Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe Today is Friday, May 30, the 150th day of 2003 with 215 to follow. The moon is waning. Advertisement Morning stars are Mercury, Venus, Mars, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. The evening stars are Jupiter and Saturn. Those born on this date are under the sign of Gemini. They include Mel Blanc, the voice of Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, Porky Pig and many other cartoon characters, in 1908; bandleader/clarinetist Benny Goodman in 1909; restaurant executive Bob Evans in 1918 (age 85); Christine Jorgensen, who gained notoriety for undergoing a sex-change operation, in 1926; actors Clint Walker in 1927 (age 76), Keir Dullea in 1936 (age 67), and Michael J. Pollard in 1939 (age 64); NFL Hall of Fame running back Gale Sayers in 1943 (age 60); actors Colm Meaney ("Star Trek: Deep Space Nine") in 1953 (age 50) and Ted McGinley in 1958 (age 45); and "South Park" co-creator Trey Parker in 1972 (age 31). Advertisement On this date in history: In 1431, Joan of Arc was burned at the stake in Rouen, France, at age 19. She had been convicted of sorcery. In 1783, the "Pennsylvania Evening Post" became the first daily newspaper published in the United States. In 1806, future President Andrew Jackson took part in a duel, killing Charles Dickinson, a Kentucky lawyer who had called Jackson's wife Rachel a bigamist. In 1868, the first major Memorial Day observance was held to honor those killed during the Civil War. It was originally known to some as "Decoration Day." In 1922, the Lincoln Memorial was dedicated in Washington, D.C. In 1937, a battle between police and strikers at the Republic Steel Corp. plant in Chicago killed 10 people and wounded 90. In 1943, the Aleutian Islands of Kiska and Attu off the Alaskan coast were retaken by U.S. forces after being occupied by Japanese troops during World War II. In 1972, the unmanned U.S. space probe Mariner 9 was launched on a mission to gather scientific data on Mars, ultimately sending back valuable information and becoming the first spacecraft to orbit a planet other than the earth. Advertisement In 1972, three Japanese terrorists killed 22 people with automatic weapons at the airport in Tel Aviv, Israel. In 1982, Spain became the 16th member nation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). In 1993, Ross Perot ran a 30-minute commercial on television denouncing the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which President Clinton supported. In 1995, the United States announced it had moved seven ships and 12,000 Marines and sailors to the Adriatic Sea in response to the Serbian hostage-taking of U.N. peacekeepers. In 1997, the National Transportation Safety Administration announced it was setting up a privately funded airline disaster response center in New York City to coordinate the release of information to the victims' relatives and the public following an air crash. In 1998, Pakistan conducted another underground nuclear test, despite condemnation from many leading countries and the imposition of U.S. economic sanctions. In 2002. Attorney General John Ashcroft announced the FBI would have expanded powers to monitor religious, political and other organizations as well as internet and other media as a guard against possible future terrorist attacks. Also in 2002, the massive cleanup of the ruins of New York's World Trade Center, destroyed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, was completed. Advertisement A thought for the day: Harriett Beecher Stowe wrote in "Uncle Tom's Cabin" that, "No one is so thoroughly superstitious as the godless man."
