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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Taurus. They include American-born Nancy Astor, the first woman member of the British Parliament, in 1879; Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh in 1890; Black Muslim leader Malcolm X in 1925; playwright Lorraine Hansberry (A Raisin in the Sun) in 1930; journalist Jim Lehrer in 1934 (age 74); actor/TV talk show host David Hartman in 1935 (age 73); actor James Fox in 1939 (age 69); author Nora Ephron in 1941 (age 67); British rock star Pete Townshend in 1945 (age 63); and actress/model/singer Grace Jones in 1952 (age 56).

In 1536, Anne Boleyn, the second of King Henry VIII's six wives and mother of Queen Elizabeth I, was beheaded.

In 1588, the Spanish Armada, assembled to invade England, set sail from Lisbon.

In 1935, renowned British soldier and author T.E. Lawrence, known as Lawrence of Arabia, died in a motorcycle accident in England.

In 1964, it was revealed that U.S. diplomats had found at least 40 secret microphones hidden in the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.

In 1986, in the first direct talks between China and Taiwan in 37 years, Beijing agreed to return a cargo jet flown to the mainland by a defecting Nationalist pilot.

In 1992, U.S. President George H.W. Bush ordered the creation of a human fetal tissue bank for medical research.

In 1993, the Dow Jones industrial average closed at a record high -- 3,500.03.

In 1994, former U.S. first lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis died at age 64.

In 2003, President George W. Bush said the administration-backed road map for Middle East peace still stood despite a flurry of terrorist attacks in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Also in 2003, the World Health Organization said Taiwan reported 70 new cases of SARS and five more deaths, making it the most rapidly growing outbreak at the time.

In 2004, a staff report of the commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks criticized aspects of the response and rescue efforts while former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani defended the overall endeavor but acknowledged that some terrible mistakes were made.

In 2005, South Korean researchers said they had developed a highly efficient method for human cloning. The following day, British scientists at Newcastle University announced they had cloned their first human embryo using a method called nuclear transfer.

In 2006, a U.N. committee urged the United States to close all secret war on terror detention facilities abroad and at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. The White House said that all interrogations at Guantanamo are within U.S. law.

In 2007, China reported the latest outbreak of bird flu had led to the killing of more than 11,000 poultry in Hunan Province. Thousands of others were being checked.

Also in 2007, independent Russian journalists said they would fight eviction from their offices in a government-owned Moscow building, stepping up tensions between the media and the Putin administration.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Taurus. They include William Thornton, architect of the Capitol building in Washington, in 1759; Dolley Madison, wife of the fourth U.S. president James Madison, in 1768; French novelist Honore de Balzac in 1799; English philosopher and economist John Stuart Mill in 1806; German Emile Berliner, inventor of the flat phonograph record, in 1851; actor James Stewart in 1908; Israeli military commander and politician Moshe Dayan in 1915; comedian George Gobel in 1919; actor Anthony Zerbe in 1936 (age 72); British singer/songwriter Joe Cocker in 1944 (age 64); singer/actress Cher in 1946 (age 62); Ronald Prescott Reagan, son of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan, in 1958 (age 50); and actor Bronson Pinchot in 1959 (age 49).

In 1506, Christopher Columbus died in Spain.

In 1927, Charles Lindbergh took off from New York in his single-engine monoplane, The Spirit of St. Louis, bound for Paris. He landed 33 1/2 hours later, completing the first solo, non-stop trans-Atlantic flight.

In 1974, Judge John Sirica ordered U.S. President Richard Nixon to turn over tapes and other records of 64 White House conversations on the Watergate affair.

In 1989, Chinese Premier Li Peng declared martial law in Beijing in response to heightened student demonstrations in Tiananmen Square.

In 1991, national elections in India sparked political violence that left 40 dead and hundreds injured.

In 1993, U.S. President Bill Clinton signed the so-called motor voter bill, making it easier to register to vote.

In 1996, the United Nations agreed to let Iraq sell oil for the first time since the Gulf War if it complied with the terms of the cease-fire.

In 1999, a high school student in Georgia opened fire on his classmates, wounding six of them before surrendering to school authorities. The same day, U.S. President Bill Clinton and first lady Hillary Clinton met in Littleton, Colo., with students, teachers and families of the victims of the previous month's deadly shootings at Columbine High School.

