UPI Almanac for Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Today is Tuesday, May 31, the 152nd day of 2016 with 214 to follow.

The moon is waning. 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 Gemini. They include Genghis Khan, leader of the Mongol Empire, in 1162; poet Walt Whitman in 1819; surgeon William Mayo, founder of the Mayo Clinic, in 1819; radio humorist Fred Allen in 1894; clergyman/author Norman Vincent Peale in 1898; actor Don Ameche in 1908; actor Denholm Elliott in 1922; Prince Rainier of Monaco in 1923; actor/director Clint Eastwood in 1930 (age 86); folk singer Peter Yarrow in 1938 (age 78); country singer Johnny Paycheck in 1938; British human rights activist Terry Waite in 1939 (age 77); actor Sharon Gless in 1943 (age 73); football Hall of Fame member Joe Namath in 1943 (age 73); British rock musician John Bonham in 1948; actor Tom Berenger in 1949 (age 67); actor Gregory Harrison in 1950 (age 66); actor Kyle Secor in 1957 (age 59); comedian/actor/writer Chris Elliot in 1960 (age 56); actor Lea Thompson in 1961 (age 55); actor/model Brooke Shields in 1965 (age 51); actor Colin Farrell in 1976 (age 40).

On this date in history:

In 1790, President George Washington signed a bill creating the first U.S. copyright law.

In 1889, a flood in Johnstown, Pa., left more than 2,200 people dead.

In 1902, Britain and South Africa signed a peace treaty ending the Boer War.

In 1916, the Battle of Verdun passed the 100-day mark. It would continue for another 200 days, amassing a casualty list of an estimated 800,000 soldiers dead, wounded or missing.

In 1927, the final Ford Model T was built. More than 15 million of the vehicles were produced.

In 1940, a thick fog hanging over the English Channel prevented the German Luftwaffe from flying missions against evacuating Allied troops from Dunkirk.

In 1962, Israel hanged Adolf Eichmann for his part in the killing of 6 million Jews by Nazi Germany in World War II.

In 1985, seven federally insured banks in Arkansas, Minnesota, Nebraska and Oregon were closed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. It was a single-day record for closings since the FDIC was founded in 1934.

In 2003, Eric Robert Rudolph, the long-sought fugitive in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics bombing and attacks on abortion clinics and a gay nightclub, was arrested while rummaging through a dumpster in North Carolina. Rudolph, whose bombings killed two people and injured many others, was sentenced to four life terms in prison.

In 2005, Mark Felt admitted that, while No. 2 man in the FBI, he was "Deep Throat," the shadowy contact whose help to Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein on the 1972 Watergate break-in led to U.S. President Richard Nixon's resignation.

In 2010, Israeli navy commandos raided a humanitarian aid flotilla bound for Gaza. Nine Turkish activists on the Mavi Marmara were killed.

In 2012, John Edwards of North Carolina, former U.S. senator and presidential candidate, was acquitted on a charge of taking illegal campaign contributions, and a judge declared a mistrial on five other charges against him.

In 2013, actress Jean Stapleton, known to millions of viewers as Edith Bunker in the hit 1970s sitcom "All in the Family," died at age 90 in New York City.

In 2014, U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, 28, captured in Afthanistan nearly five years earlier, was released by the Taliban in exchange for five detainees held at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba. In March 2015, the Army announced that Bergdahl had been charged with desertion.

A thought for the day: Leo Tolstoy said, "It is amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is goodness."