The almanac

Today is Friday, Oct. 25, the 298th day of 2013 with 67 to follow.

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

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; the Rev. Charles Coughlin, Roman Catholic radio evangelist, in 1891; country comedian Minnie Pearl in 1912; actors Billy Barty in 1924, Tony Franciosa in 1928 and Marion Ross, also in 1928, (age 85); basketball Hall of Fame member Bob Knight in 1940 (age 73); author Anne Tyler and pop singer Helen Reddy, both in 1941 (age 72); rock singer Jon Anderson and political strategist James Carville, both in 1944 (age 69); basketball Hall of Fame member Dave Cowens and Olympic gold medal wrestler Dan Gable, both in 1948 (age 65); Olympic gold medal U.S. hockey team member Mike Eruzione in 1954 (age 59); actors Nancy Cartwright in 1957 (age 56) and Tracy Nelson in 1963 (age 50); Rock and Roll Hall of fame member Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers), in 1961 (age 52); violinist Midori Goto in 1971 (age 42); and singer Katy Perry in 1984 (age 29).

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. He was the first presidential Cabinet member convicted of a crime.

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 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 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 2005, civil rights icon Rosa Parks died in Detroit at age 92. Parks, an African-American, gave new impetus to the rights movement in 1955 when 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 2009, the World Health Organization reported a global death toll from the H1N1 virus, known as swine flu, at 5,700. About 440,000 people were confirmed as having 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. 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.

In 2012, police said a nanny at a luxury Upper West Side apartment in New York City stabbed two young children to death in a bathtub and was in critical condition at a hospital with self-inflicted wounds. The children were 6-year-old Lucia Krim and her brother, Leo, 2. The nanny, Yoselyn Ortega, 50, survived and was charged with two counts of murder.

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