UPI Almanac for Thursday, May 19, 2016

Today is Thursday, May 19, the 140th day of 2016 with 226 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Taurus. They include philanthropist Johns Hopkins in 1795; American-born Nancy Astor, the first woman member of the British Parliament, in 1879; Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of the Republic of Turkey, in 1881; Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh in 1890; Black Muslim leader Malcolm X, born Malcolm Little, in 1925; Cambodian dictator Pol Pot in 1925; playwright Lorraine Hansberry ("A Raisin in the Sun") in 1930; journalist Jim Lehrer in 1934 (age 82); actor/TV talk show host David Hartman in 1935 (age 81); actor James Fox in 1939 (age 77); author Nora Ephron in 1941; British rock star Pete Townshend in 1945 (age 71); Jamaican actor/model/singer Grace Jones in 1948 (age 68); Archie Manning, member of the College Football Hall of Fame and father of two star NFL quarterbacks, in 1949 (age 67); rock musician Joey Ramone in 1951.

On this date in history:

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.

1916, Col. Teddy Roosevelt, speaking in Detroit, blasted the pacifism of Henry Ford and accused the Wilson administration of "make-believe preparedness."

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 pilot.

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

In 2008, mudslides in China's earthquake-devastated Sichan province engulfed and killed more than 200 rescue workers. The death toll from the quake, which struck a week earlier, had surpassed 69,000, with thousands of people reported missing.

In 2009, German scientists reported finding a possible ancestor of the human race, the fossilized remains of a 47 million-year-old primate.

In 2012, blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng, who had escaped house arrest, taken refuge in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, then spent time in a hospital, flew to the United States with his wife and two children.

In 2013, the Nikkei index jumped past 15,300 points on the Tokyo Stock Exchange -- its highest level in more than five years.

In 2014, Thailand's army declared martial law throughout the country at a time of increasing political tension.

A thought for the day: Chris Hedges wrote, "The moral nihilism of celebrity culture is played out on reality television shows, most of which encourage a dark voyeurism into other people's humiliation, pain, weakness, and betrayal."