The Almanac -- weekly

Today is Monday, Oct. 6, the 280th day of 2008 with 86 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Libra. They include singer Jenny Lind, the "Swedish Nightingale," in 1820; inventor and manufacturer George Westinghouse in 1846; tennis champion Helen Wills Moody in 1905; actresses Janet Gaynor in 1906 and Carole Lombard in 1908; Norwegian ethnologist, archaeologist and adventurer Thor Heyerdahl in 1914; former "60 Minutes" journalist Shana Alexander in 1925; and actresses Britt Eklund in 1942 (age 66) and Elisabeth Shue in 1963 (age 45).

On this date in history:

In 1853, Antioch College opened in Yellow Springs, Ohio. It was the first non-sectarian school to offer equal opportunity for both men and women.

In 1921, sports writer Grantland Rice was at the microphone as the World Series was broadcast on radio for the first time.

In 1927, the movies began learning to talk. "The Jazz Singer" starring Al Jolson, Hollywood's legendary "first talkie," premiered in New York, ushering in the era of sound to great moviegoer enthusiasm and heralded the end of the silents.

In 1981, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was assassinated as he reviewed a military parade in Cairo.

In 1985, England's worst post-war race rioting, which began almost a month earlier in Birmingham, spread to the Tottenham section of London. One officer died and 125 people were injured.

In 1989, Oscar-winning Hollywood legend Bette Davis died of cancer in a suburb of Paris. She was 81.

In 1991, Anita Hill, a former personal assistant to Supreme Court justice nominee Clarence Thomas, accused Thomas of sexual harassment.

In 1994, South African President Nelson Mandela addressed a joint session of the U.S. Congress.

In 1997, U.S. President Bill Clinton used his new line-item veto power to eliminate 38 military spending projects.

In 2001, Cal Ripkin Jr. retired after a spectacular baseball career with the Baltimore Orioles that included playing in a record 2,632 consecutive games.

In 2003, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the United States faced the possibility of a futile war in Iraq, which he said "could become a new center, a new magnet for all destructive elements."

In 2004, a U.S. weapons inspector said that Iraq began destroying its illicit weapons in 1991 and had none by 1996, seven years before the United States invaded.

In 2005, U.S. President George Bush said the United States and allied forces had foiled at least three al-Qaida U.S. attacks since Sept. 11, 2001.

Also in 2005, Canadian health officials said an additional six older people died in Toronto from a mysterious respiratory virus but the toll of 16 dead wasn't considered a threat to the city.

In 2007, Pervez Musharraf breezed to re-election to a third term as president of Pakistan. But, opposition continued to challenge legality of his serving as both president and army chief.

A thought for the day: Tansu Ciller, the first woman prime minister of Turkey, said, "Nobody can resist a ripe idea. The idea today is change." Today is Tuesday, Oct. 7, the 281st day of 2008 with 85 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Libra. They include poet James Whitcomb Riley in 1849; Grand Ole Opry star Uncle Dave Macon in 1870; Danish atomic physicist Niels Bohr in 1885; actor Andy Devine in 1905; singer/bandleader Vaughn Monroe in 1911; actress June Allyson in 1917; actor/singer Al Martino in 1927 (age 81); South African archbishop and Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu in 1931 (age 77); Oliver North, the former White House aide who became the center of the Iran-Contra controversy, in 1943 (age 65); rock singer John Mellencamp in 1951 (age 57); classical cellist Yo-Yo Ma in 1955 (age 53); and singer Toni Braxton in 1967 (age 41).

On this date in history:

In 1913, for the first time, Henry Ford's entire Highland Park automobile factory was run on a continuously moving assembly line.

In 1916, in the most lopsided football game on record, Georgia Tech humbled Cumberland University, 222-0.

In 1949, less than five months after Britain, the United States and France established the Federal Republic of Germany in West Germany, the Democratic Republic of Germany (East Germany) was proclaimed within the Soviet occupation zone.

In 1968, the U.S. movie industry adopted a film ratings system for the first time: G (for general audiences), M (for mature audiences), R (no one under 16 admitted without an adult) and X (no one under 16 admitted).

