Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe Today is Friday, Nov. 8, the 312th day of 2013 with 53 to follow. The moon is waxing. The morning stars are Jupiter, Mars, Mercury and Saturn. The evening stars are Neptune, Uranus and Venus. Advertisement Those born on this date are under the sign of Scorpio. They include British astronomer Edmond Halley in 1656; games producer Milton Bradley in 1836; Irish author Bram Stoker ("Dracula") in 1847; author Margaret Mitchell ("Gone With the Wind") in 1900; actors June Havoc in 1912 and Esther Rolle in 1920; heart transplant pioneer Dr. Christiaan Barnard in 1922; football Hall of Fame Coach Bobby Bowden in 1929 (age 84); TV journalist Morley Safer in 1931 (age 82); science fiction writer Ben Bova in 1932 (age 81); actor Virna Lisi in 1936 (age 78); singers Patti Page in 1927, Bonnie Bramlett in 1944 (age 69), Minnie Riperton in 1947 and Bonnie Raitt in 1949 (age 64); National Rifle Association official Wayne LaPierre in 1948 (age 65); TV personality Mary Hart in 1950 (age 63); actor Alfre Woodard in 1952 (age 61); singer Rickie Lee Jones in 1954 (age 59); TV chef Gordon Ramsay in 1966 (age 47); and actors Courtney Thorne-Smith in 1967 (age 46), Parker Posey in 1968 (age 45), Tara Reid in 1975 (age 38) and Jade Pettyjohn in 2000 (age 13). Advertisement On this date in history: In 1793, the Louvre in Paris, containing one of the world's richest art collections, became a public museum after two centuries as a royal palace. In 1837, Mount Holyoke Seminary in Massachusetts became the first U.S. college founded exclusively for women. In 1864, amid the U.S. Civil War, Abraham Lincoln was elected to his second term as president. He was assassinated five months later. In 1889, Montana was admitted to the union as the 41st state. In 1895, physicist Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen discovered X-rays. In 1942, as World War II raged on, more than 400,000 Allied soldiers invaded North Africa. In 1982, a smoky fire set by a prisoner in a Biloxi, Miss., jail killed 28 people. In 1985, a judge overturned Rubin "Hurricane" Carter's conviction for a 1966 triple killing in a Patterson, N.J., bar, freeing the former boxer after 19 years in prison. In 1988, U.S. Vice President George H.W. Bush was elected the 41st president of the United States. In 1994, in a stunning upset, Republican candidates swept the general election, regaining control of both chambers of the U.S. Congress. It marked the first time in 40 years the Republicans controlled both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Advertisement In 2005, French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin declared a state of emergency in a bid to quell the nation's worst rioting in decades. In 2006, U.S. President George W. Bush introduced former CIA Director Robert Gates as secretary of defense, succeeding Donald Rumsfeld. In 2009, floods and mudslides in El Salvador killed at least 91 people and forced thousands to evacuate. In 2011, remains of U.S. soldiers were mishandled and body parts were lost at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, a scathing Washington report concluded. Three senior officials at the base were disciplined following an 18-month investigation. In 2012, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, citing gasoline shortages caused by superstorm Sandy, long lines at service stations and the "growing frustrations" of motorists, ordered a system of gas rationing based on license plate numbers. A thought for the day: Author George Sand wrote, "We cannot tear out a single page of our life but we can throw the whole book in the fire."
