.TH almanac "" "" "Command"
.PC "Print an almanac entry for this date"
\fBalmanac [\fImonth day\^\fB]\fR
.PP
The command
.B almanac
prints on the standard output
an almanac entry of noteworthy births, deaths, and events that
occurred on this date.
.I month
and
.I day
give the date whose listing you wish to see.
.I month
must be the name of the month.
For example, the command
.DM
	almanac November 23
.DE
.PP
prints something like the following on your screen:
.DM
	BIRTHS:
	1221: Alfonso X (el Sabio), monarch and music collector, Toledo.
	1876: Manuel de Falla, composer, Cadiz.
	1887: William Henry Pratt (Boris Karloff), actor.
	1888: Adolph "Harpo" Marx, comedian & musician, New York City.
	DEATHS:
	1585: Thomas Tallis, composer, Greenwich.
	EVENTS:
	1923: Height of German inflation: 4.2 trillion marks to the dollar.
	1935: First "Porky Pig" cartoon premieres.
.DE
.PP
If you do not supply any arguments on the command,
.B almanac
prints an almanac listing for today.
.PP
.B almanac
reads its information from the files
.BR almanac.birth ,
.BR almanac.death ,
and
.BR almanac.event ,
which are kept in directory
.BR /usr/games/lib .
Each has the same format:
the date encoded by the first three letters of the name of the month
(with an initial capital letter),
followed by the day of the month, followed by the body of the entry.
For example:
.DM
	Nov 23 1221: Alfonso X (el Sabio), monarch and music collector, Toledo.
.DE
.PP
You are encouraged to modify these files to suit your tastes and interests.
.SH "See Also"
.Xr commands commands
.SH Notes
.B almanac
does not check for bogus dates before it reads its data files.
It also is quite rigid in how it expects its data base to be laid out.
.PP
The data files reflect the tastes of the person who compiled them,
and can be rather idiosyncratic.
