The almanac

Today is Friday, Nov. 22, the 326th day of 2013 with 39 to follow.

The moon is waning. 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 Sagittarius. They include Abigail Adams, wife of U.S. President John Adams, in 1744; English novelist George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) in 1819; Nobel Peace Prize laureate Paul-Henri-Benjamin d'Estournelles in 1852; French statesman and military leader Charles de Gaulle in 1890; Wiley Post, the first pilot to fly solo around the world, in 1898; composers Hoagy Carmichael in 1899 and Benjamin Britten in 1913; comedian Rodney Dangerfield in 1921; actors Geraldine Page in 1924, Robert Vaughn in 1932 (age 81) and Tom Conti in 1941 (age 72); writer/director and Monty Python alum Terry Gilliam in 1940 (age 73); musician Jesse Colin Young in 1941 (age 72); Guion S. Bluford Jr., the first African-American astronaut in space, in 1942 (age 71); tennis star Billie Jean King in 1943 (age 70); guitarist and actor Steven Van Zandt in 1950 (age 63); actors Richard Kind in 1956 (age 57), Jamie Lee Curtis in 1958 (age 55), Mariel Hemingway in 1961 (age 52) and Mark Ruffalo in 1967 (age 46); tennis player Boris Becker, also in 1967 (age 46); and actor Scarlett Johansson in 1984 (age 29).

On this date in history:

In 1718, Edward Teach, also known as the pirate Blackbeard, was killed off North Carolina's Outer Banks during a battle with a British navy force.

In 1858, the city of Denver was founded.

In 1935, a Pan American Martin 130 "flying boat" called the China Clipper began regular trans-Pacific mail service. The flight from San Francisco to Manila, Philippines, took 59 hours and 48 minutes.

In 1950, a train wreck in New York City killed 79 people.

In 1954, the Humane Society of the United States was founded.

In 1963, U.S. President John F. Kennedy, 46, in the third year of his first term, was assassinated while riding in a motorcade in Dallas. Lee Harvey Oswald was charged with Kennedy's slaying but was killed before he could go to trial. Vice President Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as the nation's 36th chief executive.

In 1972, the U.S. State Department ended a 22-year ban on U.S. travel to China.

In 1977, the Anglo-French supersonic Concorde jetliner began scheduled flights to New York from London and Paris.

In 1980, film legend Mae West died at the age of 88.

In 1989, newly elected Lebanese President Rene Moawad died in bomb blast that also killed 17 other people in Syrian-patrolled Muslim West Beirut.

In 1990, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher resigned after 11 years in office.

In 1993, Mexico's Senate approved the North American Free Trade Agreement.

In 1997, New Zealanders Robert Hamill and Phil Stubbs arrived in Barbados from the Canary Islands in their boat, Kiwi Challenger, after 41 days, 1 hour and 55 minutes -- a record for rowing across the Atlantic.

In 2002, at least 100 people died in riots in northern Nigeria sparked by a religious controversy over the Miss World beauty pageant.

In 2005, Angela Merkel was sworn in as Germany's chancellor. She was the first woman and first person from East Germany to lead the country.

In 2010, about 400 people were killed and hundreds injured in a panic-driven stampede on a densely crowded suspension bridge during Cambodia's Water Festival in Phnom Penh.

In 2011, U.S. President Barack Obama urged Congress to do what a special committee couldn't do after 10 weeks of trying -- agree on what to cut in drawing up a $1.2 trillion deficit reduction plan. Without such a plan, unaltered automatic defense and domestic cuts would kick in.

In 2012, a Thanksgiving Day chain-reaction crash and pileup in dense fog on Interstate 10 near Beaumont, Texas, killed at least two people and injured scores of others, some critically. Police said at least 140 vehicles were involved.

A thought for the day: U.S. President John Kennedy said, "If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich."