UPI Almanac for Saturday, May 27, 2017

Today is Saturday, May 27, the 147th day of 2017 with 218 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Gemini. They include financier Cornelius Vanderbilt in 1794; social reformer Amelia Bloomer, for whom the undergarment was named, in 1818; poet Julia Ward Howe, who wrote the lyrics for "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," in 1819; financier/railroad developer Jay Gould in 1836; frontiersman James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok in 1837; detective novelist Dashiell Hammett in 1894; writer Rachel Carson in 1907; composer Harold Rome in 1908; Hubert Humphrey, U.S. Vice President (1965-69) and longtime U.S. senator, in 1911; actor Vincent Price in 1911; golfer Sam Snead in 1912; author Herman Wouk in 1915 (age 102); actor Christopher Lee in 1922; former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in 1923 (age 94); writer Tony Hillerman in 1925; writer Harlan Ellison in 1934 (age 83); jazz musician Ramsey Lewis in 1935 (age 82); actor Lee Meriwether in 1935 (age 82); actor Louis Gossett Jr. in 1936 (age 81); singer/songwriter Don Williams in 1939 (age 78); actor Bruce Weitz in 1943 (age 74); actor Peri Gilpin in 1961 (age 56); actor Todd Bridges in 1965 (age 52); actor Joseph Fiennes in 1970 (age 47) and Paul Bettany in 1971 (age 46).

On this date in history:

In 1703, Czar Peter the Great founded St. Petersburg as the new capital of Russia.

In 1930, Richard Gurley Drew received a patent for his adhesive tape, which was later manufactured by 3M as Scotch tape.

In 1937, San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge was opened. An estimated 200,000 people crossed it the first day.

In 1941, after attacks by British ships and planes, the German battleship Bismarck sank 400 miles west of the French port of Brest.

In 1968, the U.S. nuclear submarine Scorpion disappeared in the Atlantic with 99 men aboard. The wreckage was located months later.

In 1990, Cesar Gaviria, 34, was elected president of Colombia after a campaign in which three candidates were killed. He vowed to make no deals with the cocaine cartels.

In 1992, hours after a Russian-brokered cease-fire went into effect in Bosnia, Serb guerrillas launched a surprise mortar bombardment on Sarajevo, killing at least 20 people and injuring up to 160 more waiting in lines to buy bread.

In 2004, a federal appeals court in San Francisco upheld Oregon's law authorizing doctors to help their terminally ill patients kill themselves.

In 2006, an earthquake struck the Indonesian island of Java, killing approximately 5,000 people and leaving an estimated 200,000 homeless.

In 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down two decisions protecting employees from retaliation when complaining about discrimination in the workplace.

In 2012, police in Chicago said a wave of weekend shootings left a teenager dead and two-dozen people injured, including a 6-year-old girl.

In 2013, authorities in Iraq said a series of car bombings killed at least 53 people and injured more than 100.

In 2014, President Barack Obama announced that the last U.S. troops would be out of Afghanistan by the end of 2016.

In 2015, top FIFA world soccer officials and corporate executives were indicted on charges filed by the U.S. Department of Justice, as seven officials were arrested at their hotel in Zurich.

A thought for the day: "If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement and mystery of the world we live in." -- Rachel Carson