The almanac

Today is Tuesday, Feb. 4, the 35th day of 2014 with 330 to follow.

The moon is waxing. 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 Aquarius. They include Polish-born American patriot Tadeusz Kosciuszko in 1746; French cubist painter Fernand Leger in 1881; actor Nigel Bruce in 1895; aviator Charles Lindbergh in 1902; legendary golfer Byron Nelson in 1912; civil rights activist Rosa Lee Parks in 1913; actors Ida Lupino in 1918 and Conrad Bain in 1923; feminist Betty Friedan in 1921; comedian David Brenner in 1936 (age 78); actor John Schuck in 1940 (age 74); former U.S. Vice President Dan Quayle in 1947 (age 67); Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Alice Cooper in 1948 (age 66); actor Lisa Eichhorn in 1952 (age 62); football Hall of Fame member Lawrence Taylor in 1959 (age 55); country singer Clint Black in 1962 (age 52), actor Gabrielle Anwar in 1970 (age 44) and boxer Oscar de la Hoya in 1973 (age 41).

On this date in history:

In 1789, George Washington of Virginia, the commander of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, was elected the first president of the United States by all 69 presidential electors who cast votes. John Adams of Massachusetts was elected vice president.

In 1792, George Washington was unanimously elected to a second term as U.S. president in a vote of the Electoral College.

In 1861, the 25-year period of conflict known as the Apache War began at Apache Pass, Ariz., with the arrest of American-Indian leader Cochise for raiding a ranch. (Cochise escaped his U.S. Army captors and declared war.)

In 1938, Adolf Hitler seized control of the German army and put Nazi officers in key posts as part of a plan that led to World War II.

In 1974, urban guerrillas abducted Patricia Hearst, the 19-year-old daughter of publisher Randolph Hearst, from her apartment in Berkeley, Calif.

In 1976, an earthquake measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale killed nearly 23,000 people in Guatemala and Honduras.

In 1997, a jury in a civil trial in Santa Monica, Calif., found O.J. Simpson liable in the killings of his former wife and her friend and he was ordered to pay a total of $33.5 million to the families. Simpson had been acquitted in his murder trial.

In 2004, a Pakistani scientist considered the key figure in his country's nuclear weaponry development admitted he leaked that technology to other countries.

In 2006, widespread Muslim protests of caricatures depicting Muhammad in a negative way turned violent. Angry demonstrators smashed windows, set fires and burned flags. Syrian mobs burned Danish and Norwegian embassies because newspapers in those countries published the drawings.

In 2012, Russia and China vetoed an effort by the U.N. Security Council to end the violence in Syria with an Arab League peace plan.

In 2013, law enforcement officers stormed an underground bunker in Midland City, Ala., killed 65-year-old Jimmy Lee Dykes and rescued a 5-year-old boy he had held hostage for a week.

A thought for the day: Scottish Olympian and missionary Eric Liddell said, "In the dust of defeat as well as the laurels of victory there is a glory to be found if one has done his best."