The almanac

Today is Sunday, Feb. 16, the 47th day of 2014 with 318 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Aquarius. They include French mathematician Pierre Bouguer in 1698; historian Henry Brooks Adams in 1838; orchestra leader Wayne King ("The Waltz King") and actor Chester Morris, both in 1901; ventriloquist Edgar Bergen in 1903; actor Hugh Beaumont in 1909; singer Patty Andrews of the Andrews Sisters in 1918; actor Vera-Ellen in 1921; U.S. Rep. Sonny Bono, R-Calif. (also part of the comedy/song team Sonny and Cher) in 1935; North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in 1941; writer Richard Ford in 1944 (age 70); actors William Katt in 1951 (age 63) and Margaux Hemingway (granddaughter of Ernest Hemingway) in 1954; actor/director LeVar Burton in 1957 (age 57), actor and rapper Ice-T, born Tracy Marrow, in 1958 (age 56); and tennis Hall of Fame member John McEnroe in 1959 (age 55).

On this date in history:

In 1923, archaeologists opened the treasure-laden tomb of Tutankhamen, "King Tut," in Egypt's Valley of the Kings.

In 1933, a patent for the synthetic fiber nylon was awarded to the DuPont Co.

In 1959, Fidel Castro was sworn in as Cuba's leader and set up a Communist regime.

In 1986, Mario Soares was elected Portugal's first civilian head of state in 60 years.

In 1999, Germany announced that $1.7 billion would be set aside to compensate victims of the Holocaust.

In 2005, the National Hockey League canceled its entire season after a five-month lockout.

In 2009, Japan reported its domestic product fell at a 12.7 percent annual rate in the last quarter of 2008, plunging the country into what experts say was its worst financial crisis since World War II.

In 2010, Pakistani and U.S. forces reported they had arrested Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the top Taliban military commander, in Karachi, Pakistan.

In 2011, Borders, the 40-year-old retail book superstore chain that began as a used book shop in Ann Arbor, Mich., and rapidly expanded in the 1990s with 650 locations and 19,500 employees, filed for bankruptcy.

In 2013, protesters in Quetta, Pakistan, threw rocks at police cars and set fires in the streets after a bomb attack in a Shiite neighborhood killed at least 65 people and injured about 175.

A thought for the day: "Don't be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice." -- Steve Jobs