The almanac

Today is Tuesday, Nov. 5, the 309th day of 2013 with 56 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Scorpio. They include Socialist presidential candidate Eugene V. Debs in 1855; journalist Ida Tarbell in 1857; author Will Durant in 1885; band leader Jan Garber in 1894; actors Natalie Schafer in 1900 and Joel McCrea in 1905; singing cowboy movie star Roy Rogers in 1911; actors Vivien Leigh and John McGiver, both in 1913; entertainers Ike Turner in 1931 and Art Garfunkel in 1941 (age 72); dramatist/actor Sam Shepard in 1943 (age 70); musician Gram Parsons in 1946; pop singer Peter Noone in 1947 (age 66); singer-songwriter Jimmie Spheeris in 1949; basketball Hall of Fame member Bill Walton in 1952 (age 61); television personality Kris Jenner in 1955 (age 58); actors Elke Sommer in 1940 (age 73), Robert Patrick in 1958 (age 55), Tilda Swinton in 1960 (age 53), Tatum O'Neal and Andrea McArdle, both in 1963 (age 50) and Sam Rockwell in 1968 (age 45); and pop singer/songwriter Bryan Adams in 1959 (age 54).

On this date in history:

In 1605, Guy Fawkes and fellow conspirators attempted to blow up the English Parliament and failed. They were captured, tried and beheaded.

In 1733, German-born publisher John Peter Zenger began printing The New York Weekly Journal in opposition to the British colonial administration.

In 1854, combined British-French forces scored a decisive victory over the Russians in the Crimea.

In 1930, the first commercial television broadcast was aired.

In 1940, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was re-elected to an unprecedented third term.

In 1990, an Egyptian-born gunman, apparently acting alone, assassinated Meir Kahane, the U.S. native who founded the militant Jewish Defense League.

In 1991, the body of British media mogul Robert Maxwell was found in the Atlantic Ocean off the Canary Islands.

In 1992, former U.S. world chess champion Bobby Fischer triumphed in his $5 million rematch against Russian arch-rival Boris Spassky.

In 1996, U.S. President Bill Clinton was re-elected, defeating Republican challenger Bob Dole.

In 2002, Republicans seized control of the U.S. Senate and retained their hold on the House, giving President George W. Bush a historic victory in mid-term elections, which traditionally go against the incumbent president.

In 2004, Saskatchewan became the seventh Canadian province to allow same-sex couples to marry.

In 2006, former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, 69, faced death by hanging after his conviction in Baghdad in a yearlong trial for the 1982 slaughter of 148 Shiite boys and men in the village of Dujail.

In 2009, a gunman killed 13 people, including 10 military personnel, and wounded 31 others in a shooting frenzy at the Fort Hood Army post in Texas. An Army psychiatrist, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, who was wounded but survived, was charged as the shooter. He was found guilty and sentenced to death in 2013.

In 2011, former Penn State football defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky was arrested on 40 counts of alleged sexual abuse of boys over a 15-year period.

In 2012, on the day before the U.S. presidential election, President Barack Obama said, "I've got a lot more fight left in me." Republican rival Mitt Romney said Obama hadn't lived up to his promises: "He hasn't. I will."

A thought for the day: Inventor and industrialist Raymond Loewy said, "Between two products equal in price, function and quality, the better looking will outsell the other."