UPI Almanac for Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2015

Today is Wednesday, Feb. 4, the 35th day of 2015 with 330 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Aquarius. They include Polish-born American patriot Tadeusz Kosciuszko in 1746; French cubist painter Fernand Leger in 1881; actor Nigel Bruce in 1895; aviator Charles Lindbergh in 1902; legendary golfer Byron Nelson in 1912; civil rights activist Rosa Lee Parks in 1913; actor Ida Lupino in 1918; feminist Betty Friedan in 1921; actor Conrad Bain in 1923; comedian David Brenner in 1936; actor John Schuck in 1940 (age 75); former U.S. Vice President Dan Quayle in 1947 (age 68); shock rocker Alice Cooper in 1948 (age 67); actor Lisa Eichhorn in 1952 (age 63); football Hall of Fame member Lawrence Taylor in 1959 (age 56); country singer Clint Black in 1962 (age 53), actor Gabrielle Anwar in 1970 (age 45); boxer Oscar de la Hoya in 1973 (age 42).

On this date in history:

In 1789, George Washington of Virginia, the commander of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, was elected the first president of the United States by all 69 presidential electors who cast votes. John Adams of Massachusetts was elected vice president.

In 1792, George Washington was unanimously elected to a second term as U.S. president in a vote of the Electoral College.

In 1861, the 25-year period of conflict known as the Apache War began at Apache Pass, Ariz., with the arrest of American-Indian leader Cochise for raiding a ranch. (Cochise escaped his U.S. Army captors and declared war.)

In 1938, Adolf Hitler seized control of the German army and put Nazi officers in key posts as part of a plan that led to World War II.

In 1974, urban guerrillas calling themselves the Symbionese Liberation Army abducted Patricia Hearst, the 19-year-old daughter of publisher Randolph Hearst, from her apartment in Berkeley, Calif. (Hearst was arrested as a fugitive in September of 1975. She said she had been forced to join her captors and was charged with participating n bank robberies. The heiress spent 22 months in prison before her sentence was commuted by President Jimmy Carter. She eventually was granted a full pardon by President Bill Clinton.)

In 1976, a magnitude-7.5 earthquake struck the Guatemala City region in Guatemala, killing an estimated 23,000 people and injuring tens of thousands.

In 1997, a jury in a civil trial in Santa Monica, Calif., found O.J. Simpson liable in the killings of his former wife and her friend and he was ordered to pay a total of $33.5 million to the families. Simpson had been acquitted in his murder trial.

In 2004, a Pakistani scientist considered the key figure in his country's nuclear weaponry development admitted he leaked that technology to other countries.

In 2006, widespread Muslim protests of caricatures depicting Muhammad in a negative way turned violent. Angry demonstrators smashed windows, set fires and burned flags. Syrian mobs burned Danish and Norwegian embassies because newspapers in those countries published the drawings.

In 2012, Russia and China vetoed an effort by the U.N. Security Council to end the violence in Syria with an Arab League peace plan.

In 2013, law enforcement officers stormed an underground bunker in Midland City, Ala., killed 65-year-old Jimmy Lee Dykes and rescued a 5-year-old boy he had held hostage for a week.

In 2014, Microsoft announced the appointment of Satya Nadella as the company's chief executive officer, succeeding Steve Ballmer, and said Bill Gates would step down as board chairman.

A thought for the day: Scottish Olympian and missionary Eric Liddell said, "In the dust of defeat as well as the laurels of victory there is a glory to be found if one has done his best."