The almanac

Today is Wednesday, Jan. 15, the 15th day of 2014 with 350 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Capricorn. They include French playwright Moliere (born Jean-Baptiste Poquelin) in 1622; signer of the Declaration of Independence Philip Livingston in 1716; outlaw Cole Younger in 1844; Swedish clergyman and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nathan Soderblom in 1866; nuclear physicist Edward Teller in 1908; drummer Gene Krupa in 1909; actor Lloyd Bridges in 1913; Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1918; civil rights leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Martin Luther King Jr. in 1929; actor Margaret O'Brien in 1937 (age 77); Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Ronnie Van Zant in 1948; actors Andrea Martin in 1947 (age 67), Mario Van Peebles in 1957 (age 57) and Chad Lowe in 1968 (age 46); pro football quarterback Drew Brees in 1979 (age 35); and rapper Pitbull (born Armando Perez) in 1981 (age 33).

On this date in history:

In 1759, the British Museum opened.

In 1870, a cartoon by Thomas Nast appeared in Harper's weekly with a donkey symbolizing the Democratic Party for the first time.

In 1892, Dr. James Naismith published the rules of basketball. He invented the game at a YMCA in Springfield, Mass.

In 1919, 21 people were killed and scores injured when a vat holding 2.3 million gallons of molasses exploded and sent torrents of the syrup into the streets of Boston. The event is known as the Boston Molasses Disaster.

In 1922, the Irish Free State was formed.

In 1943, the Pentagon, the world's largest building of its kind, was completed on the Virginia side of the Potomac River just outside Washington.

In 1967, the first Super Bowl, pitting the NFL and AFL champions, was played at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, with the Green Bay Packers defeating the Kansas City Chiefs 35-10.

In 1973, U.S. President Richard Nixon called a halt to U.S. military offensives in Vietnam.

In 1986, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev proposed a sweeping arms-control plan to eliminate all nuclear weapons by the year 2000 and rid "mankind of the fear of nuclear catastrophe."

In 1993, four-time Oscar-winning songwriter Sammy Cahn, who wrote such hits as "Fly Me to the Moon" and "Three Coins in the Fountain," died of heart failure at age 79.

In 1997, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat reached an agreement on the Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank city of Hebron.

In 2002, John Walker Lindh, a 20-year-old American seized with the Taliban in Afghanistan in December, was charged with conspiring to kill U.S. citizens and abetting terrorist groups.

In a 2006 runoff, Chile elected Michelle Bachelet as its first female president.

In 2008, meat and milk from cloned animals were ruled safe for human consumption by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration after years of debate.

In 2009, all 155 people aboard US Airways Flight 1549 escaped serious injury when pilot Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger gently landed his disabled aircraft in the Hudson River between New York and New Jersey.

In 2011, voters in southern Sudan overwhelmingly approved a referendum to secede from Sudan and become an independent African nation.

In 2012, a suicide bomber disguised as a policeman targeted Shiite pilgrims near the southern Iraqi city of Basra, killing at least 53 people and wounding 137.

In 2013, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo approved what supporters said would be the nation's toughest gun-control law. "You can overpower the extremists with intelligence and with reason and with common sense," Cuomo said before signing the measure.

A thought for the day: "Mr. Hockey" Gordie Howe, who played in five decades in the NHL, said: "You've got to love what you're doing. If you love it, you can overcome any handicap or the soreness or all the aches and pains, and continue to play for a long, long time."