The almanac

Today is Tuesday, Oct. 29, the 302nd day of 2013 with 63 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 Scottish biographer James Boswell in 1740; singer/composer Daniel Decatur Emmett, who wrote the words and music for "Dixie," in 1815; comedian/singer Fanny Brice in 1891; Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels in 1897; political cartoonist Bill Mauldin in 1921; Liberian President and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in 1938 (age 75); English rock musician Denny Laine in 1944 (age 69); singer Melba Moore in 1945 (age 68); actors Richard Dreyfuss in 1947 (age 66), Kate Jackson in 1948 (age 65), Dan Castellaneta in 1957 (age 56); Finola Hughes in 1959 (age 54), Joely Fisher in 1967 (age 46) and Winona Ryder in 1971 (age 42); journalist David Remnick in 1958 (age 55); and Rock and Roll Hall of fame member Randy Jackson in 1961 (age 52).

On this date in history:

In 1618, Sir Walter Raleigh was beheaded in London. He had been accused of plotting against King James 1.

In 1787, "Don Giovanni" by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, had its first performance.

In 1901, Leon Czolgosz was electrocuted for the assassination of U.S. President William McKinley.

In 1923, the musical "Runnin' Wild," which introduced the Charleston, opened on Broadway.

In 1929, the sale of 16 million shares marked the collapse of the stock market, setting the stage for the Great Depression.

In 1969, the first connection on what would become the Internet was made when bits of data flowed between computers at UCLA and the Stanford Research Institute.

In 1992, Alger Hiss said Russia had cleared him of the charge of being a communist spy that had led to his being sentenced to prison for four years in a case that helped propel Richard Nixon's political career.

In 1994, a Colorado man was arrested after he sprayed the White House with bullets from an assault rifle. U.S. President Bill Clinton was inside at the time but no one was injured.

In 1998, U.S. Sen. John Glenn, D-Ohio, who in 1962 became the first U.S. astronaut to orbit the Earth, returned to space aboard the shuttle Discovery. At 77, he was the oldest person to travel in space.

In 2004, Osama bin Laden, in a videotape to the American people, said he ordered the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

In 2006, a Boeing 737 crashed near Nigeria's Abuja airport, killing 96 of the 104 people aboard. Officials said the pilot took off after disobeying an air traffic controller and the plane crashed moments later.

In 2011, Michael D. Higgins, a 70-year-old poet and longtime member of Ireland's Parliament, was elected the country's president with 39.6 percent of the vote.

In 2012, the FBI reported violent crime in the United States declined in 2011 for the fifth year in a row and property offenses were down for a ninth consecutive year.

A thought for the day: "All the president is, is a glorified public relations man who spends his time flattering, kissing and kicking people to get them to do what they are supposed to do anyway." -- U.S. President Harry S. Truman