In 2002, East Timor, a small Pacific Coast nation, gained its independence from Indonesia.

In 2003, North Korea warned that South Korea would suffer an unspeakable disaster if it supports Washington's hard-line stance over Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions.

In 2004, U.S. forces and Iraqi police raided the Baghdad offices of key U.S. ally and Shiite leader Ahmed Chalabi. He had been accused of having misinformed the Pentagon about the situation in pre-war Iraq and was accused in one report of passing U.S. intelligence to Iran.

In 2005, U.S. first lady Laura Bush opened a Middle East tour in Jordan, followed by appearances in Israel, the West Bank and Egypt. She encountered demonstrators at the Western Wall in Jerusalem.

In 2006, in an unprecedented move, the FBI searched the Capitol Hill office of U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., in an ongoing bribery investigation.

Also in 2006, Iraq's parliament approved a new Cabinet although three key ministerial posts -- Defense, Security and Interior -- were left open so opposing parties could work out a compromise.

In 2006 sports, Barbaro, the unbeaten Kentucky Derby winner, entered the Preakness a heavy favorite but pulled up shortly after it began when he fractured his left hind leg. It ended his racing career and eventually, led to his death. The race was won by Bernardini, owned by the Dubai royal family.

In 2007, the U.S. military placed the Iraq war combat death toll for Americans at 3,422.

Also in 2007, spring flooding caused by ice jams on four rivers forced the evacuation of more than 3,500 people in the Russian Yakutia Republic.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Gemini. They include German painter Albrecht Durer in 1471; King Philip II of Spain, who launched the Spanish Armada, in 1527; English poet and satirist Alexander Pope in 1688; French painter Henri Rousseau in 1844; industrialist Armand Hammer in 1898; architect Marcel Breuer in 1902; composer and barrelhouse piano player Thomas Fats Waller in 1904; author Harold Robbins in 1916; singer Dennis Day in 1916; actor Raymond Burr in 1917; Soviet physicist-turned-humanitarian Andrei Sakharov in 1921; actress Peggy Cass in 1924; romance novelist Janet Dailey in 1944 (age 64); comedian Al Franken in 1951 (age 57); and actors Mr. T, born Lawrence Tureaud, in 1952 (age 56) and Judge Reinhold in 1957 (age 51).

In 1832, the first Democratic Party national convention met in Baltimore.

In 1881, Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross.

In 1927, Charles Lindbergh landed the Spirit of St. Louis in Paris, completing the first non-stop solo flight across the Atlantic in 33 1/2 hours.

In 1932, five years to the day after Charles Lindbergh's historic flight, Amelia Earhart became the first pilot to repeat the feat, flying solo across the Atlantic from Newfoundland, Canada, to Ireland. She completed her flight in 13 1/2 hours.

In 1941, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt proclaimed an unlimited state of national emergency, seven months before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

In 1972, a Hungarian man, Lazlo Tooth, attacked Michelangelo's sculpture The Pieta while screaming I am Jesus Christ! The statue was badly damaged.

In 1985, after taking fertility drugs, Patti Frustaci of Orange, Calif., gave birth to the first recorded American septuplets. Six of the seven infants were born alive. Three survived.

In 1991, former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated while campaigning.

Also in 1991, Ethiopian President Mengistu Haile Mariam resigned and fled to Zimbabwe after 14 years in power.

And in 1991, South Korean Prime Minister Ro Jai-bong quit after four weeks of student protests demanding his resignation.

In 1992, royal intervention ended four days of the bloodiest urban unrest in Thailand's history.

In 1993, the Venezuelan Senate authorized the country's Supreme Court to try President Carlos Andres Perez on corruption charges. Perez was suspended from office.

In 1998, two students were killed and 22 others wounded when a classmate opened fire in a high school cafeteria in Eugene, Ore. A 15-year-old boy was arrested in connection with the shootings; police found his parents shot to death at home.

Also in 1998, weeks of demonstrations led to the resignation of Indonesian President Suharto.

In 2003, an earthquake, which measured 6.8 on the Richter scale, struck near Algiers, killing more than 2,200 people and injuring another 10,000.

Also in 2003, a three-judge panel in Florida threw out a $145 billion punitive damage award against cigarette manufacturers.

In 2004, explorers in the former Soviet republic of Georgia reported finding rich gold deposit linked to the legend of the Golden Fleece near Supsa on the shore of the Black Sea.

