UPI Almanac for Thursday, April 20, 2017

Today is Thursday, April 20, the 110th day of 2017 with 255 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 Taurus. They include the Prophet Muhammad, founder of Islam, in 571; Roman Catholic St. Rose of Lima in 1586; French Emperor Napoleon III in 1808; sculptor Daniel Chester French in 1850; golf pioneer "Young" Tom Morris in 1851; German dictator Adolf Hitler in 1889; silent film comedian Harold Lloyd in 1893; Spanish surrealist painter Joan Miro in 1893; musician Lionel Hampton in 1908; former U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens in 1920 (age 97); actor Nina Foch in 1924; actor George Takei in 1937 (age 80); actor Ryan O'Neal in 1941 (age 76) ; Steve Spurrier, football coach/1966 Heisman Trophy winner, in 1945 (age 72); actor Jessica Lange in 1949 (age 68); actor Veronica Cartwright in 1949 (age 68); singer Luther Vandross in 1951; actor Clint Howard in 1959 (age 57); actor Crispin Glover in 1964 (age 53); actor Andy Serkis in 1964 (age 53); actor Carmen Electra in 1972 (age 45); actor Joey Lawrence in 1976 (age 41).

On this date in history:

In 1871, the U.S. Congress passed the Third Force Act, popularly known as the Ku Klux Klan Act, authorizing President Ulysses S. Grant to declare martial law, impose heavy penalties against terrorist organizations and use military force to suppress the Klan.

In 1902, Marie Curie and Pierre Curie isolated radioactive radium salts from the mineral pitchblende in their laboratory in Paris.

In 1961, Radio Havana announced that seven members of the group which attempted an overthrow of Fidel Castro's communist government in Cuba had been executed. It raised the number of executions over the previous three days to 24.

In 1976, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that federal courts could order low-cost housing for minorities in a city's white suburbs to ease racial segregation.

In 1991, the United States announced plans to open an office in Hanoi to investigate unresolved cases of 2,278 U.S. military personnel listed as MIAs and POWs.

In 1992, Madonna signed a multimillion-dollar deal with Time Warner to form an entertainment company that would make her the world's highest paid female pop star.

In 1998, a federal jury in Chicago awarded more than $85,000 in damages to two women's health clinics that had accused abortion rights opponents of threats and extortion in an effort to shut them down.

In 1999, two teenage boys killed 12 students and a teacher at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., before turning their guns on themselves.

In 2008, Danica Patrick won the Indy Japan 300 auto race, becoming the first woman to win an IndyCar event.

In 2010, an explosion and fire on the Deepwater Horizon BP oil rig off the Louisiana coast in the Gulf of Mexico killed 11 workers and caused a massive oil spill. It became the largest U.S. marine oil spill in history, stretching over almost three months and releasing about 4.9 million barrels of crude.

In 2011, Michel Martelly, an entertainer who performed under the name "Sweet Micky," was elected president of Haiti in a runoff with former first lady Mirlande Manigat.

In 2012, a Pakistani Bhoja Air jetliner on a flight from Karachi crashed 5 miles from Islamabad, killing all 127 people aboard.

In 2013, an earthquake in China's Sichuan province killed nearly 200 people and injured thousands.

In 2014, Boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, who was imprisoned 19 years after being wrongly convicted of a triple murder, died at his Toronto home at age 76. For more than a decade, Carter was executive director of the Association in Defense of the Wrongly Convicted.

A thought for the day: "Middle age is when you're sitting at home on a Saturday night and the telephone rings and you hope it isn't for you." -- Ogden Nash