In 1985, four Palestinian terrorists commandeered the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro with 511 passengers and crew off Egypt and threatened to blow it up unless Israel freed Palestinian prisoners. The hijackers, who surrendered in Port Said two days later, killed an American passenger.

Also in 1985, a mudslide in Ponce, Puerto Rico, killed an estimated 500 people in the island's worst disaster of the 20th century.

In 1989, East Germany celebrated its 40th anniversary as a communist state amid pro-reform demonstrations.

In 1991, Iran freed U.S. telecommunications engineer John Pattis, ending five years of captivity on charges of spying for the CIA.

Also in 1991, U.N. inspectors discovered an Iraqi nuclear weapons research center intact.

And in 1991, Slovenia and Croatia formally declared secession from Yugoslavia.

In 1992, U.S. President George H.W. Bush and the leaders of Mexico and Canada signed the North American Free Trade Agreement. The pact would create the world's largest trading bloc.

In 1994, U.S. President Bill Clinton announced he was sending the Navy and Marines in response to an Iraqi military build-up along the Iraqi-Kuwaiti border.

In 1997, scientists announced they had found one of the most massive stars known, behind a dense dust cloud in the Milky Way that had previously concealed it. The star was 25,000 light-years from Earth.

In 1999, American Home Products, the makers of the diet drug combination known as "fen-phen," agreed to a $3.75 billion settlement of a class-action lawsuit stemming from the drugs' use, which was linked to heart valve problems.

In 2000, Vojislav Kostunica was sworn in as Yugoslavia's new president.

In 2001, in the war on terror, the United States and Britain began a series of nightly attacks on targets in Afghanistan.

In a pre-recorded tape played on this date, 2001, Osama bin Laden warned, "America will not live in peace" until peace came to "Palestine" and "until the army of infidels depart the land of Mohammed."

In 2002, the sniper terrorizing the Washington area struck again, this time critically wounding a 13-year-old boy as he was being dropped off at school in Bowie, Md.

In 2003, Californians voted to recall Democratic Gov. Gray Davis and elected actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, as their new governor.

In 2004, at least 56 people were killed and about 100 others injured when three bombs exploded at Egyptian resort areas near the Israeli border.

In 2005, the International Atomic Energy Agency, known as the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, and its director general, Mohamed ElBaradei, were awarded the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize.

In 2006, three former congressional pages joined two others in accusing former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., of making "sexual approaches" over the Internet. Foley resigned a week earlier when the first of the reports surfaced.

In 2007, more than 1 million people were evacuated from China's southeastern coast ahead of a powerful typhoon that killed five in northern Taiwan.

A thought for the day: in "Don Quixote," Spanish novelist Miguel de Cervantes wrote, "Diligence is the mother of good fortune." Today is Wednesday, Oct. 8, the 282nd day of 2008 with 84 to follow.

Yom Kippur begins at sundown.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Libra. They include World War I flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker in 1890; Argentine dictator Juan Peron in 1895; gossip columnist Rona Barrett in 1936 (age 72); civil rights leader the Rev. Jesse Jackson in 1941 (age 67); "Goosebumps" author R.L. Stine in 1943 (age 65); and actors Paul Hogan in 1939 (age 69), Chevy Chase in 1943 (age 65), Sigourney Weaver in 1949 (age 59), Stephanie Zimbalist in 1956 (age 52) and Matt Damon in 1970 (age 38).

On this date in history:

In 1871, the massive Chicago fire destroyed more than 17,000 buildings, killed more than 300 people and left 90,000 homeless.

Also in 1871, on the same day, a forest fire broke out at Peshtigo, Wis., eventually killing about 1,100 people while burning some 850 square miles.

In 1918, Sgt. Alvin York of Tennessee became a World War I hero by single-handedly capturing a hill in the Argonne Forest of France, killing 20 enemy soldiers and capturing 132 others.

In 1919, The U.S. Congress passed the Volstead Act, prohibiting the sale or consumption of alcoholic beverages.

Also in 1919, the first U.S. transcontinental air race began with 63 planes competing in the round-trip aerial derby between California and New York. Each way took about three days.

