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UPI Almanac for Monday, April 27, 2015

A Mississippi steamboat disaster, devastating U.S. tornadoes ... on this date in history.

By United Press International
Structures are destroyed in Pleasant Grove, Ala., after a series of tornadoes struck in late April 2011. (This view is on May 1, 2011.) Adam DeBrowa/FEMA/UPI/File
1 of 10 | Structures are destroyed in Pleasant Grove, Ala., after a series of tornadoes struck in late April 2011. (This view is on May 1, 2011.) Adam DeBrowa/FEMA/UPI/File | License Photo

Today is Monday, April 27, the 117th day of 2015 with 248 to follow.

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

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Those born on this date are under the sign of Taurus. They include English historian Edward Gibbon in 1737; philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft in 1759; Samuel F.B. Morse, American artist/inventor of magnetic telegraphy, in 1791; Ulysses S. Grant, 18th president of the United States/Civil War general, in 1822; Wallace Carothers, inventor of nylon in 1896; baseball Hall of Fame member Rogers Hornsby in 1896; cartoonist Walter Lantz in 1899; English poet C. Day-Lewis in 1904; baseball Hall of Fame member Enos Slaughter in 1916; actor Jack Klugman in 1922; Coretta Scott King, wife of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., in 1927; radio/TV host Casey Kasem in 1932; actor Sandy Dennis in 1937; champion bowler Earl Anthony in 1938; playwright August Wilson in 1945; rock musician Ace Frehley in 1951 (age 64); basketball Hall of Fame member George Gervin in 1952 (age 63); pop singer Sheena Easton in 1959 (age 56); political journalist Dana Milbank in 1968 (age 47).

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On this date in history: In 1521, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan was killed by natives of the Philippine Islands during his attempt to be the first to circumnavigate the world. (His co-leader, Juan Sebastian de Elcano, completed the voyage in 1522.)

In 1749, George Frideric Handel's "Fireworks Music" was first performed.

In 1810, Ludwig van Beethoven composed "Fur Elise."

In 1865, the steamboat Sultana, heavily overloaded with an estimated 2,300 passengers, most of them Union soldiers on their way home, exploded on the Mississippi River just north of Memphis. (The death toll in the worst maritime disaster in U.S. history was set at 1,450.)

In 1897, the cornerstone was laid for Grant's Tomb in New York City's Riverside Park. A holiday had been declared for the occasion and an enormous crowd turned out in honor of Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th president and Civil War general who died 12 years earlier.

In 1937, the first Social Security payment was made in the United States.

In 1991, an estimated 70 tornadoes hit Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Iowa, killing 23 people and leaving thousands homeless.

In 1993, Kuwait said it foiled an Iraqi plot to assassinate former President George H.W. Bush during his visit earlier in the month.

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In 1994, Virginia executed a condemned killer in the first case in which DNA testing was used to obtain a conviction.

In 2008, police said a 73-year-old Austrian man, Josef Fritzl, had been accused of fathering several children with his daughter while holding her captive in a cellar for 24 years. (Fritzl was eventually sentenced to life in prison.)

In 2009, General Motors announced it would drop the Pontiac line.

In 2011, a record outbreak of 358 tornadoes carved a devastating path through parts of 21 states from Texas to New York and on into Canada, hitting southern states hardest. (Nearly 300 fatalities were reported, mostly in Alabama, over a four-day period.)

In 2012, U.S. President Barack Obama said the nation had made "extraordinary progress" in recovering from an economic crisis, which he called the worst since the 1930s.

In 2013, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, long a gun-safety advocate, would tap into his own resources and help as a "political counterweight" to the National Rifle Association, a mayoral aide said.

In 2014, tens of thousands of people gathered at the Vatican for the canonization of two former popes, John XXIII and John Paul II.


A thought for the day: "We can let circumstances rule us or we can take charge and rule our lives from within." -- Earl Nightingale

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