The Almanac -- weekly

In 1848, the war between the United States and Mexico formally ended with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. It provided for Mexico's cession to the U.S. of the territory that became the states of New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming in exchange for $15 million.

In 1876, the National Baseball League was formed, with teams in Boston; Chicago; Cincinnati; New York; Philadelphia; St. Louis; Louisville, Ky.; and Hartford, Conn.

In 1933, two days after becoming chancellor of Germany, Adolf Hitler ordered dissolution of the German Parliament.

In 1936, Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson and Walter Johnson were the first inductees into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

In 1990, South African President F.W. de Klerk announced he would free Nelson Mandela and lift a 30-year ban on the African National Congress. Mandela was released nine days later.

In 1991, allied forces in the Persian Gulf War declared they were in control in the air and at sea.

In 1992, one day after agreeing to withdraw its troops from Lithuania, Russia reached a similar agreement with Latvia and opened talks with Estonia.

In 1993, more than 7,500 United Mine Workers miners went on strike against the Peabody Coal Co., the nation's largest coal producer.

Also in 1993, first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton banned smoking in the White House.

In 1998, U.S. President Bill Clinton submitted the first balanced federal budget in 29 years.

In 2002, a report requested by the board of directors of the troubled Enron Corporation accused top executives of forcing the company into bankruptcy by, among other things, inflating profits by almost $1 billion.

In 2003, Vaclav Havel, the playwright who became a president, stepped down after his second five-year term as head of the Czech Republic.

In 2004, the Bush administration said a bipartisan commission would investigate why pre-war intelligence reports that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction apparently had been wrong.

In 2005, in a wide-ranging State of the Union address, U.S. President George Bush said that U.S. troops would remain in Iraq until Iraqis can provide their own security.

In 2006, U.S. House Republicans got a new majority leader when John Boehner of Ohio won the job in an upset of Roy Blunt of Missouri.

In 2007, hundreds of scientists taking part in a U.N.-sponsored study concluded in a report that human activity was to blame for global warming, largely through greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels.

In 2008, a reported 2,000 rebels stormed Chad's capital city of N'Djamena in an unsuccessful attempt to oust President Idriss Deby. A cease-fire went into effect two days later with an estimated toll of 400 civilians dead.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Aquarius. They include German composer Felix Mendelssohn in 1809; U.S. journalist Horace Greeley in 1811; Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman doctor of medicine, in 1821; poet and novelist Gertrude Stein in 1874; artist Norman Rockwell in 1894; author James Michener in 1907; comedians Joey Bishop in 1918 and Shelley Berman in 1926 (age 83); Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Fran Tarkenton in 1940 (age 69); and actors Blythe Danner in 1943 (age 66), Morgan Fairchild in 1950 (age 59), Nathan Lane in 1956 (age 53), Thomas Calabro in 1959 (age 50) and Maura Tierney (ER) in 1965 (age 44).

In 1870, the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, decreeing that the right to vote shall not be denied on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude.

In 1913, the 16th Amendment, allowing establishment of an income tax, became part of the U.S. Constitution after ratification by Wyoming.

In 1917, the United States broke off diplomatic relations with Germany after a German declaration of unrestricted submarine warfare.

In 1924, Woodrow Wilson, the 28th president of the United States, died in Washington at the age of 67.

In 1959, singers Buddy Holly, J.P. The Big Bopper Richardson and Ritchie Valens were killed in a plane crash near Mason City, Iowa.

In 1966, the Soviet Union accomplished the first controlled landing on the moon when the unmanned spacecraft Lunik 9 touched down on the Ocean of Storms.

In 1973, U.S. President Richard Nixon signed into law the Endangered Species Act.

In 1984, a Long Beach, Calif., hospital announced the birth of the world's first baby conceived by embryo transplant.

In 1992, angry rhetoric escalated between the United States and Japan when Japanese Prime Minister Miyazawa accused U.S. workers of lacking a work ethic.

In 1994, the shuttle Discovery blasted off into space with the first Russian astronaut aboard a U.S. spacecraft.

Also in 1994, U.S. President Bill Clinton announced the United States was lifting its trade embargo against Vietnam.

In 1998, Texas executed Karla Faye Tucker the first female inmate to be put to death by the state in 135 years.

