UPI Almanac for Thursday, March 30, 2017

Today is Thursday, March 30, the 89th day of 2017 with 276 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Aries. They include Spanish painter Francisco Jose de Goya in 1746; German chemist Robert Bunsen, inventor of the Bunsen gas burner, in 1811; English author Anna Sewell (Black Beauty) in 1820; English social reformer Charles Booth in 1840; Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh in 1853; Irish dramatist Sean O'Casey in 1880; philanthropist Brooke Astor in 1902; former CIA Director Richard Helms in 1913; singer Frankie Laine in 1913; TV host Peter Marshall in 1926 (age 91); actor Richard Dysart in 1929; actor John Astin in 1930 (age 87); actor Warren Beatty in 1937 (age 80); basketball Hall of Fame member Jerry Lucas in 1940 (age 77); rock musician Graeme Edge in 1941 (age 76); British blues/rock guitarist Eric Clapton in 1945 (age 72); actor Robbie Coltrane in 1950 (age 67); actor Paul Reiser in 1957 (age 60); rapper MC Hammer, born Stanley Burrell, in 1962 (age 55); singer Tracy Chapman in 1964 (age 53); television commentator Piers Morgan in 1965 (age 52); singer Celine Dion in 1968 (age 49); singer Norah Jones in 1979 (age 38).

On this date in history:

In 1842, Dr. Crawford Long became the first physician to use anesthetic (ether) in surgery.

In 1858, a U.S. patent was granted to Hymen Lipman for a pencil with an attached eraser.

In 1867, U.S. Secretary of State William Seward reached an agreement with Russia for the purchase of Alaska for $7.2 million in gold.

In 1870, the 15th Amendment, granting African-American men the right to vote, was adopted into the U.S. Constitution.

In 1923, the Cunard liner "Laconia" arrived in New York City, the first passenger ship to circumnavigate the world. The cruise lasted 130 days.

In 1975, the South Vietnamese city of Da Nang fell to North Vietnamese forces.

In 1981, On March 30, 1981, John Hinckley Jr. shot and injured U.S. President Ronald Reagan outside a Washington hotel. White House press secretary James Brady, a Secret Service agent and a Washington police officer also sustained injuries. Hinckley was released from a psychiatric hospital in September 2016.

In 1999, a jury in Oregon awarded $81 million in damages to the family of a smoker who died from lung cancer. A state judge reduced the punitive portion to $32 million.

In 2006, Jill Carroll, a freelance reporter for The Christian Science Monitor, was freed in Baghdad after being held for 82 days by kidnappers.

In 2008, flooding in Tanzanian mines killed at least 75 men, government officials said. Many of the victims appeared to have been engulfed by rising water as they worked.

In 2010, gunmen killed 10 students after they apparently failed to stop at a checkpoint similar to those used by drug traffickers in the Mexican state of Durango while en route to pick up government scholarships.

A thought for the day: "There are no easy answers but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right." -- Ronald Reagan