The almanac

Today is Thursday, Jan. 9, the ninth day of 2014 with 356 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Capricorn. They include women's suffrage and peace movement leader Carrie Chapman Catt in 1859; pioneer psychologist John Watson in 1878; Czech writer Karel Capek in 1890; cartoonist Chic Young, who created the comic strip "Blondie," in 1901; French novelist Simone de Beauvoir in 1908; actor Gypsy Rose Lee in 1911; Richard Nixon, 37th president of the United States, in 1913; actors Fernando Lamas in 1915, Lee Van Cleef in 1925 and Bob Denver in 1935; author Judith Krantz in 1928 (age 86); football Hall of Fame member Bart Starr in 1934 (age 80); sportscaster Dick Enberg in 1935 (age 79); actor Susannah York in 1939; singer Joan Baez in 1941 (age 73); Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin) in 1944 (age 70); country singer Crystal Gayle in 1951 (age 63); actors Imelda Staunton in 1956 (age 58) and Joely Richardson in 1965 (age 49); Guatemalan activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Rigoberta Menchu in 1959 (age 55); bandleader Dave Matthews in 1967 (age 47); golfer Sergio Garcia in 1980 (age 34); and Kate Middleton, wife of Britain's Prince William, in 1982 (age 32).

On this day in history:

In 1768, the first modern circus was staged in London.

In 1788, Connecticut became the fifth U.S. state.

In 1861, Mississippi seceded from the Union.

In 1945, in World War II, U.S. troops invaded the Philippine island of Luzon and liberated Manila.

In 1951, the U.N. headquarters opened in New York.

In 1969, the British-French supersonic Concorde jetliner made its first test flight at Bristol, England.

In 1972, the luxury liner Queen Elizabeth was gutted by fire while docked in Hong Kong.

In 1996, rebels in the Russian republic of Chechnya overran the town of Kizlyar and took 2,000 hostages at a hospital and in nearby homes.

In 2007, Venezuelan stock prices fell almost 19 percent -- the biggest drop on record -- and the country's currency lost almost one-third of its value after President Hugo Chavez pledged to nationalize the country's utilities.

In 2011, an IranAir Boeing 727 with 105 people aboard crashed shortly before it was scheduled to land in northwestern Iran. Authorities said there were 50 survivors.

In 2013, federal officials said an influenza outbreak in the United States was the country's worst in a decade.

A thought for the day: "Don't knock the weather; nine-tenths of the people couldn't start a conversation if it didn't change once in a while." -- Kin Hubbard