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The almanac

By United Press International
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Today is Wednesday, Oct. 30, the 303rd day of 2013 with 62 to follow.

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

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Those born on this date are under the sign of Scorpio. They include John Adams, second president of the United States, in 1735; Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky in 1821; French Impressionist painter Alfred Sisley in 1839; French poet Paul Valery in 1871; U.S. Navy Adm. William Halsey, Jr. in 1882; poet Ezra Pound in 1885; strongman Charles Atlas in 1892; actor Ruth Gordon in 1896; baseball Hall of Fame member Bill Terry in 1898; French film director Louis Malle in 1932; journalist Robert Caro in 1935 (age 78); Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Grace Slick in 1939 (age 74); actor/director Henry Winkler in 1945 (age 68); news correspondent Andrea Mitchell in 1946 (age 67); rock musicians Chris Slade in 1946 (age 67) and Timothy B. Schmit in 1947 (age 66); and actors Harry Hamlin in 1951 (age 62), Kevin Pollak in 1957 (age 56) and Nia Long in 1970 (age 43).

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On this date in history:

In 1817, Simon Bolivar established the independent government of Venezuela.

In 1922, Benito Mussolini became prime minister of Italy.

In 1938, Orson Welles triggered a national panic with a realistic radio dramatization of a Martian invasion, based on H.G. Wells' "War of the Worlds."

In 1941, more than a month before the United States entered World War II, a U.S. destroyer, the USS Reuben James, was sunk by a German submarine.

In 1975, with dictator Francisco Franco near death, Prince Juan Carlos assumed power in Spain.

In 1983, the Rev. Jesse Jackson announced plans to become the first African-American to mount a full-scale campaign for the Democratic Party presidential nomination in the United States.

In 1995, by a narrow margin, Quebec voters decided to remain a part of Canada.

In 2005, Indian authorities sent army divers to look for people trapped in a derailed train near Veligonda during massive flooding. Officials said 112 died in the train wreck and another 100 in floods.

In 2008, the U.S. gross domestic product dropped 0.3 percent, government officials said. It's the first decrease in the GDP in 17 years.

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In 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama announced he would end the U.S. travel and immigration restrictions on people infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

In 2010, security screening of cargo and air passengers in the United States, Britain and Canada was stepped up after bombs were found in packages from Yemen to two Chicago synagogues.

In 2012, Hurricane Sandy, which had hit several Caribbean countries, made landfall near Atlantic City, N.J. Differing death tolls were reported in subsequent days. Eventually, the National Hurricane Center reported 72 deaths in the United States, 54 in Haiti, 11 in Cuba, three in the Dominican Republic, two in the Bahamas, two at sea and one each in Jamaica, Puerto Rico and Canada.


A thought for the day: In a letter to Thomas Jefferson, John Adams said, "You and I ought not to die before we have explained ourselves to each other." The two former presidents and political rivals both died on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the U.S. Declaration of Independence.

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