In 1967, Argentinean-born Communist revolutionary Ernesto Che Guevara, an important figure in the 1959 Cuban revolution, was killed while leading a guerrilla war in Bolivia.

In 1990, at least 17 Muslims were killed by Israeli police in rioting on the Temple Mount, the third holiest site in Islam.

In 1991, a U.S. federal judge in Anchorage, Alaska, approved a $1 billion settlement against Exxon for the Valdez oil spill.

In 1992, former West German chancellor Willy Brandt died of intestinal cancer in his house outside Bonn. He was 78.

In 1993, the U.S. Justice Department, in its report on the 51-day siege at the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, concluded the cult had caused the fire that destroyed the compound, killing at least 75 people.

In 1997, three years after the death of longtime North Korean ruler Kim Il Sung, his son, Kim Jong Il, officially inherited his father's title of general-secretary of the Communist Party.

In 1998, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 258-176 to begin impeachment hearings against U.S. President Bill Clinton.

In 2001, U.S. transport planes dropped 37,000 meals into areas of Afghanistan where mass starvation was feared imminent.

Also in 2001, the United Nations and Secretary-General Kofi Annan shared the Nobel Peace Prize.

In 2003, some $19 billion in peach-colored, redesigned $20 bills made their official debut across the United States.

Also in 2003, researchers found the remains of a synagogue dating from the fifth or sixth century in the Albanian coastal city of Saranda.

In 2004, for the first time the Nobel Peace Prize went to an African woman, Dr. Wangari Maathai, an environmental activist from Kenya.

In 2005, a death toll close to 40,000 was reported in India and Pakistan after a powerful earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale struck the area. The quake brought down buildings and triggered mudslides that buried houses.

Also in 2005, Tropical Storm Stan killed more than 500 people in Guatemala before losing its strength over mountainous Mexico.

In 2006, an Israeli official said Jerusalem had no "hostile intentions" toward Syria despite Syrian President Bashar Assad's assertion he expected an Israeli attack at any time.

Also in 2006, Russia's prosecutor general took over the investigation into the shooting death of a Moscow journalist known for criticizing Russian actions in Chechnya.

In 2007, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced that half of the 5,000 British troops stationed in Iraq would be removed by the end of 2008.

Also in 2007, a second U.N. observer mission was sent into a town in Sudan's troubled Darfur region that was burned and looted while under government control. Sudan's Justice and Equality Movement accused the government of having a hand in it.

A thought for the day: French actress Sarah Bernhardt said, "Permanent success cannot be achieved except by incessant intellectual labor, always inspired by the ideal." This is Thursday, Oct. 9, the 283rd day of 2008 with 83 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Libra. They include French composer Camille Saint-Saens in 1835; Charles Rudolph Walgreen, drug store chain founder, in 1873; American evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson in 1890; Civil War historian Bruce Catton in 1899; convicted Watergate burglar, novelist and lecturer E. Howard Hunt Jr. in 1918; Beatles star John Lennon in 1940; singer-songwriter Jackson Browne in 1948 (age 60); writer/actor Robert Wuhl in 1951 (age 57); and actors Scott Bakula in 1954 (age 54) and Zachery Ty Bryan ("Home Improvement") in 1981 (age 27).

On this date in history:

In 1934, King Alexander of Yugoslavia was assassinated by a Croatian terrorist during a state visit to France.

In 1974, Oskar Schindler, the German businessman credited with saving 1,200 Jews from the Holocaust, died at the age of 66.

In 1975, Andrei Sakharov, father of the Soviet hydrogen bomb, became the first Soviet citizen to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

In 1983, James Watt, facing U.S. Senate condemnation for a racially insensitive remark, resigned as U.S. President Ronald Reagan's Interior secretary.

In 1986, the U.S. Senate convicted imprisoned U.S. District Judge Harry Claiborne of tax cheating, making him the fifth U.S. judge to be impeached and removed from office.

In 1989, the Soviet news agency Tass, under Mikhail Gorbachev's policy of increasing openness in society, reported a flying saucer visit to the Soviet Union.

