary elections.

In 2010, Jimi Heselden, 62, manufacturer of the upright Segway scooter, was killed in Britain when he apparently lost control of one of the two-wheeled, self-balancing machines and ran over a cliff into a river.

In 2011, an estimated 20,000 surface-to-air missiles said to be capable of shooting down a commercial jet were reported missing from unguarded army weapons warehouses in Libya.

In 2012, terrorists were responsible a Sept. 11 attack that killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three others at the U.S. Consulate in Libya, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said.

A thought for the day: "No place epitomizes the American experience and the American spirit more than New York City."-- Mayor Michael Bloomberg.