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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Aries. They include French philosopher Rene Descartes in 1596; Austrian composer Franz Joseph Haydn in 1732; German chemist Robert Bunsen, inventor of the Bunsen gas burner, in 1811; boxer Jack Johnson, the first black to hold the heavyweight title, in 1878; comedian Henry Morgan in 1915; actor/singer Richard Kiley in 1922; author and motivational speaker Leo Buscaglia in 1924; United Farm Workers President Cesar Chavez in 1927; actor William Daniels, also in 1927 (age 81); former National Hockey League star Gordie Howe in 1928 (age 80); fashion designer Liz Claiborne in 1929 (age 79); author John Jakes in 1932 (age 76); actress Shirley Jones in 1934 (age 74); trumpeter/bandleader Herb Alpert (The Tijuana Brass) in 1935 (age 73); actors Richard Chamberlain in 1934 (age 74), Christopher Walken in 1943 (age 65), Gabe Kaplan in 1945 (age 63) and Rhea Perlman in 1948 (age 60); former U.S. Vice President Al Gore Jr. also in 1948 (age 60); and actors Ed Marinaro in 1950 (age 58) and Ewan McGregor in 1971 (age 37).

In 1889, the Eiffel Tower was dedicated in Paris in a ceremony presided over by its designer, Gustave Eiffel, during the Universal Exhibition of Arts and Manufacturers.

In 1948, the U.S. Congress passed the Marshall Aid Act, a plan to rehabilitate war-ravaged Europe.

In 1954, the U.S. Air Force Academy was established at Colorado Springs, Colo.

In 1959, the Dalai Lama fled Chinese-occupied Tibet and was granted political asylum in India.

In 1968, U.S. President Lyndon Johnson announced he would not seek re-election and simultaneously ordered suspension of U.S. bombing of North Vietnam.

In 1971, U.S. Army Lt. William Calley was sentenced to life imprisonment for his part in the deaths of 22 Vietnamese civilians in what was called the My Lai massacre.

In 1987, the U.S. State Department ordered home all 28 remaining U.S. Marine guards at the Moscow embassy after two Marines were charged with espionage.

In 1991, the Warsaw Pact formally ended as Soviet commanders surrendered their powers in an agreement between pact members and the Soviet Union.

In 1992, the U.N. Security Council voted to impose air traffic and weapons sanctions against Libya for not surrendering six men wanted by the United States, Britain and France in the bombings of a U.S. jetliner and a French plane.

In 1994, a state of emergency was declared in the South African Zulu homeland of KwaZulu following deadly fighting in the weeks before the country's first universal-suffrage elections.

In 1998, the U.N. Security Council voted to impose an arms embargo on Yugoslavia after unrest in the Serbian province of Kosovo turned violent.

In 2001, Serbian police and security forces attempted to arrest former President Slobodan Milosevic at his home in Belgrade on charges of corruption while in office. Supporters forced a stand-off that lasted until the next day when Milosevic surrendered peacefully.

In 2003, Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri called on U.S. and British forces to withdraw immediately from Iraq because Iraqis were determined to inflict the final defeat.

In 2004, the International Court of Justice ruled the United States breached the rights of 51 Mexicans on death row by not telling them they had consular access.

In 2005, Terri Schiavo, a 41-year-old Florida woman in a persistent vegetative state since 1990, died 14 days after removal of her feeding tube amid a heart-wrenching legal struggle over her fate reaching to the White House and the U.S. Supreme Court.

In 2006, rescue workers searched for more victims of a capsized cruise boat during a Persian Gulf party. Fifty-seven people were reported dead and 67 rescued.

In 2007, a U.S. air raid, car bombs and random killings reportedly killed at least 55 people across Iraq.

Also in 2007, Pakistan successfully tested its Hataf-II Abdali ballistic missile, believed capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.

And, almost six of 10 U.S. voters supported a proposal to set a deadline for troop withdrawal from Iraq, a Newsweek poll indicates.