In 1992, NASA announced that the unmanned Pioneer spacecraft was apparently lost after orbiting Venus for 14 years.

In 1995, an Amtrak passenger train derailed in a remote area of Arizona southwest of Phoenix, killing one person and injuring about 100 others in apparent track sabotage.

In 1997, Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi resigned after Communist members of Parliament withdrew their support for his coalition government.

In 2001, the Pentagon reported the destruction of seven terrorist training camps in Afghanistan and, claiming control of the skies over Afghanistan, launched heavy airstrikes against Taliban garrisons and troop encampments.

In 2002, the Washington-area sniper claimed a seventh victim with the slaying of a man at a gas station near Manassas, Va.

Also in 2002, as stock prices continued to fluctuate wildly, the Dow Jones industrials closed at 7,286.27, a five-year low.

In 2004, the death toll in the double bombings in the central Pakistani city of Multan reached 40 with 100 others injured. The explosions caught a crowd of Sunni Muslims leaving an anniversary gathering.

Also in 2004, John Howard, Australia's prime minister, won a fourth term as his nation's leader. Meanwhile, in Afghanistan's first democratic presidential election, nearly all the candidates, concerned over reported irregularities, boycotted the process even as voters went to the polls.

In 2005, as the 7.6-magnitude earthquake death toll soared near the reported 40,000 mark in Pakistan, a massive relief effort was under way in Pakistan, India and Afghanistan. India reported 650 dead and Afghanistan four.

In 2006, North Korea announced it had successfully conducted an underground nuclear test, prompting a flurry of diplomatic reaction in Washington and around the world.

Also in 2006, the U.N. Security Council approved South Korean Foreign Secretary Ban Ki-moon as the next secretary-general to succeed Kofi Annan at the end of the year.

In 2007, the Dow Jones industrial average closed at a record high of 14,164.53 points.

A thought for the day: in "The Taming of the Shrew," William Shakespeare wrote, "Do as adversaries do in law. Strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends." Today is Friday, Oct. 10, the 284th day of 2006 with 82 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Libra. They include English chemist-physicist Henry Cavendish, discoverer of hydrogen, in 1731; composer Giuseppe Verdi in 1813; actress Helen Hayes in 1900; playwright and Nobel laureate Harold Pinter in 1930 (age 78); entertainer Ben Vereen in 1946 (age 62); actress Jessica Harper in 1949 (age 59); rocker David Lee Roth in 1954 (age 54); country singer Tanya Tucker in 1958 (age 50); and pro football star Brett Favre in 1969 (age 39).

On this date in history:

In 1845, the U.S. Naval Academy was formally opened at Fort Severn, Annapolis, Md., with 50 midshipmen in the first class.

In 1886, Griswold Lorillard of Tuxedo Park, N.Y., fashioned the first tuxedo for men.

In 1963, a dam burst in northern Italy, drowning an estimated 3,000 people.

In 1973, Spiro Agnew became the first U.S. vice president to resign in disgrace after pleading no contest to income tax evasion.

In 1985, movie legend Orson Welles, whose remarkably innovative "Citizen Kane" of 1941 was still regarded by many as the best American-made picture of all time more than half a century later, died of a heart attack at the age of 70.

In 1993, Greek voters returned to power former Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou and his Pan-Hellenic socialist movement.

In 1994, Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras, commander in chief of the Haitian armed forces, resigned to make way for the return of exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

In 1995, Israel freed some 900 Palestinian prisoners and pulled its troops out of four towns as the second phase of the peace plan was implemented on the West Bank.

In 1997, the major tobacco companies agreed to a settlement in the class-action suit brought against them by 60,000 present and former flight attendants. They had claimed second-hand smoke in airplanes had caused them to get cancer and other diseases.

Also in 1997, it was announced that the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize would be awarded to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines and its coordinator, Jody Williams of Putney, Vt.

In 2001, representatives of 56 Islamic nations, in an emergency meeting on Qatar, condemned the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States.

In 2002, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize. He was cited for his efforts to bring peace to the Middle East and his commitment to human rights and democratic values around the world.

