UPI Almanac for Thursday, Sept. 17, 2015

Today is Thursday, Sept. 17, the 260th day of 2015 with 105 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Virgo. They include the second chief justice of the United States, John Rutledge in 1739; Norwegian historian/Nobel Peace Prize laureate Christian Lous Lange in 1869; radio news commentator Gabriel Heatter in 1890; Marriott Corp. founder J. Willard Marriott in 1900; former U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger in 1907; country music pioneer Hank Williams Sr. in 1923; football Hall of Fame member George Blanda in 1927; actor Roddy McDowall in 1928; race car driver Stirling Moss in 1929 (age 86); actor David Huddleston in 1930 (age 85); actor Anne Bancroft in 1931; actor Dorothy Loudon in 1933; tennis Hall of Fame member Maureen Connolly in 1934; author Ken Kesey in 1935; baseball Hall of Fame member Orlando Cepeda in 1937 (age 78); former U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter in 1939 (age 76); basketball Hall of Fame member Phil Jackson, coach of 11 NBA champions, in 1945 (age 70); cartoonist Jeff MacNelly in 1947; actor John Ritter in 1948; spooky movie hostess Elvira, whose real name is Cassandra Peterson, in 1951 (age 64); actor/comedian Rita Rudner in 1953 (age 62); designer/television host Nate Berkus in 1971 (age 44); NHL star Alex Ovechkin in 1985 (age 30).

On this date in history:

In 1787, the U.S. Constitution, completed in Philadelphia, was signed by a majority of the 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention.

In 1862, Union forces led by Gen. George McClellan attacked Confederate troops led by Gen. Robert E. Lee near Antietam Creek in Maryland. (McClellan blocked Lee's advance on Washington but fell short of victory.)

In 1939, Soviet troops invaded Poland, 16 days after Nazi Germany moved into the country.

In 1976, NASA displayed its first space shuttle, the Enterprise, an airplane-like spacecraft costing almost $10 billion that took nearly a decade to develop.

In 1978, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin signed the Camp David Accords, laying the groundwork for a permanent peace agreement between Egypt and Israel after three decades of hostilities.

In 1983, Vanessa Williams of New York became the first African-American to be named Miss America. (She resigned 11 months later after nude photos were published but regained stardom as a singer and actress.)

In 1991, North Korea, South Korea, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were admitted to the United Nations.

In 1993, Cambodia's two leading political parties agreed that Prince Norodom Sihanouk would lead the nation. (Sihanouk was installed as king a week later.)

In 2001, U.S. President George W. Bush said Osama bin Laden, the suspected ringleader in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, was "wanted dead or alive." (Bin Laden was killed in a 2011 U.S. commando raid in in Pakistan.)

In 2004, the death toll from Hurricane Ivan was set at 38 in the United States and 75 in at the Caribbean.

In 2008, the Paralympic Games for athletes with disabilities came to a close in Beijing after about 4,000 competitors vied in 20 sports. The top individual performer was Australian swimmer Matt Cowdrey, an arm amputee from birth who captured five gold and three silver medals.

In 2009, final unofficial results from a controversial presidential election in Afghanistan indicated that incumbent Hamid Karzai got 54.6 percent of the vote, enough to avoid a runoff.

In 2011, a widespread U.S. outbreak of listeria food poisoning was traced to contaminated cantaloupes sold by a Colorado company that recalled millions of melons. Officials said about two dozen people had died of listeriosis in 20 states.

In 2012, U.S. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said his comment about 47 percent of Americans "who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to healthcare, to food, to housing, to you-name-it" was "not elegantly stated." Romney's response came after the 47 percent comment, secretly recorded at a GOP fundraiser in May, was released on the Internet and drew harsh criticism. Also on this date in 2012, the Occupy Wall Street movement marked its first anniversary with protests in New York City.

In 2013, a U.S. Census bureau report said median household income did not fall, and poverty did not rise, in 2012 -- for the first time in several years.

In 2014, President Barack Obama said U.S. troops "do not and will not have a combat mission" in Iraq against the Islamic State , which had seized large areas of Iraq and Syria.

A thought for the day: French aviator and writer Antoine Marie Roger de Saint-Exupery said, "Love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking outward together in the same direction."