In 2006, the FBI accused U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., of taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes and claimed to have found $90,000 of the money in a freezer at his home.

Also in 2006, in its first full day in office, Iraq's new government was greeted by a series of Baghdad bombings that killed four and wounded 37 others.

In 2007, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter called the George W. Bush presidency the worst in history. A Bush spokesman said Carter had become increasingly irrelevant with such reckless remarks.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Gemini. They include German composer Richard Wagner in 1813; Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, in 1859; actor Laurence Olivier in 1907; pioneering jazz musician Sun Ra (born Herman Blount) in 1914; critic Judith Crist in 1922 (age 86); French singer Charles Aznavour in 1924 (age 84); pianist/composer Peter Nero in 1934 (age 74); actor/director Richard Benjamin in 1938 (age 70); actor Michael Sarrazin in 1940 (age 68); actor Paul Winfield in 1939 and model/actress Naomi Campbell in 1970 (age 38).

In 334 B.C., Alexander the Great defeated Persian King Darius III at Granicus, Turkey.

In 1868, seven members of the Reno gang stole $98,000 from a railway car at Marshfield, Ind. It was the original Great Train Robbery.

In 1924, the discovery of the body of Bobby Franks, 13, of Chicago led to the arrest of Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb. They were sentenced to 99 years in prison for the so-called thrill killing.

In 1972, Richard Nixon became the first U.S president to visit Moscow.

In 1987, a tornado flattened Saragosa, Texas, population 185, killing 29 residents and injuring 121.

In 1991, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev asked the world's industrialized nations for $100 billion in economic loans and grants to bolster the Soviet economy.

In 1992, Johnny Carson ended his nearly 30-year career as host of The Tonight Show with what NBC said was the highest-rated late-night TV show ever.

In 1993, France, Britain, Russia, Spain and the United States approved a joint policy calling for a negotiated settlement of the war in Bosnia. However, the Muslim president of Bosnia rejected the plan.

In 1994, a tougher U.N.-approved economic embargo against Haiti took effect.

In 1998, a federal judge ruled that members of the U.S. Secret Service could be required to testify before a grand jury investigating U.S. President Bill Clinton's relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

Also in 1998, voters in Ireland and Northern Ireland approved a plan to bring peace to violence-torn Ulster.

In 2002, authorities in Birmingham, Ala., convicted a fourth suspect in the 1963 church bombing that killed four young black girls. Bobby Frank Cherry, 71, a former Ku Klux Klansman, was sentenced to life in prison.

In 2003, NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft orbiting Mars took a unique photo of Earth, the first from another planet, showing Earth as a tiny world in the vast darkness of space.

In 2003 sports, Annika Sorenstam became the first woman in 59 years to compete in a PGA event. But, her 5-over-par 145 through two rounds of the Bank of America Colonial tournament failed to make the cut.

In 2004, U.S. President George W. Bush was slightly injured when he fell off his bicycle toward the end of a 17-mile ride on his Texas ranch.

Also in 2004, U.S. lawmakers overwhelmingly approved legislation aimed at expanding high-level military cooperation between the Taiwanese and U.S. militaries.

And, Prince Felipe of Asturias, heir to the Spanish throne, married television newscaster Letizia Ortiz in a Roman Catholic ceremony in Madrid.

In 2005, officials said about 100 U.S. military installations in Iraq will be consolidated into four heavily fortified, strategically located air bases.

Also in 2005, relatives of 45 Chilean military recruits reported missing in a march during a severe Andes snowstorm accused army officers of abandoning the men.

In 2006, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs reported that a computer containing personal information on some 26.5 million veterans and spouses had been stolen.

In 2007, U.S. President George Bush, meeting with the NATO chief at his Texas ranch, said he planned to ask NATO members to send more troops to Afghanistan.

Also in 2007, British prosecutors said they would charge a Moscow man with murder in the poisoning of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Gemini. They include Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus, the father of modern systematic botany, in 1707; Austrian physician and hypnotist Franz Mesmer in 1734; social reformer Sarah Margaret Fuller in 1810; U.S. Army Gen. Ambrose Burnside, who later was a U.S. senator and for whom sideburns were named, in 1824; actor Douglas Fairbanks Sr. in 1883; clarinetist/bandleader Artie Shaw in 1910; singer Helen O'Connell in 1920; singer Rosemary Clooney in 1928; actresses Barbara Barrie in 1931 (age 77) and Joan Collins in 1933 (age 75); Robert Moog, inventor of the Moog Synthesizer, in 1934; actor Charles Kimbrough (Murphy Brown) in 1936 (age 72); and comedian Drew Carey in 1958 (age 50).