In 2003, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Iranian lawyer Shurin Ebadi for her work in promoting democracy and human rights in Iran and beyond. She was the first Muslim woman, and third Muslim, to win the award.

In 2004, a videotape of the beheading of British hostage Kenneth Bigley in Iraq was shown on an Islamist Web site.

Also in 2004, more than 100 people died in flash floods in northeastern India.

In 2005, Angela Merkel became the first woman chancellor of Germany after her Christian Democrats won the parliamentary election. The incumbent, Gerhard Schroeder, said he would play no role in the new governing coalition.

In 2006, Russian military experts backed North Korea's claim that it had carried out a test of a nuclear weapon. There had been initial doubt that an actual nuclear device was used. Russian President Vladimir Putin said that diplomacy must be the response.

In 2007, a U.S. Foreign Relations Committee resolution labeled as genocide Turkey's killing of some 1.5 million Armenians during World War I. Turkish leaders responded by threatening to pull their support from the war in Iraq.

A thought for the day: Queen Elizabeth I said, "I have the heart of a man, not a woman, and I am not afraid of anything." Today is Saturday, Oct. 11, the 285th day of 2008 with 81 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Libra. They include clergyman Mason Locke Weems, who invented the story of George Washington and the cherry tree, in 1756; Englishman George Williams, founder of the YMCA, in 1821; food industry pioneer Henry John Heinz in 1844; former first lady and author Eleanor Roosevelt in 1884; choreographer Jerome Robbins in 1918; country singer Dottie West in 1932; actor/singer Ron Leibman in 1937 (age 71); singer Daryl Hall in 1946 (age 62); and actors David Morse in 1953 (age 55), Joan Cusack in 1962 (age 46) and Luke Perry in 1965 (age 43).

On this date in history:

In 1811, the first steam-powered ferry in the world started its run between New York City and Hoboken, N.J.

In 1868, Thomas Alva Edison filed papers for his first invention: an electrical vote recorder to rapidly tabulate floor votes in the U.S. Congress. Members of Congress rejected it.

In 1950, the Federal Communications Commission issued to CBS the first license to broadcast color television.

In 1962, Pope John XXIII opened the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

In 1984, financier Marc Rich agreed to pay the U.S. government nearly $200 million, biggest tax fraud penalty in U.S. history.

In 1991, the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution barring Iraq from pursuing atomic programs.

In 1993, armed demonstrators in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, prevented U.S and Canadian troops from landing.

In 1994, the Pentagon reported that Iraqi troops were withdrawing from the Iraq-Kuwait border. Their deployment had brought the U.S. Navy and Marines to the Persian Gulf less than a week earlier.

Also in 1994, the Colorado Supreme Court struck down a law that barred local governments from enacting laws protecting homosexuals from discrimination in employment and housing.

In 1996, the Nobel Peace Prize went to Jose Ramos-Harta and Carlos Ximenes Belo, who worked for freedom for Timor-Leste, where famine and repression had killed one-third of the entire population.

In 2002, Congress gave U.S. President George W. Bush its backing for using military force against Iraq.

In 2003, officials in India arrested more than 1,500 Hindu activists in an effort to ward off violence during a protest planned later this week.

In 2004, actor Christopher Reeve, who played Superman in the movies and strenuously pushed spinal cord research after he was paralyzed in an accident, died at the age of 52.

Also in 2004, six men were charged in the bombing of a Philippines ferry in which more than 100 people died.

In 2005, desperate Pakistani earthquake survivors ambushed army trucks carrying relief supplies as the reported death toll in Pakistan and India topped 42,000. An Islamic Relief spokesman predicted the number eventually would reach 80,000.

Also in 2005, nine insurgent attacks killed at least 55 people in Iraq, including one suicide bomber who drove into a crowded market in Talafar.

In 2006, as many as 655,000 Iraqis reportedly had died since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, a study by Iraqi and U.S. researchers said. U.S. President George Bush, who figured the civilian death toll was far less, discounted the report.

Also in 2006, Cory Lidle, a 34-year-old right-handed pitcher for the New York Yankees, was killed when the light plane he was flying crashed into a 50-story residential building in New York.