Also in 1998, a U.S. Marine jetfighter, flying low over mountains in Italy, accidentally severed a ski lift cable, sending 20 people in a cable car plunging to their deaths.

In 2003, U.S. President George W. Bush sent lawmakers a $2.23 trillion budget for 2004, including major new tax cuts and a big increase in defense spending, projecting a deficit of $307.4 billion.

In 2004, the discovery of the lethal poison ricin in the mailroom of U.S. Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., the Senate majority leader, forced the closing of three Senate office buildings in Washington.

In 2005, investigators looking into the U.N. oil-for-food program reported finding gross mismanagement.

Also in 2005, more than 50 people died when a train rammed a trailer carrying a wedding party at a railroad crossing in India.

In 2006, almost 200 people were reported dead with another 800 listed as missing after an Egyptian ferry sank in the Red Sea off the coast of Egypt. Authorities said the passengers were mostly workers and vacationers returning from Saudi Arabia.

In 2007, a truck bomb exploded in a Baghdad market killing at least 135 and injuring more than 300.

In 2008, strong earthquakes in the Great Lakes region of Africa, centering in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, killed at least 30 people and injured more than 300 others.

Also in 2008, Serbian President Boris Tadic, a pro-Western leader who favors closer ties with the United States, won re-election over a hard-line Radical Party candidate.

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

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; aviator Charles Lindbergh in 1902; civil rights activist Rosa Lee Parks in 1913; actress Ida Lupino in 1918; feminist Betty Friedan in 1921; actor John Schuck in 1940 (age 69); comedian David Brenner in 1945 (age 64); rock musician Alice Cooper in 1948 (age 61); actresses Pamela Franklin in 1950 (age 59) and Lisa Eichhorn in 1952 (age 57); country singer Clint Black in 1962 (age 47) and actress Gabrielle Anwar in 1970 (age 39).

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 their votes. John Adams of Massachusetts was elected vice president.

In 1861, at a convention in Montgomery, Ala., six states -- Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina -- elected Jefferson Davis president of the Confederacy.

Also in 1861, the 25-year period of conflict known as the Apache War began at Apache Pass, Ariz., with the arrest of Apache Chief 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 was ordered to pay a total of $33.5 million to both 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 had leaked that technology to other countries.

Also in 2004, the Massachusetts Supreme Court refused to allow civil union as a substitute for same-sex marriage.

In 2006, widespread Muslim protests of published caricatures depicting Muhammad in a negative light turned violent. Angry demonstrators smashed windows, set fires and burned flags and Syrian mobs burned Danish and Norwegian embassies.

Also in 2006, nearly 100 people were reported killed and more than 250 injured in a stampede at a Philippine stadium where thousands were on hand for a popular game show.

In 2007, severe flooding in Jakarta killed at least 20 people and drove 340,000 Indonesians from their homes.

In 2008, U.S. President George Bush introduced a $3.1 trillion budget for fiscal 2009, including proposed increases in military spending but cutbacks in most domestic programs.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Aquarius. They include former British Prime Minister Robert Peel, founder of the London Police Force, in 1788; evangelist Dwight Moody in 1837; Scotsman John Dunlop, inventor of the pneumatic tire, in 1840; outlaw Belle Starr in 1848; U.S. statesman Adlai E. Stevenson in 1900; actor John Carradine in 1906; novelist William Burroughs in 1914; comedian/actor Red Buttons in 1919; author Rev. Andrew Greeley in 1928 (age 81); former baseball home run king Henry Aaron in 1934 (age 75); financial writer Jane Bryant Quinn in 1939 (age 70); writer/comedian Christopher Guest and actress Barbara Hershey, both in 1948 (age 61); actresses Jennifer Jason Leigh in 1962 (age 47) and Laura Linney in 1964 (age 45); and singer Bobby Brown in 1969 (age 40).

In 1631, British clergyman Roger Williams arrived in Salem, Mass., seeking religious freedom. He founded the colony of Rhode Island.

In 1971, Apollo 14 astronauts Alan Shepard and Edward Mitchell walked on the moon for four hours.

In 1981, U.S. President Ronald Reagan, in a nationwide address, said the United States was in the worst economic mess since the Great Depression and called for sweeping spending and tax cuts.

