UPI Almanac for Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Today is Wednesday, April 5, the 95th day of 2017 with 270 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Aries. They include English philosopher Thomas Hobbes in 1588; Elihu Yale, namesake of Yale University, in 1649; Benjamin Harrison, signer of the Declaration of Independence and father of U.S. President William Henry Harrison, in 1726; English physician Joseph Lister, who introduced antiseptic surgery, in 1827; educator Booker T. Washington in 1856; actor Spencer Tracy in 1900; actor Melvyn Douglas in 1901; actor Bette Davis in 1908; actor Gregory Peck in 1916; novelist Arthur Hailey in 1920; singer/actor Gale Storm in 1922; filmmaker Roger Corman in 1926 (age 91); impressionist Frank Gorshin in 1933; former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell in 1937 (age 80); actor Michael Moriarty in 1941 (age 76); actor Max Gail in 1943 (age 74); actor Jane Asher in 1946 (age 71); astronaut Judith Resnik in 1949; actor Mitch Pileggi in 1952 (age 65); actor Lily James in 1989 (age 28).

On this date in history:

In 1614, Pocahontas, daughter of a chief, married English tobacco planter John Rolfe in Jamestown, Va. It was a marriage that ensured peace between the settlers and the Powhatan Indians for several years.

In 1768, the first U.S. Chamber of Commerce was founded in New York City.

In 1792, President George Washington exercised veto power, the first time it was done in the United States.

In 1933, Executive Order 6101 establishing the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was issued by President Franklin Roosevelt. The public work relief program would run from 1933 to 1942 and provide employment for unemployed and unmarried men as part of the New Deal.

In 1951, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were sentenced to death in New York for stealing atomic secrets for the Soviet Union. They were executed on June 20, 1953.

In 1955, following rumors of failing health, Winston Churchill resigned as prime minister of the United Kingdom.

In 1976, reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes died of kidney failure during a flight from Acapulco, Mexico, to Houston. He was 71.

In 1991, former Sen. John Tower, (R-Texas), and 22 others were killed in a commuter plane crash in Brunswick, Ga.

In 1992, Sam Moore Walton, founder of Walmart, died of cancer at 74.

In 1994, Nirvana's Kurt Cobain committed suicide at his home in Seattle, Wash. He was 27. It would be three days before his body was discovered.

In 1999, Russell Henderson, one of two men charged in the October 1998 beating death of gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard, pleaded guilty and was given two life prison sentences. The second man, Aaron McKinney, who delivered the fatal blows, also received two life terms.

In 2007, Iran released a 15-member British naval crew seized in the Persian Gulf and held for 13 days. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who accused the crew of trespassing in Iranian waters, said the pardons were a "gift" to the British.

In 2010, an explosion in a coal mine near Montcoal, in West Virginia's Raleigh County, killed 29 workers.

In 2013, South Korean President Park Geun-hye called for tougher laws to ensure that people don't avoid punishment or get light sentences "just because they are rich or influential."

In 2014, Peter Matthiessen, the only writer to win the National Book Award in fiction and non-fiction, died at his home in Sagaponack, N.Y. He was 86.

A thought for the day: "If there is anything more annoying in the world than having people talk about you, it is certainly having no one talk about you." -- Oscar Wilde