UPI Almanac for Thursday, Dec. 15, 2016

Today is Thursday, Dec. 15, the 350th day of 2016 with 16 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Sagittarius. They include the Roman Emperor Nero in A.D. 37; French engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, builder of the Paris tower that bears his name and engineer of the Statue of Liberty, in 1832; Polish linguist Ludwik Zamenhof, creator of the international language Esperanto, in 1859; playwright Maxwell Anderson in 1888; billionaire oilman J. Paul Getty in 1892; bandleader Stan Kenton in 1911; pioneer rock 'n' roll disc jockey Alan Freed in 1921; comic actor Tim Conway in 1933 (age 83); rock musician Dave Clark in 1942 (age 74); and actors Don Johnson in 1949 (age 67), Helen Slater in 1963 (age 53), Garrett Wang in 1968 (age 48) and Adam Brody in 1979 (age 37).

On this date in history:

In 1791, the Bill of Rights, comprising the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, took effect.

In 1890, Sioux Indian leader Sitting Bull was killed in a skirmish with U.S. soldiers along the Grand River in South Dakota.

In 1939, the film version of "Gone with the Wind" premiered in Atlanta.

In 1943, the Battle of San Pietro between U.S. forces and a German panzer battalion left the 700-year-old Italian town in ruins.

In 1954, "Davy Crockett," a show that may be considered TV's first miniseries, aired in five segments on the "Disneyland" program.

In 1961, Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi SS officer regarded as the architect of the World War II Holocaust, was condemned to death by an Israeli war crimes tribunal.

In 1973, John Paul Getty III is found alive at a gas station outside of Naples, Italy, more than four months after he was kidnapped.

In 1973, the American Psychiatric Association reversed its longstanding position and declared that homosexuality isn't a mental illness.

In 1989, Panamanian lawmakers designated Gen. Manuel Noriega head of state and declared that a "state of war" existed with the United States.

In 1990, in a landmark right-to-die case, a Missouri judge cleared the way for the parents of Nancy Cruzan to remove their daughter from life-support systems.

In 1992, Salvadorans celebrated the formal end to their country's 12-year civil war.

In 1993, British Prime Minister John Major and Irish Prime Minister Albert Reynolds issued a "framework for lasting peace" in Northern Ireland.

In 1997, 85 people were killed in the crash of a Tajik Airlines charter jetliner in the United Arab Emirates.

In 2006, Al-Jazeera English, the world's first English-language news TV channel with headquarters in the Middle East, was launched in Doha, Qatar.

In 2011, the United States formally ended its long military mission in Iraq in a solemn ceremony at Baghdad's international airport. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta declared the war was over. It had begun in 2003.

In 2014, Man Haron Monis, took 18 people hostage inside a Lindt Cafe in Sydney, Australia. The standoff, which lasted 16 hours, finally ended when police raided the cafe the next morning. Monis and two hostages died in the ordeal.

A thought for the day: "Never waste a minute thinking about people you don't like." -- Dwight D. Eisenhower