In 1986, world oil prices plunged toward $15 per barrel from $30 three months earlier after OPEC failed to curb production. Prices dropped to $9 by the summer of 1986.

In 1988, two U.S. grand juries in Florida announced indictments of Panama military strongman Manuel Antonio Noriega and 16 associates on drug smuggling and money laundering charges.

In 1989, Radio Moscow announced the last Soviet soldier had left Kabul, Afghanistan.

In 1990, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev proposed the Communist Party give up its monopoly on power in the Soviet Union. Two days later, the party's Central Committee agreed.

In 1991, U.S. President George H.W. Bush sent his top military advisers to Saudi Arabia to decide whether a ground assault was needed to liberate Iraqi-occupied Kuwait.

In 1992, euthanasia advocate Jack Dr. Death Kevorkian was freed on bond following his arrest in the assisted suicides of two women.

In 1994, a mortar shell fell onto a crowded weekend market in Sarajevo, Bosnia, killing 69 people and injuring 200.

Also in 1994, white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith was convicted of the 1963 killing of Mississippi civil rights leader Medgar Evers.

In 1996, a judge ordered U.S. President Bill Clinton to testify in the Whitewater land dispute trial. He later did so via videotape.

In 2003, making a case for U.N.-endorsed military action in Iraq, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell accused the Saddam Hussein regime of deceiving U.N. weapons inspectors and having ties with the al-Qaida terrorist network.

In 2004, speaking out strongly against his war critics, U.S. President George Bush said Iraq's nightmare was over and the United States was safer because he made the tough call to go to war.

In 2005, a Moroccan family of four was charged in Spain in the March 11 Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people.

In 2006, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad added more heat to his country's nuclear controversy by telling the International Atomic Energy Agency that Iran was halting all voluntary cooperation, reports said.

Also in 2006, the far-flung, often violent Muslim protest against Danish-published caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed spread to Turkey, Indonesia, India, Thailand and New Zealand.

In 2007, U.S. astronaut Lisa Marie Nowak was arrested on several charges, including attempted kidnapping, after she drove from Houston to Orlando, Fla., to confront another officer whom she viewed as a rival for a fellow astronaut.

In 2008, on Super Tuesday, Barack Obama took a slim lead in delegates over Hillary Clinton in the Democratic contest while John McCain outscored all of his opponents combined in the delegate battle for the Republican nomination.

Also in 2008, Mike McConnell, the U.S. director of national intelligence, warned Congress that al-Qaida had progressed to the point that it could carry out an attack in the United States.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Aquarius. They include England's Queen Anne in 1665; statesman Aaron Burr in 1756; baseball great George Herman Babe Ruth in 1895; former U.S. President Ronald Reagan in 1911; actors Patrick MacNee in 1922 (age 87), Zsa Zsa Gabor in 1917 (age 92) and Rip Torn in 1931 (age 78); French film director Francois Truffaut in 1932; actors Mike Farrell in 1939 (age 70) and Michael Tucker in 1944 (age 65); television news anchorman Tom Brokaw in 1940 (age 69); handgun activist Sarah Brady in 1942 (age 67); singers Fabian Forte in 1943 (age 66) and Natalie Cole in 1950 (age 59); Jamaican reggae singer/songwriter Bob Marley in 1945; and actor/director Robert Townsend and actress Kathy Najimy, both in 1957 (age 52).

In 1865, Gen. Robert E. Lee was appointed commander in chief of the armies of the Confederacy.

In 1943, U.S. Army Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower was named commander of Allied expeditionary forces in North Africa. He later became World War II Supreme Allied Commander in Europe.

In 1952, Princess Elizabeth became sovereign of Great Britain upon the death of her father, King George VI. She was crowned Queen Elizabeth II on June 2, 1953.

In 1974, the Caribbean island of Grenada was declared independent and a member of the British Commonwealth.

In 1987, broad no-smoking rules took effect for 890,000 employees in 6,800 U.S. federal buildings nationwide.

In 1991, U.S. President George H.W. Bush authorized the direct shipment of emergency medical supplies to the Soviet republics of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Ukraine.

In 1992, a military transport plane crashed into a restaurant and hotel in Evansville, Ind., killing 16 people.

