The almanac

Today is Thursday, March 6, the 65th day of 2014 with 300 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Pisces. They include Italian painter and sculptor Michelangelo in 1475; French dramatist Cyrano de Bergerac in 1619; English poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning in 1806; Union Army Gen. Philip Sheridan in 1831; humorist and short story writer Ring Lardner in 1885; baseball Hall of Fame member Robert Moses "Lefty" Grove in 1900; Texas swing bandleader Bob Wills in 1905; comic actor Lou Costello in 1906; one-armed professional baseball player Pete Gray in 1915; television personality Ed McMahon in 1923; symphony conductor Sarah Caldwell in 1924; former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan in 1926 (age 88); Mercury astronaut L. Gordon Cooper in 1927; Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez, also in 1927 (age 87); former District of Columbia Mayor Marion Barry in 1936 (age 78); baseball Hall of Fame member Willie Stargell in 1940; actor Ben Murphy in 1942 (age 72); singer Mary Wilson in 1944 (age 70); Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member David Gilmour (Pink Floyd) in 1946 (age 68); actor/director Rob Reiner, high jumper Dick Fosbury and news commentator John Stossel, all in 1947 (age 67); actors Tom Arnold in 1959 (age 55) and D.L. Hughley in 1963 (age 51); and basketball star Shaquille O'Neal in 1972 (age 42).

On this date in history:

In 1836, Mexican forces captured the Alamo in San Antonio, killing the last of 187 defenders who had held out in the fortified Texas mission for 13 days. Frontiersman Davy Crockett was among those killed on the final day.

In 1853, "La Traviata" by Giuseppe Verdi premiered in Venice, Italy.

In 1857, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its landmark ruling that slave Dred Scott couldn't sue for his freedom in a federal court, even though his white owner had died in a "free" state.

In 1944, during World War II, U.S. bombers flying from Britain began the first daytime attacks on Berlin.

In 1967, Svetlana Alliluyeva, Joseph Stalin's daughter, defected to the United States.

In 1981, Walter Cronkite signed off from the "CBS Evening News" for the final time after 19 years at the anchor's desk.

In 1982, an Egyptian court sentenced five Muslim fundamentalists to death for the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. Seventeen others drew prison terms.

In 1991, U.S. President George H.W. Bush declared the Persian Gulf War over.

In 2006, officials said 2005 was the costliest hurricane season in U.S. history. Katrina, Rita and Wilma were among the storms that year.

In 2012, an Egyptian pipeline that supplies gas to Israel and Jordan was bombed for the 13th time since the ouster of Hosni Mubarak as Egypt's president, officials said.

In 2013, former French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he had no plans to return to public life but would consider doing so "out of duty, solely for the sake of France."

A thought for the day: Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote, "A woman's always younger than a man of equal years."