In 1701, Capt. William Kidd was hanged in London for piracy and murder.

In 1900, U.S. Army Sgt. William H. Carney became the first black to win the Medal of Honor, for his efforts during the Civil War battle of Fort Wagner, S.C., in June 1863.

In 1939, the U.S. Navy submarine Squalus went down off New Hampshire in 240 feet of water. Thirty-three of the 59 men aboard were saved in a daring rescue with a diving bell.

In 1960, Israeli agents captured Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in Argentina and spirited him back to Israel, where he was tried, convicted and hanged.

In 1991, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld federal regulations prohibiting federally funded women's clinics from discussing or advising abortion with patients.

In 1994, four men convicted in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center were each sentenced to 240 years in prison.

Also in 1994, former U.S. first lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was laid to rest next to her first husband, President John F. Kennedy, in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

In 1997, Mohammed Khatami, a moderate who favored improved economic ties with the West, was elected president of Iran.

In 2002, Roman Catholic Archbishop Rembert Weakland of Milwaukee acknowledged paying $450,000 in church funds in response to a claim that he had sexually assaulted a graduate student, then 33. Weakland, 75, who retired after the 1998 settlement became known, denied any sexual misconduct.

In 2004, a double-decker ferry carrying more than 200 passengers sank off the Bangladesh coast during a storm with fewer than half of the people reported surviving.

Also in 2004, a two-day Arab summit ended in Tunis with a commitment to the Middle East peace process and a condemnation of Israel for its actions against Palestinian people.

In 2005, Newsweek's chairman said the magazine would restrict the use of unnamed sources in the wake of an item that alleged desecration of the Koran, sparking violent riots and forcing a printed retraction.

In 2006, Amnesty International claimed in its annual report that U.S. anti-terror policies worldwide had undermined human rights in 2005.

In 2007, authorities said newly declassified U.S. intelligence showed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden wanted to set up bases in Iraq to launch attacks on the United States in 2005.

Also in 2007, Russian President Vladimir Putin criticized the United States' plans for a European missile defense system, calling the proposal a harmful thing.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Gemini. They include French journalist and revolutionary Jean Paul Marat in 1743; British Queen Victoria in 1819; hostess and party-giver Elsa Maxwell, credited with introducing the scavenger hunt, in 1883; actress Lilli Palmer in 1914; comedian Tommy Chong of Cheech and Chong in 1938 (age 70); musician Bob Dylan in 1941 (age 67); actor Gary Burghoff (M*A*S*H) in 1943 (age 65); singer Patti LaBelle (born Patricia Louise Holte) in 1944 (age 64); actress Priscilla Presley, former wife of Elvis Presley, in 1945 (age 63); actor Alfred Molina in 1953 (age 55); singer Rosanne Cash in 1955 (age 53); and actress Kristin Scott Thomas in 1960 (age 48).

In 1626, the Dutch West Indies Trading Co. bought the island of Manhattan from the Indians, paying with goods worth about $24.

In 1844, the first U.S telegraph line was formally opened between Baltimore and Washington.

In 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge was opened to the public, linking Brooklyn and Manhattan Island.

In 1935, the first night major league baseball game saw the Cincinnati Reds beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 2-1, at Crosley Field in Cincinnati.

In 1962, Mercury astronaut Scott Carpenter became the second American to orbit the Earth, circling it three times.

In 1983, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled private religious schools that practice racial discrimination are not eligible for church-related tax benefits.

In 1987, 250,000 people jammed San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge on its 50th anniversary, temporarily flattening the arched span.

In 1990, the U.S. Navy reopened the much-criticized probe of the USS Iowa explosion that killed 47 sailors, citing a test that showed the blast could have been an accident.

In 1991, Israel began a mass evacuation of 14,500 Ethiopian Jews from Ethiopia to Israel. The operation took 36 hours.

In 1993, the archbishop of Guadalajara, Mexico, was killed at Guadalajara's airport when his car was caught in a shootout between rival drug cartels.

