UPI Almanac for Wednesday, March 14, 2018

Today is Wednesday, March 14, the 73rd day of 2018 with 292 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Pisces. They include Austrian composer Johann Strauss Sr. in 1804; Thomas Marshall, U.S. vice president under Woodrow Wilson, in 1854; Jonathan Luther Jones, railroad engineer who was the hero of the ballad "Casey Jones," in 1863; physicist Albert Einstein in 1879; cartoonist Hank Ketcham ("Dennis the Menace") in 1920; astronaut Frank Borman in 1928 (age 90); actor Michael Caine in 1933 (age 85); composer Quincy Jones in 1933 (age 85); astronaut (last man on the moon) Eugene Cernan in 1934; golf Hall of Fame member Bob Charles in 1936 (age 82); singer Michael Martin Murphey in 1945 (age 73); basketball Hall of Fame member Wes Unseld in 1946 (age 72); comedian Billy Crystal in 1948 (age 70); Prince Albert II of Monaco in 1958 (age 60); baseball Hall of Fame member Kirby Puckett in 1960; actor Grace Park in 1974 (age 44); actor Daniel Gillies in 1976 (age 42); actor Jamie Bell in 1986 (age 32); NBA star Stephen Curry in 1988 (age 30); actor Ansel Elgort in 1994 (age 24); U.S. Olympic gold gymnast Simone Biles in 1997 (age 21).

On this date in history:

In 1794, Eli Whitney was granted a patent for the cotton gin.

In 1812, the U.S. government authorized the issue of America's first war bonds -- to pay for military equipment for use against the British.

In 1950, the FBI's "10 Most Wanted Fugitives" list appeared for the first time.

In 1951, Seoul was recaptured by U.N. troops during the Korean War.

In 1964, Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby was convicted of killing Lee Harvey Oswald, the assumed assassin of U.S. President John F. Kennedy. Ruby was sentenced to death but the conviction was overturned and he died of cancer while awaiting a new trial.

In 1973, Navy pilot John McCain -- the future U.S. senator from Arizona -- and 107 other American prisoners of war were released by North Vietnam. He spent more than five years in a prison camp after his plane was shot down.

In 1991, scientists reported the discovery of the gene that triggers colon cancer.

In 1991, citing fresh evidence, a British appeals court overturned the convictions of the so-called Birmingham Six, who were sentenced to life in prison for the bombings of two pubs in 1974, the bloodiest assault by the Irish Republican Army on the British mainland. The false conviction of the six men, who were released, is seen one of the worst miscarriages of justice in modern British history.

In 2004, Vladimir Putin easily won re-election as president of Russia. He won a third term in 2012.

In 2009, Australian authorities said a 230-ton oil spill from a Hong Kong-registered freighter caused an environmental disaster along nearly 40 miles of beach off the Queensland coast.

In 2010, Katie Spotz, 22, of Mentor, Ohio, became the youngest person and first American to complete a solo boat journey across the Atlantic Ocean, a 2,817-mile, 2 1/2-month voyage in a 19-foot wooden rowboat.

In 2012, the International Criminal Court at The Hague, Netherlands, in its first verdict as a permanent war crimes tribunal, found Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga guilty of using children in war.

In 2013, Xi Jinping began his 10-year term as president of China.

In 2017, Muirfield Golf Club in East Lothian, Scotland, the oldest golf club in the world, voted to allow women to join for the first time.

A thought for the day: Minnesota Twins star Kirby Puckett (who died in 2006 at age 45) said at his National Baseball Hall of Fame induction in 2001, "Don't take life for granted because tomorrow isn't promised to any one of us."