The almanac

Today is Wednesday, Nov. 6, the 310th day of 2013 with 55 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Scorpio. They include Belgian instrument-maker Adolphe Sax, inventor of the saxophone, in 1814; Charles Henry Dow, co-founder of Dow Jones and Co. and first editor of The Wall Street Journal, in 1851; band leader and composer John Philip Sousa ("The March King") in 1854; James Naismith, inventor of the game of basketball, in 1861; baseball Hall of Fame member Walter Johnson in 1887; journalist and New Yorker magazine co-founder Harold Ross in 1892; musician Ray Conniff in 1916; director Mike Nichols in 1931 (age 82); actor Sally Field in 1946 (age 67); Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Glenn Frey (Eagles) in 1948 (age 65); TV journalist and former California first lady Maria Shriver in 1955 (age 58); actors Lori Singer in 1957 (age 56), Lance Kerwin in 1960 (age 53), Ethan Hawke in 1970 (age 43), Rebecca Romijn in 1972 (age 41) and Emma Stone in 1988 (age 25); and Pat Tillman, pro football player turned soldier, in 1976.

On this date in history:

In 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected 16th president of the United States.

In 1861, Jefferson Davis was elected president of the Confederate States of America.

In 1869, in the first formal intercollegiate football game, Rutgers beat Princeton, 6-4.

In 1917, the Bolshevik revolution began in Russia. Because it took place under the old czarist calendar, it is known as the October Revolution.

In 1921, the cult of Rudolph Valentino was launched with the release of his silent film "The Sheik," which despite negative reviews immediately caught the attention of women across the United States.

In 1952, the United States exploded the world's first hydrogen bomb at Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific.

In 1968, Republican Richard Nixon was elected 37th president of the United States, defeating Democrat Hubert Humphrey.

In 1984, U.S. President Ronald Reagan was elected to a second term, winning 49 states.

In 1986, U.S. intelligence sources confirmed a report that the United States secretly sold arms to Iran to secure the release of seven U.S. hostages held by pro-Iranian groups in Lebanon.

In 1995, world leaders gathered in Jerusalem for the funeral of assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

In 2007, military officials said the deaths of six U.S. soldiers in Iraq made this the deadliest year of the conflict for American forces. The death toll stood at 851, two more than the record set in 2004.

In 2009, U.S. unemployment rate reached 10.2 percent in October, the highest rate in 26 years.

In 2010, the death toll in a series of eruptions at Java's Mount Merapi, one of the world's most active volcanoes, stood at 130.

In 2011, controversial Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi resigned in the midst of an acute debt crisis.

In 2012, U.S. President Barack Obama defeated Republican challenger Mitt Romney to win a second term. The official election results showed Obama topped Romney 51.1 percent to 47.2 percent in the popular vote and 332-206 in the electoral vote. Federal finance reports showed campaign expenditures broke the $2 billion mark, making the election the most expensive in U.S. history.

A thought for the day: "So, please, oh please, we beg, we pray, go throw your TV set away, and in its place you can install, a lovely bookcase on the wall." -- Roald Dahl