This is known as April Fools' Day in the United States.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Aries. They include German military theorist Prince Otto von Bismarck in 1815; Italian pianist and composer Ferruccio Busoni in 1866; Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff in 1873; actors Lon Chaney Sr. in 1883 and Wallace Beery in 1885; actor Toshiro Mifune in 1920; author William Manchester (Death of a President) in 1922; actresses/singers Jane Powell in 1929 (age 79) and Debbie Reynolds in 1932 (age 76); and actresses Ali McGraw in 1938 (age 70) and Annette O'Toole in 1952 (age 56).

In 1918, toward the end of World War I, the Royal Air Force was founded. Two months later, Britain began bombing industrial targets in Germany from bases in France.

In 1924, Adolf Hitler was sent to prison for five years after failing in his first effort to take over Germany by force, the unsuccessful Beer Hall Putsch in the German state of Bavaria.

In 1945, U.S. forces swarmed ashore on the Japanese island of Okinawa, to begin what would be one of the longest and bloodiest battles of World War II.

In 1979, Iran declared itself an Islamic Republic.

In 1982, the United States formally transferred control of the Panama Canal Zone to the government of Panama.

In 1986, world oil prices dipped below $10 a barrel.

In 1991, Moscow food stores closed to curb panic buying in anticipation of government price increases.

In 1992, U.S. President George H.W. Bush announced a $24 billion aid package to the former Soviet republics.

In 1996, an outbreak of mad cow disease forced Britain to plan the mass slaughter of cows.

In 1998, a U.S. judge dismissed the sexual harassment lawsuit filed by Paula Jones against U.S. President Bill Clinton.

In 1999, Canada created a new territory, Nunavut, as a means of providing autonomy for the Inuit people.

In 2001, a U.S. Navy spy plane collided with a Chinese jetfighter off the coast of China. The Chinese plane crashed into the ocean; the damaged U.S. plane landed on the Chinese island of Hainan, where its 24 crewmembers were held for 11 days.

In 2002, the United States and Pakistan announced the capture of a top al-Qaida leader, a major break in their war on terrorism.

In 2003, U.S. Marines rescued Pfc. Jessica Lynch, 19, who had been held prisoner in Iraq since an ambush on March 23.

In 2005, Samuel Berger, national security adviser to U.S. President Bill Clinton, pleaded guilty to destroying classified documents he admitted removing from the National Archives.

Also in 2005, all nine people aboard an Australian navy helicopter on a relief mission to earthquake-struck Indonesia died when the aircraft crashed.

In 2006, U.S. intelligence and terrorism experts said they think Iran would order global terrorist attacks if U.S. forces struck Iran's nuclear sites.

Also in 2006, all 19 people on board a Brazilian commuter flight were found dead following a crash in the mountains of Rio de Janeiro.

In 2007, U.S. President George Bush demanded that Iran release 15 British naval personnel, calling their seizure inexcusable hostage-taking.

Also in 2007, an earthquake measuring 8 on the Richter scale churned the depths of the South Pacific, triggering a tsunami that sent waves several feet high into some of western Solomon Islands.

Passover begins at sundown.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Aries. They include Charlemagne, founder of the Holy Roman Empire, in 742; Italian adventurer Giacomo Casanova in 1725; Danish storyteller Hans Christian Andersen in 1805; French sculptor Frederic Bartholdi, creator of the Statue of Liberty, in 1834; French novelist Emile Zola in 1840; surrealist artist Max Ernst in 1891; actors Buddy Ebsen in 1908; Alec Guinness in 1914 and Jack Webb in 1920; Australian auto racer Jack Brabham in 1926; singer/songwriters Marvin Gaye in 1939 and Leon Russell in 1942 (age 66); actress Linda Hunt in 1945 (age 63); literary and cultural critic Camille Paglia and country singer Emmylou Harris, both in 1947 (age 61); actress Pamela Reed in 1949 (age 59); and actor Christopher Meloni (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit) in 1961 (age 47).