In 2007, a Jordanian group of Islamic scholars appealed directly to Pope Benedict XVI and other Christian leaders to help smooth out conflicts between Muslims and Christians.

Also in 2007, military reports said Taliban-affiliated fighters stepped up attacks on the Pakistani military near the Afghanistan border. The four-day death toll was put at 60 Pakistani soldiers and 200 militants.

A thought for the day: in her diary, Anne Frank wrote: "If God lets me live, I shall attain more than Mummy ever has done. I shall not remain insignificant. I shall work in the world and for mankind!" Today is Sunday, Oct. 12, the 286th day of 2008 with 80 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Libra. They include Elmer Sperry, who devised practical uses for the gyroscope, in 1860; English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams in 1872; comedian and activist Dick Gregory in 1932 (age 76); opera singer Luciano Pavarotti in 1935; TV correspondent Chris Wallace in 1947 (age 61); singer/actress Susan Anton in 1950 (age 58); actors Adam Rich in 1968 (age 40) and Kirk Cameron in 1970 (age 38); and track star Marion Jones in 1975 (age 33).

On this date in history:

In 1492, Christopher Columbus reached America, making his first landing in the New World on one of the Bahamas Islands. Columbus believed he had reached India.

In 1899, the Boers of the Transvaal and Orange Free State in southern Africa declared war on the British. The Boer War was ended May 31, 1902, by the Treaty of Vereeniging.

In 1915, British nurse Edith Cavell, 49, was executed by a German firing squad in Brussels for helping Allied soldiers escape from German-occupied Belgium during World War I.

In 1960, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev removed one of his shoes and pounded it on his desk during a speech before the United Nations.

In 1964, the Soviet Union launched Voskhod 1 into orbit around Earth, with three cosmonauts aboard. It was the first spacecraft to carry a multi-person crew and the two-day mission was also the first flight performed without space suits.

In 1973, U.S. President Richard Nixon nominated U.S. House of Representatives Minority Leader Gerald Ford, R-Mich., for the vice presidency to replace Spiro Agnew, who had resigned two days earlier.

In 1984, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher escaped injury in the bombing of a hotel in Brighton, England. Four people were killed in the attack, blamed on the Irish Republican Army.

In 1991, Iran agreed to withdraw its 1,500 Revolutionary Guards from Lebanon.

In 1992, more than 500 people were killed and thousands injured when an earthquake rocked Cairo, Egypt.

In 1993, New Delhi announced that more than 9,700 people had died in an earthquake the previous month in southern India.

In 1998, University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard died, five days after the 21-year-old gay man was beaten, robbed and left tied to a fence.

In 1999, the elected government of Pakistan was overthrown in an apparently bloodless military coup. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and several other leaders were arrested.

In 2000, 17 sailors were killed when an explosion rocked the U.S.S. Cole as it refueled in Yemen. U.S. President Bill Clinton blamed the attack on accused terrorist Osama bin Laden.

In 2002, a bomb exploded near two crowded discos on the Indonesian island of Bali, killing 202 people.

Also in 2002, the terror continued for Washington area residents as the weeklong death toll from a mysterious sniper reached eight.

In 2003, Uganda said its army rescued more than 400 children held captive by rebels in a remote village north of Kampala.

In 2004, a report of the CIA's top weapons investigator said Saddam Hussein thought U.S. officials knew he had no weapons of mass destruction before the invasion.

In 2005, newly released documents charged that the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Los Angeles allegedly shielded priests accused of sexual abuse by moving them from one parish to another.

Also in 2005, a lynch mob of about 500 Indonesians -- on the third anniversary of the Bali terror bombings -- stormed the Denpasar prison where three convicted bombers were held but were turned back by police.

In 2006, a London man admitted helping plan terrorist attacks in Britain and the United States, including at the New York Stock Exchange.

In 2007, former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to publicize a man-made climate change and explain how to counteract it.

Also in 2007, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned the United States against installing missile defense facilities in Poland and the Czech Republic.

A thought for the day: Chinese educator, writer and diplomat Tehyi Hsieh said, "The key to success isn't much good until one discovers the right lock to insert it in."
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