Weather Forecast: Rain will fizzle out in the north-west in Scotland today, with fog in the central belt clearing late morning but returning later, continued rainy in England. Temperatures as low as -6.4 C (20 F) with highs only about 0 C (32 F).
Special Notes: On this day in 1493 Christopher Columbus discovered the island of Dominica; in 1534 English parliament accepted the Act of Supremacy making Henry VIII head of the Church of England; in 1640 the English Long Parliament formed; in 1679 great panic occurred in Europe over the close approach of a comet; in 1752 Georg Friedrich Handel underwent a (failed) eye operation; in 1762 Spain acquired Louisiana; in 1839 was the first opium war - two British frigates engaged several Chinese junks; in 1896 J. H. Hunter patented the portable weighing scales; in 1931 the first commercially produced synthetic rubber was manufactured; in 1955 an Alabama woman was bruised by a meteor; and in 1994 Dutch and British astronomers found the spiral nebula Dwingeloo 1. Today's birthdays include Edward V in 1470; John Montague, Earl of Sandwich, in 1718; poet William Cullen Bryant (Thanatopsis) in 1794; actor Charles Bronson in 1920; actor Ken Berry in 1930; actor Jeremy Brett (Sherlock Holmes) in 1933; singer Lulu (To Sir With Love) in 1948; host Dennis Miller in 1953; and Japanese monster Godzilla and rocker Adam Ant in 1954.