UPI Almanac for Monday, March 6, 2017

Today is Monday, March 6, the 65th day of 2017 with 300 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Pisces. They include Italian painter/sculptor Michelangelo in 1475; French dramatist Cyrano de Bergerac in 1619; English poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning in 1806; Union Army Gen. Philip Sheridan in 1831; humorist/short story writer Ring Lardner in 1885; baseball Hall of Fame member Robert Moses "Lefty" Grove in 1900; Texas swing bandleader Bob Wills in 1905; comic actor Lou Costello in 1906; one-armed professional baseball player Pete Gray in 1915; television personality Ed McMahon in 1923; symphony conductor Sarah Caldwell in 1924; former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan in 1926 (age 91); Mercury astronaut L. Gordon Cooper in 1927; Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez in 1927; former District of Columbia Mayor Marion Barry in 1936; baseball Hall of Fame member Willie Stargell in 1940; actor Ben Murphy in 1942 (age 75); singer Mary Wilson in 1944 (age 73); musician/singer David Gilmour (Pink Floyd) in 1946 (age 71); actor/director Rob Reiner in 1947 (age 70); high jumper Dick Fosbury, who created the "Fosbury Flop," in 1947 (age 70); news commentator John Stossel in 1947 (age 70); actor Tom Arnold in 1959 (age 58); actor D.L. Hughley in 1963 (age 54); basketball star Shaquille O'Neal in 1972 (age 45); rapper Tyler, The Creator in 1991 (age 26).

On this date in history:

In 1836, Mexican forces captured the Alamo in San Antonio, killing the last of 187 defenders who had held out in the fortified Texas mission for 13 days. Frontiersman Davy Crockett was among those killed on the final day.

In 1853, "La Traviata" by Giuseppe Verdi premiered in Venice, Italy.

In 1857, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its landmark ruling that slave Dred Scott couldn't sue for his freedom in a federal court, even though his white owner had died in a "free" state.

In 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt declared a national banking holiday in an effort to shore up the banking system.

In 1944, during World War II, U.S. bombers flying from Britain began the first daytime attacks on Berlin.

In 1965, Alabama Gov. George Wallace declared "There will be no march between Selma and Montgomery," and that he had ordered the highway patrol to "use whatever measures are necessary to prevent a march."

In 1967, Svetlana Alliluyeva, Joseph Stalin's daughter, defected to the United States. She would return to the Soviet Union 17 years later stating, "In America, I ended up living the life of a suburban housewife, which is not at all what I wanted."

In 1981, Walter Cronkite signed off from the CBS Evening News for the final time after 19 years at the anchor's desk.

In 1982, an Egyptian court sentenced five Muslim fundamentalists to death for the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. Seventeen others drew prison terms.

In 1991, U.S. President George H.W. Bush, addressing a joint session of Congress, declared the Persian Gulf War over.

In 2014, Boeing said it would end pension plans for 68,000 non-union employees by 2016, switching to 401k plans.

In 2015, Islamic State militants devastated the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud in northern Iraq, using bulldozers to raze the site.

A thought for the day: "Don't confuse being 'soft' with seeing the other guy's point of view." -- George H.W. Bush