In 1513, Ponce De Leon of Spain landed at what's now St. Augustine, Fla., to search for the Fountain of Youth.

In 1792, the U.S. Congress passed legislation authorizing the U.S. Mint to coin money, all to be inscribed with the Latin words E Pluribus Unum, a motto meaning Out of Many, One.

In 1863, rioting erupted in the Confederate capital of Richmond, Va., sparked by an angry crowd's demand for bread at a bakery.

In 1877, the first White House Easter Egg Roll was conducted.

In 1917, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson asked Congress for a declaration of war against Germany.

Also in 1917, Jeannette Rankin, a representative from Montana, took her seat as the first woman elected to Congress.

In 1932, Charles Lindbergh left $50,000 in a New York City cemetery in hope of regaining his kidnapped son. The infant was later found dead. Bruno Hauptmann subsequently was convicted of kidnapping and murder and was executed.

In 1982, Argentine troops stormed the Falkland Islands, overwhelming the small British Royal Marine unit stationed there.

In 1987, the U.S. Senate overrode a Reagan veto by one vote to enact a highway bill that allowed states to raise speed limits to 65 mph in certain areas.

In 1991, Iraq crushed monthlong insurgencies by northern Kurds and southern Shiite Muslims.

In 1992, a New York jury convicted mob boss John Gotti in five killings, racketeering and other charges.

In 1995, an explosion in the city of Gaza killed eight people, including a leader of the military wing of Hamas.

In 2000, Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi suffered a stroke that left him comatose.

In 2005, Pope John Paul II, head of the Roman Catholic church for more than a quarter century, died at his Vatican apartment. The 84-year-old pontiff suffered in his final days from a urinary tract infection and a bacterial infection that led to organ failure.

In 2006, U.S. journalist Jill Carroll returned to Boston after being held in Iraq for 82 days by kidnappers. She said she had been forced to do a videotape denouncing the war.

Also in 2006, at least 50 people were killed in Iraq in violence that included a mortar attack, military firefights and roadside bombings.

In 2007, The U.S. Supreme Court ruled, 5-4, that the Environmental Protection Agency has the authority to regulate the emission of greenhouse gases by motor vehicles and must do so unless it can show a scientific reason not to.

Also in 2007, the United States and South Korea ended 10 months of negotiations with an agreement on bilateral free trade.

And, in 2007 sports, the University of Florida repeated as NCAA Division I basketball champion, becoming the first school to win both the national collegiate basketball and football titles the same academic year.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Aries. They include historian and story writer Washington Irving in 1783; author and naturalist John Burroughs in 1837; publisher Henry Luce in 1898; actress Doris Day in 1924 (age 84) and actor Marlon Brando also in 1924; astronaut Virgil Gus Grissom in 1926; anthropologist Jane Goodall in 1934 (age 74); actress Marsha Mason and entertainer Wayne Newton, both in 1942 (age 66); singer Tony Orlando in 1944 (age 64); actors Alec Baldwin in 1958 (age 50) and David Hyde Pierce in 1959 (age 49); actor/comedian Eddie Murphy in 1961 (age 47); actress Jennie Garth (Beverly Hills 90210) in 1972 (age 36) and Olympic skier Picabo Street in 1971 (age 37).

In 1860, the Pony Express postal service began with riders leaving St. Joseph, Mo., and Sacramento, Calif., at the same time.

In 1865, as the Civil War drew to a close, Richmond, Va., and nearby Petersburg surrendered to Union forces.

In 1882, the notorious outlaw Jesse James was shot to death by Robert Ford, a former gang member who hoped to collect the reward on James' head.

In 1936, Richard Bruno Hauptmann was executed for killing the 20-month-old son of Charles A. Lindbergh.

In 1944, in a case out of Texas, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that barring blacks from voting violated the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

In 1948, U.S. President Harry Truman signed into law the Marshall Plan, aimed to help European countries recover from World War II.

In 1975, U.S. President Gerald Ford said losses in South Vietnam shouldn't be regarded as a sign that U.S. commitments would not be fulfilled elsewhere.

