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The almanac

By United Press International
Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter

Today is Thursday, April 3, the 93rd day of 2014 with 272 to follow.

The moon is waxing. The morning stars are Mars, Mercury, Neptune, Saturn, Uranus and Venus. The evening star is Jupiter.

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Those born on this date are under the sign of Aries. They include historian and story writer Washington Irving in 1783; author and naturalist John Burroughs in 1837; actor Leslie Howard in 1893; publisher Henry Luce and comedian George Jessel, both in 1898; dancer Sally Rand and actor Iron Eyes Cody, both in 1904; newspaper columnist Herb Caen in 1916; actors Doris Day in 1922 (age 92) and Marlon Brando in 1924; astronaut Virgil "Gus" Grissom in 1926; anthropologist Jane Goodall in 1934 (age 80); actor Marsha Mason and entertainer Wayne Newton, both in 1942 (age 72); singer Tony Orlando in 1944 (age 70); musician Richard Thompson in 1949 (age 65); actors Alec Baldwin in 1958 (age 56) and David Hyde Pierce in 1959 (age 55); actor/comedian Eddie Murphy in 1961 (age 53); singer Sebastian Bach in 1968 (age 46); actors Jennie Garth in 1972 (age 42) and Amanda Bynes in 1986 (age 28); and Olympic skier Picabo Street in 1971 (age 43).

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On this date in history:

In 1860, the Pony Express postal service began, with riders leaving St. Joseph, Mo., and Sacramento at the same time.

In 1865, as the Civil War drew to a close, Richmond, Va., and nearby Petersburg surrendered to Union forces.

In 1882, outlaw Jesse James was shot to death by Robert Ford, a former gang member who hoped to collect the reward on James' head.

In 1936, Richard Bruno Hauptmann was executed for killing the 20-month-old son of Charles A. Lindbergh.

In 1944, in a case out of Texas, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that barring African-Americans from voting violated the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

In 1948, U.S. President Harry Truman signed the Marshall Plan, aimed to help European countries recover from World War II.

In 1989, Richard M. Daley was elected mayor of Chicago, the post his father had occupied for 21 years.

In 1991, the U.N. Security Council passed a cease-fire resolution to end the Persian Gulf War.

In 1995, owners and players of Major League Baseball approved an agreement ending a 232-day strike that forced the cancellation of hundreds of games and the 1994 World Series.

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In 1996, the FBI raided a Montana cabin and arrested Theodore Kaczynski, a former college professor, accusing him of being the Unabomber whose mail bombs had killed three people and injured 23 since the 1970s. (Kaczynski was sentenced to life in prison.)

In 2003, U.S. President George W. Bush told Marines at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina that victory was at hand in Iraq. On that day, coalition troops crossed the Tigris River and moved to within 25 miles of Baghdad.

In 2009, 13 people, including the gunman, a Vietnamese immigrant, were killed in shootings at an immigration services center in Binghamton, N.Y.

In 2011, at least 300 penguins were reported dead and tens of thousands more at risk in a South Atlantic oil spill west of South Africa.

In 2012, Yahoo! announced it was laying off 2,000 employees -- 14 percent of its staff -- as part of a reorganization plan.

In 2013, a Pew Research Poll found 84 percent of U.S. Catholics had a favorable impression of new Pope Francis.


A thought for the day: "If someone is gay and he searches for the lord and has good will, who am I to judge?" -- Pope Francis

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