UPI Almanac for Sunday, March 15, 2015

Today is Sunday, March 15, the 74th day of 2015 with 291 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Pisces. They include Andrew Jackson, seventh president of the United States, in 1767; German immunologist Emil von Behring in 1854; actor Macdonald Carey in 1913; actor Joe E. Ross in 1915; trumpet virtuoso/bandleader Harry James in 1916; football Hall of Fame member Norm Van Brocklin in 1926; Apollo astronaut Alan Bean in 1932 (age 83); U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 1933 (age 82); actor Judd Hirsch in 1935 (age 80); televangelist Jimmy Swaggart in 1935 (age 80); musician Phil Lesh (Grateful Dead) in 1940 (age 75); singer/songwriter Mike Love (Beach Boys) in 1941 (age 74); musician Sly Stone (Sly and the Family Stone) in 1944 (age 71); musician Ry Cooder in 1947 (age 68); musician Dee Snider in 1955 (age 60); actor Park Overall in 1957 (age 58; model Fabio Lanzoni in 1959 (age 56); singer Terence Trent D'Arby in 1962 (age 53); singer Bret Michaels in 1963 (age 54); actor Eva Longoria in 1975 (age 40); singer wil.i.am (born William Adams) in 1975 (age 40).

On this date in history:

In 44 B.C., Julius Caesar was assassinated by Brutus and others in Rome.

In 1493, Christopher Columbus returned to Spain after his first voyage to the New World.

In 1820, as part of the Missouri Compromise between the North and South, Maine was admitted into the Union as the 23rd state. It had been administered as a province of Massachusetts since 1647.

In 1916, U.S. Army General John "Black Jack" Pershing led an expedition into Mexico to capture revolutionary leader Pancho Villa, who had staged several cross-border raids. (The two-year expedition was unsuccessful.)

In 1990, the Israeli Knesset brought down Yitzhak Shamir's government on a no-confidence motion after the Likud Party leader refused to accept a U.S. peace proposal.

In 2003, Hu Jintao replaced Jiang Zemin as president of China.

In 2004, astronomers reported finding an object with a diameter of 800 to 1,100 miles circling the sun far beyond the orbit of any known planet. It was dubbed a "planetoid."

In 2007, Palestinian leaders of Hamas and Fatah agreed to a coalition government but their platform didn't recognize Israel or renounce violence.

In 2008, a 19-story industrial crane collapsed on the East Side of Manhattan in New York City, crashing into an apartment building and other structures. Seven people were killed and more than 20 injured.

In 2009, Venezuelan voters abolished presidential term limits, which had restricted a president to two six-year terms.

In 2012, the Taliban in Afghanistan suspended preliminary peace negotiations with the United States, blaming U.S. efforts to include Afghan leaders in the talks.

In 2014, Afghan President Hamid Karzai, addressing Parliament, said the 2001 U.S.-led invasion to oust the Taliban "imposed" war on Afghanistan

A thought for the day: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg told an interviewer, "The emphasis must be not on the right to abortion but on the right to privacy and reproductive control."