The almanac

Today is Monday, Oct. 28, the 301st day of 2013 with 64 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 Dutch scholar Desiderius Erasmus in 1466; rifle maker Eliphalet Remington in 1793; Russian writer Ivan Turgenev in 1818; eight-time Academy Award-winning costumer Edith Head in 1897; actor Elsa Lanchester in 1902; English novelist Evelyn Waugh in 1903; Dr. Jonas Salk, a developer of the polio vaccine, in 1914; former baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn in 1926; country musician Charlie Daniels in 1936 (age 77); basketball Hall of Fame member Lenny Wilkens in 1937 (age 76); actors Jane Alexander in 1939 (age 74) and Dennis Franz in 1944 (age 69); rock singer Wayne Fontana in 1945 (age 68); singer/actor Telma Hopkins in 1948 (age 65); Olympic decathlon champion Bruce Jenner in 1949 (age 64); Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates in 1955 (age 58); former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 1956 (age 57); actors Annie Potts in 1952 (age 61), Lauren Holly in 1963 (age 50), Jami Gertz in 1965 (age 48), Andy Richter in 1966 (age 47), Julia Roberts in 1967 (age 46) and Joaquin Phoenix in 1974 (age 39).

On this date in history:

In 312, in a battle that marked the beginning of the Christian era in Europe, Constantine's army, wearing the cross, defeated the forces of Maxentius at Mulvian Bridge in Rome.

In 1636, Harvard College, now Harvard University, was founded in Massachusetts.

In 1846, the pioneering Donner Party of 90 people set out from Springfield, Ill., for California.

In 1886, the Statue of Liberty, a gift of friendship from the people of France to the United States, was dedicated in New York Harbor by U.S. President Grover Cleveland.

In 1919, the U.S. Congress passed the Volstead Act, over President Woodrow Wilson's veto, enforcing the constitutional amendment prohibiting the use of alcoholic beverages.

In 1962, Russian chief Nikita Khrushchev announced that all Soviet offensive missiles would be removed from Cuba.

In 1985, the leader of the so-called Walker family spy ring, John Walker, pleaded guilty to giving U.S. Navy secrets to the Soviet Union.

In 1989, the Oakland A's wrapped up an earthquake-delayed sweep of the World Series over the San Francisco Giants.

In 2001, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed a third New Jersey postal worker had an anthrax inhalation infection, bringing the number to eight, including three people who died from the most serious form of the disease.

In 2005, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, chief of staff and national security adviser to the vice president, resigned after he was indicted on multiple counts in the CIA leak case in which an operative's name was revealed to the media.

In 2007, Cristina Fernandez became the first woman to be elected president of Argentina.

In 2010, China announced it had built what experts said was the world's fastest supercomputer, capable of a sustained performance 40 percent greater than the previous record holder built in Oak Ridge, Tenn.

In 2012, the San Francisco Giants defeated the Detroit Tigers 4-3 in 10 innings to sweep the World Series.

A thought for the day: "Gay people have a different role than other minority groups. ... Very few black kids have ever had to worry about telling their parents that they were black." -- Barney Frank