UPI Almanac for Friday, Nov. 27, 2015

Today is Friday, Nov. 27, the 331st day of 2015 with 34 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Sagittarius. They include Anders Celsius, Swedish astronomer and inventor of the centigrade thermometer, in 1701; American historian Charles Beard and Israeli statesman Chaim Weizmann, both in 1874; theatrical producer David Merrick in 1911; entertainer "Buffalo Bob" Smith ("The Howdy Dowdy Show") in 1917; writer Gail Sheehy in 1937 (age 78); actor and martial arts star Bruce Lee in 1940; singer Eddie Rabbitt in 1941; Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Jimi Hendrix in 1942 and Olympic gold medal-winning sprinter Henry Carr, also in 1942 (age 73); Caroline Kennedy, daughter of President John F. Kennedy, in 1957 (age 58); actors James Avery in 1948 (age 67), Curtis Armstrong in 1953 (age 62), Fisher Stevens in 1963 (age 52), Robin Givens in 1964 (age 51) and Jaleel White in 1976 (age 39); film director Kathryn Bigelow in 1951 (age 64); and Bill Nye "The Science Guy," in 1955 (age 60).

On this date in history:

In 1901, the U.S. War Department authorized creation of the Army War College to instruct commissioned officers. (It was built in Leavenworth, Kan.)

In 1924, the first Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade took place in New York.

In 1940, two months after Gen. Ion Antonescu seized power in Romania and forced King Carol II to abdicate, more than 60 aides of the exiled king, including Nicolae Iorga, a former minister and acclaimed historian, were executed.

In 1970, a man with a knife attempted to injure Pope Paul VI at Manila Airport in the Philippines.

In 1989, Virginia certified Douglas Wilder as the first elected U.S. African-American governor by a margin of 0.38 percent of the vote.

In 1990, British treasury chief John Major was elected Conservative Party leader, succeeding Margaret Thatcher as prime minister.

In 1994, Bosnian Serbs took 150 U.N. peacekeepers hostage to prevent NATO airstrikes.

In 2003, U.S. President George W. Bush arrived in Iraq under the cover of darkness in a surprise visit to American forces in Baghdad. The president mingled with troops gathered in a hangar for Thanksgiving dinner and joined the serving line, dishing out corn and sweet potatoes. Bush's 2½ hour stay marked the first time a U.S. president traveled to Iraq.

In 2006, while deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein awaited court-ordered execution on his earlier mass murder conviction, Baghdad prosecutors resumed his second trial in which he and six others were charged with crimes against humanity in the deaths of as many as 180,000 Kurds in 1987-88.

In 2008, Edna Scott Parker, said to be the oldest person in the world, died at age 115 in Indiana.

In 2009, golf superstar Tiger Woods was treated and released at a hospital after his car slammed into a fire hydrant and tree near his home in suburban Orlando, Fla. Police said Woods was unconscious and they were told his wife smashed a window with a golf club to pull him from the car.

In 2010, South Korea and the United States shrugged off North Korean warnings and started four days of naval exercises in the Yellow Sea. North Korea, which shelled a South Korean island a few days earlier in an effort to head off the exercises, warned the drills would move the region closer to "the brink of war."

In 2012, seven people stripped naked in U.S. House Speaker John Boehner's office to protest potential funding cuts for AIDS research. Three of the protesters, all women, were charged with lewd and indecent acts.

In 2013, police in Tucson said three sisters, 12, 13 and 17, had been imprisoned for possibly two years in their parents' home, forced to listen to loud music day and night, fed once a day and seldom permitted to bathe.The ordeal ended after the two younger girls escaped and ran to a neighbor's home. The girls were described as malnourished and filthy. Charges against their mother and stepfather included kidnapping and child abuse.

A thought for the day: "Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving." -- W.T. Purkiser