The almanac

Today is Sunday, April 6, the 96th day of 2014 with 269 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Aries. They include Italian painter Raphael in 1483; newspaper editor Joseph Medill in 1823; journalist Lincoln Steffens in 1866; actor Walter Huston in 1884; radio commentator Lowell Thomas in 1892; baseball Hall of Fame member Gordon "Mickey" Cochrane in 1903; geneticist James Watson in 1928 (age 86); musician Andre Previn in 1929 (age 85); country singer Merle Haggard and actor Billy Dee Williams, both in 1937 (age 77); drag racing legend Don "The Snake" Prudhomme in 1941 (age 73); producer/director Barry Levinson in 1942 (age 72); Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa in 1963 (age 51); and actors John Ratzenberger in 1947 (age 67), Marilu Henner in 1952 (age 62); Zach Braff in 1975 (age 39) and Candace Cameron Bure in 1976 (age 38).

On this date in history:

In 1814, Napoleon was exiled to Elba.

In 1830, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints was founded in a log cabin in Fayette, N.Y.

In 1851, Portland, Ore., was founded.

In 1868, Mormon Church leader Brigham Young married his 27th, and last, wife.

In 1896, the first modern Olympics formally opened at Athens, Greece. The Olympics had last been staged 1,500 years earlier.

In 1909, Robert E. Peary and Matthew Henson reached the North Pole.

In 1917, the United States declared war on Germany, propelling America into World War I.

In 1938, Du Pont researchers Roy Plunkett and Jack Rebok created the chemical compound that was later marketed as Teflon.

In 1947, the first Tony Awards, honoring distinguished work in the theater, were presented in New York City.

In 1968, federal troops and National Guardsmen were deployed in Chicago, Washington and Detroit as rioting continued over the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

In 1973, American League baseball teams used a designated hitter for first time.

In 1991, Iraq's Parliament accepted a permanent cease-fire in the Gulf War.

In 1992, science fiction patriarch Isaac Asimov, 72, died after a lengthy illness.

In 1994, the presidents of the African nations of Rwanda and Burundi were among people killed in a plane hit by rockets as it tried to land in Kigali, Rwanda. (The attack triggered fighting between the Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups that left hundreds of thousands of people dead in what became known as the Rwandan Genocide.)

In 1998, U.S. health officials announced that tamoxifen, a synthetic hormone, prevented breast cancer in women at high risk.

In 2004, the University of Connecticut became the first school to win both the NCAA Division I men's and women's college basketball championships the same year.

In 2005, Prince Rainier III of Monaco, one of Europe's longest-reigning monarchs, died from multiple organ failure at the age of 81. He was succeeded by Prince Albert, one of three children of Rainier and his wife, U.S. movie star Grace Kelly, who died after a car crash in 1982.

In 2007, a U.N.-sponsored scientific panel endorsed by 120 countries warned of dire consequences unless worldwide buildup in greenhouse gases was cut back.

In 2008, American Airlines grounded all 300 of its MD-80 jetliners after an FAA review found faulty wiring in nine of them. (Over the next five days, American canceled about 3,300 flights, disrupting travel of more than 100,000 passengers.)

In 2009, a 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck central Italy's Abruzzo region, killing more than 200 people and severely damaging the city of L'Aquila.

In 2011, Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire signed a bill under which the state would acknowledge same-sex marriages in other states as domestic partnerships.

In 2013, former South African President Nelson Mandela, 94, was sent home from a Johannesburg hospital after treatment for pneumonia. (Mandela later had an extended hospital stay and died at home in December.)

A thought for the day: Baseball Hall of Famer "Wee Willie" Keeler's motto was "Hit 'em where they ain't."