In 1993, U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali asked NATO for authority to order airstrikes against Serb artillery positions in Bosnia.

In 1997, the head of Mexico's leading anti-drug agency was forced to resign after evidence emerged that he took bribes from a drug cartel.

In 1998, U.S. President Bill Clinton said he would never consider resigning because of allegations that he had an affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

In 2001, Ariel Sharon was elected prime minister of Israel.

In 2003, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld approved deployment of the 101st Airborne Division and the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk to the Persian Gulf region.

In 2004, a female suicide bomber detonated explosives in a suitcase on a Moscow subway car killing 39 people and injuring about 200.

In 2005, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon that decisions must be made to promote peace and encourage a Palestinian state.

And in 2005 sports, the New England Patriots won their third Super Bowl in four years, defeating the Philadelphia Eagles 24-21.

In 2006, U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales told Congress that President George Bush was within his legal rights when he authorized warrantless surveillance of people in the United States by the National Security Agency.

In 2007, an almost solid Republican front blocked U.S. Senate debate on a bipartisan resolution opposing the U.S. troop buildup in Iraq.

In 2008, storms spawned tornadoes across wide areas of the U.S. South, killing at least 54 people and injuring nearly 100 more. Roaring across five states, the deadly twisters trapped 50 people in a retirement home and severely damaged Union University, a shopping mall and a hospital.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Aquarius. They include English statesman and writer Sir Thomas More in 1478; farm equipment manufacturer John Deere in 1804; English novelist Charles Dickens in 1812; Little House books author Laura Ingalls Wilder in 1867; ragtime composer and pianist Eubie Blake in 1883; novelist Sinclair Lewis in 1885; actor and Olympic swimming gold medalist Buster Crabbe (Flash Gordon) in 1908; actors Miguel Ferrer in 1955 (age 54) and James Spader in 1960 (age 49); country singer Garth Brooks in 1962 (age 47); and comedian Chris Rock in 1966 (age 43).

In 1904, a massive fire, possibly started by a discarded cigarette, struck Baltimore, burning for 31 hours and destroying an 80-block downtown area. Miraculously no lives or homes were lost.

In 1915, D.W. Griffith's Birth Of A Nation, a landmark in the history of cinema and the first American full-length motion picture, opened in Los Angeles and was immediately a smash hit though many found its treatment of race offensive.

In 1940, British railroads were nationalized.

In 1956, Autherine Lucy, the first black person admitted to the University of Alabama, was expelled after she accused school officials of conspiring in the riots that accompanied her court-ordered enrollment.

In 1964, the Beatles arrived in the United States for the first time and immediately set off a frantic wave of Beatlemania.

In 1973, the U.S. Senate voted to set up a committee to investigate the break-in at the Democratic National Headquarters in Washington's Watergate complex.

In 1984, two U.S. shuttle astronauts made the first untethered space walk.

In 1986, both Ferdinand Marcos and challenger Corazon Aquino claimed victory in the Philippine presidential election.

Also in 1986, Haiti's President for Life Jean-Claude Duvalier fled to France.

In 1989, a U.S. State Department report on international human rights accused Israel of mishandling the Palestinian uprising in the occupied territories.

In 1991, Jean-Bertrand Aristide was inaugurated as Haiti's first democratically elected president in 186 years.

In 1993, another 13 women accused U.S. Sen. Bob Packwood of improper advances, bringing the total to 23 women who have said the Oregon Republican harassed them with unwelcome sexual overtures.

In 1995, the alleged mastermind in the 1993 bombing of New York's World Trade Center, Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, was arrested in Pakistan. He was extradited the next day.

In 1998, the Winter Olympics opened in Nagano, Japan.

In 1999, King Hussein of Jordan died following a battle with cancer. He was 63. Hussein had ruled Jordan for 46 years.

In 2003, Colombian rebels were blamed for a bomb explosion at a Bogota social club that killed more than 30 people and injured many others.

In 2005, rescuers reported no survivors among the 104 people aboard an Afghan airliner that crashed in the mountains near Kabul. It was Afghanistan's worst air disaster.

In 2006, some 2,000 California residents were forced to flee a major brush fire raging through an area near Anaheim.