In 1989, Richard M. Daley was elected mayor of Chicago, the post his father had held for 21 years.

In 1991, the U.N. Security Council passed the cease-fire resolution to end the Persian Gulf War.

In 1995, the owners and players of major league baseball approved an agreement, ending what was then the longest strike in sports history.

In 1996, a plane crash in Croatia killed 35 people, including U.S. Commerce Secretary Ron Brown and other officials and business leaders.

Also in 1996, the FBI raided a Montana cabin and arrested former college professor Theodore Kaczynski, accusing him of being the Unabomber whose mail bombs had killed three people and injured 23 more since the 1970s.

In 1997, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said construction of a Jewish settlement in Arab East Jerusalem would continue, despite a series of fatal confrontations between Israeli troops and Palestinians.

In 2000, U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson ruled that Microsoft had violated U.S. antitrust laws. Microsoft announced that it would appeal the decision.

In 2003, U.S. President George Bush told U.S. Marines at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina that victory was at hand in Iraq. On that day, coalition troops crossed the Tigris River and moved to within 25 miles of Baghdad.

Also in 2003, as cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome mounted the World Health Organization advised against travel to Hong Kong and the Chinese province of Guangdong because of the pneumonia-like illness known as SARS.

In 2004, as Spanish police closed in, three men believed to be behind the Madrid train bombings blew themselves up, also killing one officer and injuring 11 others.

In 2005, Syria said it would withdraw all troops from Lebanon by April 30.

Also in 2005, a study prepared by a panel advising the U.S. Defense Department said that Muslims in dictatorial regimes do not yearn to be liberated by the United States.

In 2006, a Virginia jury decided confessed al-Qaida member Zacarias Moussaoui was eligible for the death penalty.

In 2007, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., led a delegation to the Mideast with an agenda including peace talks with Syria and Israel that brought a shower of criticism from the White House.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Aries. They include social reformer Dorothea Dix in 1802; inventor Linus Yale, developer of the cylinder lock, in 1821; dance school founder Arthur Murray in 1895; baseball Hall of Famer Tris Speaker in 1888; author/playwright Robert E. Sherwood in 1896; broadcast news commentator John Cameron Swayze in 1906; blues musician Muddy Waters, born McKinley Morganfield, in 1915; author Maya Angelou in 1928 (age 80); actor Anthony Perkins in 1932; baseball commissioner Bartlett Giamatti in 1938; South African musician Hugh Masekela in 1939 (age 69); author Kitty Kelley in 1942 (age 66); and actors Craig T. Nelson in 1944 (age 64), Christine Lahti in 1950 (age 58) and Robert Downey Jr. in 1965 (age 43).

In 1818, the U.S. Congress approved the first flag of the United States.

In 1841, U.S. President William Henry Harrison died of pneumonia after serving for one month. He was the ninth U.S. president and the first to die in office. He was succeeded by Vice President John Tyler, first person to occupy the office without being elected to it.

In 1887, Susanna Medora Salter was elected as the first woman mayor in the United States, serving for one year as head of the municipal government of Argonia, Kan.

In 1896, the Yukon gold rush began with the announcement of a strike in the Northwest Territory of Canada.

In 1949, representatives of 12 nations gathered in Washington to sign the North Atlantic Treaty, creating the NATO alliance.

In 1968, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated as he stood on the balcony of a Memphis hotel. He was 39.

In 1983, the space shuttle Challenger lifted off on its inaugural mission.

In 1991, U.S. Sen. John Heinz, R-Pa., and four others were killed when their chartered airplane collided with a helicopter over a schoolyard near Philadelphia.

In 1992, billionaire Sam Moore Walton, founder of Wal-Mart, died of cancer at 74. His retail store chain helped make him one of the world's richest men.

In 1993, U.S. President Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin ended their two-day summit in Canada, with a larger than expected U.S. aid pledge of $1.62 billion.

