UPI Almanac for Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Today is Wednesday, April 19, the 109th day of 2017 with 256 to follow.

The moon is waning. 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 statesman Roger Sherman, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, in 1721; music patron Augustus Juilliard in 1836; U.S. federal agent Eliot Ness, head of the "untouchables" team that brought down Al Capone, in 1903; actor Hugh O'Brian in 1925; actor Dick Sargent in 1930; actor Jayne Mansfield in 1933; actor Dudley Moore in 1935; actor Elinor Donahue in 1937 (age 80); actor Tim Curry in 1946 (age 71); auto racer Al Unser Jr. in 1962 (age 55); record producer Suge Knight in 1965 (age 52); actor Ashley Judd in 1968 (age 51); singer Dar Williams in 1967 (age 50); television personality Jesse James in 1969 (age 48); actor James Franco in 1978 (age 39); actor Kate Hudson in 1979 (age 38); actor Hayden Christensen in 1981 (age 36); tennis player Maria Sharapova in 1987 (age 30).

In 1775, the American Revolutionary War began at the Battle of Lexington, Mass. Eight minutemen were killed and 10 injured in an exchange of musket fire with British redcoats.

In 1912, Col. Archibald Gracie, survivor on the ill-fated Titanic, told of being sucked under by the sinking ship before managing to make his way back to the surface and the safety of a life raft.

In 1943, Jewish residents of the Warsaw ghetto revolted when Germans tried to resume deportations to the Treblinka concentration camp. When the uprising ended on May 16, 7,000 Jews and 300 Germans had died and the ghetto lay in ruins.

In 1956, famed actress Grace Kelly married Prince Rainier III of Monaco.

In 1971, the Soviet Union launched its first Salyut space station.

In 1987, the first Simpsons cartoon appeared on The Tracey Ullman Show.

In 1989, an explosion in a gun turret aboard the battleship USS Iowa killed 47 sailors.

In 1993, a 51-day Branch Davidian standoff near Waco, Texas, ended when fire destroyed a fortified compound after it was tear-gassed by authorities. Cult leader David Koresh and about 75 followers, including 17 children, were killed.

In 1994, a federal jury awarded police-beating victim Rodney King $3.8 million in compensatory damages from the city of Los Angeles.

In 1995, a bomb exploded outside a federal office building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people and injuring several hundred others.

In 2000, a federal appeals court ruled in a high-profile case that 6-year-old Cuban refugee Elian Gonzalez could stay in the United States until judges heard a full appeal from his relatives who sought to retain custody of the boy. He was eventually returned to his father in Cuba.

In 2005, German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, already a major power in the Roman Catholic Church, was elected pope to succeed John Paul II. He chose the name of Benedict XVI.

In 2011, an air traffic control error was blamed for a "near miss" incident at Andrews Air Force Base in Washington in which a plane carrying first lady Michelle Obama and Jill Biden, wife of the vice president, flew too close to a military cargo aircraft while landing.

In 2012, Syria, torn by a yearlong insurgency, agreed to accept a 30-person team of U.N. observers.

In 2013, one Boston Marathon bombing suspect was killed by police and another, his brother, was arrested. The city had been in a virtual lockdown.

A thought for the day: "If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person's point of view and see things from that person's angle as well as from your own." -- Henry Ford