The almanac

Today is Saturday, Nov. 30, the 334th day of 2013 with 31 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 Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio in 1508; Irish satirist Jonathan Swift in 1667; novelist Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens) in 1835; film director Gordon Parks in 1912; British statesman Winston Churchill in 1874; actors Efrem Zimbalist Jr. in 1918 (age 95) and Virginia Mayo in 1920; Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman elected to Congress, and comedian Allan Sherman, both in 1924; actors Richard Crenna in 1926 and Robert Guillaume in 1927 (age 86); producer/TV music show host Dick Clark in 1929; Watergate figure G. Gordon Liddy in 1930 (age 83); 1960s radical Abbie Hoffman in 1936; filmmaker Ridley Scott in 1937 (age 76); playwright David Mamet in 1947 (age 66); singer/actor Mandy Patinkin in 1952 (age 61); singer June Pointer in 1953 (age 60); rock singer Billy Idol in 1955 (age 58); historian Michael Beschloss in 1955 (age 58); Heisman Trophy winner and football Hall of Fame member Bo Jackson in 1962 (age 51); actor Ben Stiller in 1965 (age 48); and singer Clay Aiken in 1978 (age 35).

On this date in history:

In 1731, a series of earthquakes struck China. More than 100,000 people died.

In 1782, preliminary peace articles formally ending the American Revolutionary War were signed in Paris.

In 1913, Charles Chaplin made his screen debut in Mack Sennett's short film "Making a Living."

In 1939, the Russo-Finnish War started after the Soviet Union failed to obtain territorial concessions from Finland.

In 1975, Israel pulled its forces out of a 93-mile-long corridor along the Gulf of Suez as part of an interim peace agreement with Egypt.

In 1988, the Soviet Union stopped jamming broadcasts of Radio Free Europe for the first time in 30 years.

In 1989, Czechoslovakia announced an end to travel restrictions and said it planned to dismantle some fortifications along the Austrian border.

In 2004, Ken Jennings lost on the U.S. game show "Jeopardy!" after winning 74 games and $2.5 million.

In 2005, the world's first partial-face transplant was conducted in France. A woman who had been bitten by a dog was given a new nose, lips and chin.

In 2007, an AtlasJet Airlines plane crashed near the Ispart, Turkey, airport, killing all 56 people aboard.

In 2010, a second U.S. district judge ruled the mandate to buy health insurance, a key provision in new federal healthcare reform legislation, is constitutional.

In 2012, demonstrations erupted in Cairo soon after lawmakers passed a Constitutional Declaration that gave President Mohamed Morsi near-absolute power. (Morsi would be ousted by the military seven months later.)

A thought for the day: "If a man watches three football games in a row, he should be declared legally dead." -- Erma Bombeck