In 2003, residents of Kirkuk in northern Iraq went to the polls in what the U.S. commander of the region called the beginning of the process of democratization for the post-war country.

In 2005, the U.S. House of Representatives approved by a significant margin a bill to provide more funding for embryonic stem cell research.

In 2006, Iran was reported stepping up its call for direct talks with the United States over its nuclear program.

Also in 2006, the U.S. Postal Service began allowing companies to create their own branded postage stamps in an attempt to reverse a decline in first-class mailings.

In 2007, the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate passed legislation to give the Bush administration $100 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Also in 2007, the U.S. Congress voted to increase the minimum wage for the first time in 10 years, going from $5.15 an hour to $7.25 over a three-year period.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Gemini. They include poet/philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson in 1803; dancer Bill Bojangles Robinson in 1878; aircraft designer Igor Sikorsky in 1889; Yugoslavian leader Josip Broz Tito in 1892; heavyweight boxing champion Gene Tunney in 1897; humorist and publisher Bennett Cerf in 1898; actor Claude Akins in 1926; spy novelist Robert Ludlum in 1927; opera singer Beverly Sills (born Belle Miriam Silverman) in 1929 (age 79); actors Dixie Carter and Ian McKellen, both in 1939 (age 69); singer/actress Leslie Uggams in 1943 (age 65); Frank Oz (born Richard Frank Oznowicz) director, actor, puppeteer (Miss Piggy of The Muppets), in 1944 (age 64); actresses Karen Valentine in 1947 (age 61) and Connie Selleca in 1955 (age 53); comedian Mike Myers in 1963 (age 45); and actress Anne Heche in 1969 (age 39).

In 1787, the first regular session of the Constitutional Convention convened at Independence Hall in Philadelphia.

In 1935, winding up his legendary career with the Boston Braves, Babe Ruth hit his 714th and last home run in his final game. The home run record stood for 39 years until Hank Aaron, also with the Braves, broke it in 1974.

In 1949, Chinese communist forces entered Shanghai as Nationalist troops abandoned the city and prepared to move to the island of Formosa, now called Taiwan.

In 1979, 275 people were killed when an American Airlines DC-10 crashed on takeoff from Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.

In 1986, 5 million people formed a broken 4,000-mile human chain from Los Angeles to New York in Hands Across America, to benefit the nation's homeless. The event raised $24.5 million.

In 1991, the United States reversed its decision to allow HIV-infected people to enter the country.

Also in 1991, Cuban soldiers withdrew from Angola after 16 years of fighting South Africa and U.S.-backed rebels.

In 1993, the U.N. Security Council voted to establish a war-crimes tribunal to deal with atrocities in the civil war in Bosnia.

In 1994, after living 20 years in exile, mostly in the United States, Russian author Alexander Solzhenitsyn returned to his homeland. He had been expelled after The Gulag Archipelago, an expose of the Soviet prison camp system, was published in the West in 1974.

In 1995, the level of tension in war-torn Bosnia increased dramatically when the Serbs began taking U.N. peacekeepers hostage for use as human shields.

In 1997, mutinous soldiers seized power in Sierra Leone.

In 1999, a report by a U.S. House of Representatives committee on espionage said China stole information on the most advanced U.S. nuclear weapons.

In 2003, the Israeli Cabinet officially accepted the Palestinian claim to eventual statehood.

In 2004, a U.S. Army report said U.S. mistreatment of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan was more widespread than previously known.

In 2005, Amnesty International accused the Bush administration of atrocious human rights violations at Guantanamo Bay, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Also in 2005, some 1,000 U.S. and Iraqi troops mounted a surprise offensive in western Iraq, targeting insurgent hideouts and munitions caches.

In 2006, the U.S. Senate approved a compromise immigration reform bill that had few similarities to a House bill passed in December, setting the stage for a possible congressional showdown on the issue.

Also in 2006, Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, former officers of Enron Corp., were convicted in Houston federal court of conspiracy and securities fraud.

In 2007, North Korea fired several missiles toward Japan in an apparent drill exercise, the Kyodo news agency reported. A government source said the missiles ''would not pose a threat to Japan-U.S. security.''

Also in 2007, the United States sent supplies to Lebanon to help government troops fighting al-Qaida-backed militants at a Palestinian refugee camp. At least 58 combatants were reported killed in what was described as the worst fighting since the country's 1975-90 civil war.