The almanac

Today is Monday, April 7, the 97th day of 2014 with 268 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 missionary St. Francis Xavier in 1506; English poet William Wordsworth in 1770; "Father of American Football" Walter Camp in 1859; baseball Hall of Fame member John McGraw in 1873; CIA Director Allen Dulles in 1893; gossip columnist Walter Winchell in 1897; conductor Percy Faith in 1908; singer Billie Holiday in 1915; sitar player Ravi Shankar in 1920; actor James Garner in 1928 (age 86); former Defense Department analyst Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers, in 1971, in 1931 (age 83); actor Wayne Rogers in 1933 (age 81); California Gov. Jerry Brown Jr. in 1938 (age 76); film director Francis Ford Coppola (age 75) and British TV personality David Frost, both in 1939; former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in 1944 (age 70); musicians John Oates in 1949 (age 65) and Janis Ian in 1951 (age 63); actor/martial arts expert Jackie Chan and football Hall of Fame member Tony Dorsett, both in 1954 (age 60); and actor Russell Crowe in 1964 (age 50).

On this date in history:

In 1795, the meter was adopted as a basic measure of length by France.

In 1862, Union forces under the command of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant defeated the Confederates at Shiloh, Tenn.

In 1953, Swedish statesman Dag Hammarskjold was elected secretary-general of the United Nations. (He served until his death in a 1961 plane crash.)

In 1990, suspected arson fires aboard the ferry Scandinavian Star killed at least 75 people in Scandinavia's worst post-war maritime disaster.

In 2006, three suicide bombers set off explosives in a Baghdad mosque, killing at least 90 people and injuring an estimated 175.

In 2009, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il was re-elected to a third five-year term despite failing health since his reported stroke in August 2008.

In 2010, air travel resumed, most roads reopened and crews worked to restore power in Rio de Janeiro after a rainstorm and mudslide left more than 133 people dead.

In 2011, a 23-year-old former student returned to his public elementary school in Rio de Janeiro and opened fire with two revolvers, killing 12 children and wounding 12 others before shooting himself in the head as police closed in.

In 2012, broadcast journalist Mike Wallace, the CBS "60 Minutes" icon, died in New Canaan, Conn. He was 93.

In 2013, al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri used an Internet video to urge rebels in Syria to fight to establish an Islamic state governed by Sharia law.

A thought for the day: "Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it." -- Bruce Lee