In 2000, the Nasdaq composite index plunged 574 points (more than 13 percent) but then rose 500 points in one of the wildest days ever on Wall Street.

In 2001, former Philippine President Joseph Estrada, ousted in January during a popular uprising, was indicted for allegedly taking millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks.

In 2002, as Israel stepped up its attacks on Palestinians on the West Bank, U.S. President George Bush demanded Israelis stop and pull back.

In 2003, coalition forces encircled Baghdad and secured Saddam International Airport in overnight fighting.

Also in 2003, a published report said U.S. Marines in Iraq were tipped off about POW Jessica Lynch's location, leading to her dramatic April 1 rescue, by an Iraqi lawyer distressed at the way he saw her being treated.

In 2004, three explosions, termed a terrorist attack by the government, killed five people and hurt at least 100 others at a residential housing compound in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

In 2005, the body of Pope John Paul II lay in state in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome where up to 2 million people were expected over the next three days. Cause of death for the 84-year-old pontiff was said officially to be septic shock and cardio-circulatory failure.

Also in 2005, the president of Kyrgyzstan, Askar Akayev, officially resigned after being driven out by a coup a month earlier.

In 2006, an Iraqi tribunal announced that former leader Saddam Hussein will face additional genocide charges for gassing Kurds in the 1980s.

Also in 2006, prosecutors said there was no sign of foul play in the death of Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic who suffered a fatal heart attack March 11 while on trial at The Hague for war crimes.

In 2007, the U.S. military reported that sectarian violence in Iraq had declined in March by an estimated 26 percent compared to the previous month.

Also in 2007, Don Imus, a popular radio talk show host, was fired for making what was termed a sexually and racially offensive remark about the predominantly black Rutgers University women's basketball team.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Aries. They include English philosopher Thomas Hobbes in 1588; Benjamin Harrison, signer of the Declaration of Independence and father of U.S. President William Henry Harrison, in 1726; English physician Joseph Lister, who introduced antiseptic surgery, in 1827; educator Booker T. Washington in 1856; actors Spencer Tracy in 1900, Melvyn Douglas in 1901, Bette Davis in 1908 and Gregory Peck in 1916; novelist Arthur Hailey in 1920; filmmaker Roger Corman in 1926 (age 82); impressionist Frank Gorshin in 1933; former U.S. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell in 1937 (age 71); actors Michael Moriarty in 1941 (age 67), Max Gail (Barney Miller) in 1943 (age 65) and Jane Asher in 1946 (age 62); astronaut Judith Resnik in 1949; and actor Mitch Pileggi (The X-Files) in 1952 (age 56).

In 1614, Pocahontas, daughter of a chief, married English tobacco planter John Rolfe in Jamestown, Va., a marriage that ensured peace between the settlers and the Powhatan Indians for several years.

In 1768, the first U.S. Chamber of Commerce was founded in New York City.

In 1951, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were sentenced to death in New York for stealing atomic secrets for the Soviet Union.

In 1968, violence erupted in several U.S. cities in response to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

In 1976, reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes died of kidney failure during a flight from Acapulco, Mexico, to Houston. He was 71.

In 1982, the British fleet sailed to recapture the Falkland Islands from Argentina.

In 1986, two U.S. servicemen and a Turkish woman were killed in the bombing of a West Berlin disco that Washington blamed on Libya. In retaliation, U.S. jetfighters bombed Tripoli and Benghazi 10 days later.

In 1991, former U.S. Sen. John Tower, R-Texas, and 22 others, were killed in a commuter plane crash in Brunswick, Ga.

In 1993, a Salvadoran Boeing 767 jetliner ran off the runway on landing in Guatemala City, Guatemala, and crashed into a residential area. All 213 people aboard the plane survived.

In 1999, one of two men charged in the October 1998 beating death of gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two life sentences.

Also in 1999, Libya handed over for trial two suspects in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. The men were to be tried in the Netherlands under Scottish law.

In 2002, the International Committee of the Red Cross called Israel's attacks on its vehicles and facilities totally unacceptable. The Red Cross and others warned of a humanitarian crisis in the occupied lands.