In 2007, the U.S. military confirmed a twin-rotor Sea Knight transport helicopter crashed northwest of Baghdad, the fifth in 18 days. Seven died in the latest crash.

In 2008, the U.S. Congress gave final approval to a $168 billion stimulus package for taxpayers in an effort to rekindle the flickering American economy. Rebates of $300-$600 went to individuals earning up to $75,000 and to couples with incomes up to $150,000, plus extra money for children.

Also in 2008, Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton said she lent her campaign $5 million before Super Tuesday to be competitive. Further, some senior members of Clinton's campaign staff reportedly agreed to go without pay for a month.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Aquarius. They include Civil War Gen. William Sherman in 1820; pioneer science fiction writer Jules Verne in 1828; Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleyev, who devised the periodic table, in 1834; actress Edith Evans in 1888; film director King Vidor in 1894; Chester Carlson, inventor of the Xerox copying process, in 1906; actress Lana Turner in 1920; actors Jack Lemmon in 1925 and James Dean in 1931; composer/conductor John Williams in 1932 (age 77); television journalist Ted Koppel in 1940 (age 69); actor Nick Nolte in 1941 (age 68); comedian Robert Klein in 1942 (age 67); actress Mary Steenburgen in 1953 (age 56); author John Grisham in 1955 (age 54); and actor Gary Coleman in 1968 (age 41).

In 1587, Mary Queen of Scots was beheaded, charged with conspiring to kill England's Queen Elizabeth I.

In 1725, Peter the Great, emperor of Russia, died and was succeeded by his wife, Catherine.

In 1910, the United States became the 12th nation to join the international scouting movement.

In 1940, Nazis shot every 10th person in two Polish villages near Warsaw in reprisal for the deaths of two German soldiers.

In 1974, three U.S. Skylab astronauts ended an 84-day orbital flight.

In 1987, a 60-day cease-fire ended between the Philippine army and communist rebels. Twenty-eight people died in truce violations.

In 1992, the Winter Olympics opened in Albertville, France.

In 1993, a chartered passenger plane collided with a military aircraft over the Iranian capital of Tehran, killing at least 132 people and strewing bodies across a military base as Iran celebrated Air Force Day.

Also in 1993, General Motors announced it was suing NBC-TV, contending the network rigged a demonstration crash showing a GM pickup truck with sidesaddle fuel tank exploding into flames.

In 1995, the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to send 7,000 peacekeepers to Angola to maintain peace in the African nation.

In 2002, the Olympic Winter Games opened in Salt Lake City.

In 2003, Syria and Israel exchanged fire for the first time in 29 years in a dispute over a Syrian civilian killed in the demilitarized zone separating the two countries.

In 2004, U.S. President George Bush acknowledged in a TV interview that he might have been wrong in claiming before the war that Iraq had stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction. But, he said, I expected to find the weapons.

Also in 2004, a published report said more than 10,000 civilians, many of them women and children, had been killed in the Iraqi conflict.

And in 2004 entertainment, Beyonce was a five-time winner at the Grammy Awards, tying the record for most Grammys by a female artist.

In 2005, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared a truce in hostilities.

In 2006, U.S. agents joined an investigation into a rash of arson incidents that damaged nine rural Alabama churches in five days.

Also in 2006, police opened fire on an Afghanistan mob protesting a series of published cartoons that depict the Prophet Mohammed, killing four protesters and raising the death toll there to 11.

And, an eight-year federal study said a low-fat diet doesn't decrease the risk of heart disease, cancer or stroke.

In 2007, Anna Nicole Smith, a 39-year-old actress, model and tabloid fixture, was found dead in a Hollywood, Fla., hotel. Her death was attributed to accidental sedative overdose.

Also in 2007, the warring Palestinian political factions, Hamas and Fatah, attempted to end the violence with a unity government.

In 2008, a man at odds with city officials went on a shooting rampage at a Kirkwood, Mo., City Council meeting, killing five people, police said. Officers shot and killed the suspect, identified as Charles Lee Cookie Thornton, an independent contractor.

Also in 2008, an explosion rocked the Imperial Sugar Co. facility at Fort Wentworth, Ga., near Savannah. Four people were reported killed and about 30 others were injured,