UPI Almanac for Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018

Today is Thursday, Feb. 15, the 46th day of 2018 with 319 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Aquarius. They include: Italian astronomer and physicist Galileo Galilei in 1564; jeweler Charles Tiffany in 1812; feminist pioneer Susan B. Anthony in 1820; British philosopher/mathematician Alfred North Whitehead in 1861; illustrator Lillian Disney in 1899; songwriter Harold Arlen in 1905; actor Cesar Romero in 1907; Miep Gies, born Heroine Santruschitz, who helped hide Anne Frank and her family, in 1909; actor John Barrymore in 1882; actor Harvey Korman in 1927; actor Claire Bloom in 1931 (age 87); astronaut Roger Chaffee in 1935; football Hall of Fame member John Hadl in 1940 (age 78); actor Marisa Berenson in 1947 (age 71); actor Jane Seymour in 1951 (age 67); singer Melissa Manchester in 1951 (age 67); Simpsons cartoonist Matt Groening in 1954 (age 64); model/TV personality Janice Dickinson in 1955 (age 63); musician Ali Campbell (UB40) in 1959 (age 59); comedian Chris Farley in 1964; astronaut Leland Devon Melvin in 1964 (age 54); actor Renee O'Connor in 1971 (age 47); actor Alex Borstein in 1971 (age 47); longtime NHL player Jaromir Jagr in 1972 (age 46); filmmaker Miranda July in 1974 (age 44); musician Brandon Boyd (Incubus) in 1976 (age 42); musician Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes) in 1980 (38); filmmaker Matt Duffer in 1984 (age 34); filmmaker Ross Duffer in 1984 (age 34); actor/singer Amber Riley in 1986 (age 32).

On this date in history:

In 1764, the city of St. Louis was founded along the Mississippi River.

In 1898, the U.S. battleship Maine exploded in Havana harbor, killing 260 crewmen and leading to a U.S. declaration of war against Spain.

In 1933, U.S. President-elect Franklin Roosevelt narrowly escaped assassination in Miami when several shots were fired at him, fatally wounding Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak.

In 1942, the British bastion of Singapore surrendered to the Japanese army.

In 1961, all 18 members of the U.S. figure skating team were killed when their plane crashed in Belgium during their trip to an international meet in Prague. Among the dead were reigning U.S. champion Laurence Owen, 16, her mother, nine-time U.S. champion Maribel Vinson Owen, and her sister, pairs champion Maribel Owen, 20.

In 1965, Canada adopted a new national flag featuring a maple leaf emblem.

In 1982, the oil-drilling rig Ocean Ranger capsized and sank in a storm off Newfoundland. All 84 people aboard were lost.

In 1989, Radio Moscow announced the last Soviet soldier had left Kabul, Afghanistan.

In 1996, a Liberian-registered oil tanker, the Sea Empress, ran aground off the coast of Wales, spilling 72,000 tons of crude oil into the sea.

In 1997, Tara Lipinski, 14, defeated defending women's champion Michelle Kwan to become the youngest U.S. figure skating champion.

In 2002, discovery of a human skull in a wooded area near a crematory in Georgia led investigators to remains of more than 300 bodies that were to have been cremated but instead were stacked in sheds and in the woods.

In 2005, a U.S. appeals court in Washington ruled that journalists have no First Amendment privilege to protect confidential sources.

In 2008, Steve Fossett, the 63-year-old millionaire commodities trader turned record-breaking aviator, was declared legally dead five months after he vanished while flying in Nevada.

In 2012, fire broke out in an overcrowded Honduras prison, killing a reported 359 inmates and a visiting wife, one of the worst prison fire death tolls in history. One of the convicts was suspected of starting the fast-moving conflagration by setting his mattress on fire.

In 2013, Russian officials said a hail of meteorite fragments hit the Chelyabinsk region, injuring more than 1,000 people, most of the victims hit by glass from shattered windows.

In 2014, the pro-opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said more 140,000 people, including 7,600 children, had been killed in Syria's 3-year-old civil war.

A thought for the day: "To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life." -- W. Somerset Maugham