In 2003, members of the U.S. 3rd Infantry moved through southwest Baghdad and reached the center of the Iraqi capital.

In 2004, the California Supreme Court ruled that a defendant who kills a pregnant woman can be charged with murdering the fetus even if he didn't know she was pregnant.

Also in 2004, suspected Maoist rebels torched at least 18 oil tankers carrying fuel from India to Nepal.

In 2005, uneasy U.S. officials feared Iraqi guerrilla leader Abu Musab Zarqawi was behind the well-orchestrated attack on Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison in which 44 U.S. troops were wounded.

Also in 2005, ABC News anchor Peter Jennings told colleagues and friends in an e-mail message that he had lung cancer.

In 2006, I. Lewis Scooter Libby, a former aide to U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, reportedly told a federal grand jury that U.S. President George Bush authorized him to leak classified information to a reporter.

In 2007, Iran released the 15-member British naval crew seized in the Persian Gulf and held for 13 days. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who accused the Britons of trespassing in Iranian waters, said their pardons were a gift to the British.

Also in 2007, the U.S. Defense Department said it planned to deploy 12,000 more National Guard members to Iraq and Afghanistan.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Aries. They include 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-Famer Gordon Mickey Cochrane in 1903; geneticist James Watson in 1928 (age 80); musician Andre Previn in 1929 (age 79); country singer Merle Haggard and actor Billy Dee Williams, both in 1937 (age 71); producer/director Barry Levinson in 1942 (age 66); singer/actress Michelle Phillips in 1944 (age 64); and actors John Ratzenberger (Cheers) in 1947 (age 61), Marilu Henner (Taxi) in 1952 (age 56) and Candace Cameron (Full House) in 1976 (age 32).

In 1830, the Church of Jesus Christ of the 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 1931, nine black youths accused of raping two white women went on trial in Scottsboro, Ala. All were convicted in a hasty trial but by 1950 were free by parole, appeal or escape.

In 1938, Du Pont researchers Roy Plunkett and Jack Rebok accidentally 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 ordered out in Chicago, Washington and Detroit, as rioting continued over the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

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 killed in a plane crash in Kigali. The incident triggered bloody fighting between the Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups that left hundreds of thousands of people dead.

In 1996, rioting broke out in Liberia following the arrest of factional leader Roosevelt Johnson on murder charges.

In 2001, the U.S. Senate approved a $1.2 trillion tax cut over 10 years, somewhat less than the $1.6 trillion passed by the U.S. House of Representatives and advocated by U.S. President George Bush.

Also in 2001, a federal jury in Los Angeles convicted an Algerian man on charges stemming from his arrest at the U.S.-Canadian border in December 1999. Prosecutors said Ahmen Ressam was planning to set off explosions during the millennium celebrations.

In 2003, U.N. officials said they had reports that at least 966 people had been killed three days earlier in a dozen Congolese villages in an area rich in minerals.

In 2004 sports, the University of Connecticut became the first school to win both the 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 he had with his late wife, U.S. movie star Grace Kelly.

Also in 2005, strong security was set up in Rome two days before the funeral of Pope John Paul II, including anti-missile systems, NATO forces, fighter jet protection and a warship on standby in the Mediterranean.

In 2006, health officials said bird flu continued to spread. The United Kingdom reported its first case in an infected dead swan in eastern Scotland. The West African nation of Burkino Faso also reported its first case.

Also in 2006, a translation of the so-called Gospel of Judas was released 18 centuries after it was written and 30 years after its discovery in Egypt.

In 2007, a U.N.-sponsored scientific panel endorsed by 120 countries warned of dire consequences unless worldwide buildup in greenhouse gases is cut back and predicted the possibility of 50 million environmental refugees by 2010.

Also in 2007, the Solomon Islands were hit for a second day with an earthquake that measured 6.2 on the Richter scale but a second tsunami was not created. The death toll stood at 30 from the first quake, which measured at 8.