UPI Almanac for Wednesday, March 21, 2018

Today is Wednesday, March 21, the 80th day of 2018 with 285 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Aries. They include composer Johann Sebastian Bach in 1685; Mexican revolutionary and president Benito Juarez in 1806; theatrical impresario Florenz Ziegfeld in 1867; British theatrical director Peter Brook in 1925 (age 93); actor Al Freeman Jr. in 1934; actor Timothy Dalton in 1946 (age 72); musician Eddie Money in 1949 (age 69); actor Gary Oldman in 1958 (age 60); actor Matthew Broderick in 1962 (age 56); actor Rosie O'Donnell in 1962 (age 56); singer Michale Graves, born Michael Emanuel, (The Misfits) in 1975 (age 43); actor Sonequa Martin-Green in 1985 (age 33); actor Scott Eastwood in 1986 (age 32); rapper Diggy Simmons, born Daniel Dwayne Simmons, in 1995 (age 23); actor Forrest Wheeler in 2004 (age 14).

On this date in history:

In 1413, Henry V was crowned king of England.

In 1617, Pocahontas died in England at about age 22. Three years earlier, she converted to Christianity, took the name Rebecca and married Englishman John Rolfe.

In 1790, Thomas Jefferson of Virginia became the first U.S. secretary of state.

In 1857, 100,000 people were killed in an earthquake in Tokyo.

In 1945, 7,000 Allied planes dropped more than 12,000 tons of explosives on Germany during a single World War II daytime bombing raid.

In 1952, Cleveland disc jockey Alan Freed organized the first rock 'n' roll concert -- the Moondog Coronation Ball.

In 1962, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev pledged that Russia would cooperate with the United States in the peaceful exploration of space.

In 1963, the U.S. prison on San Francisco Bay's Alcatraz Island was closed.

In 1965, more than 300 civil rights demonstrators, led by Martin Luther King Jr. and protected by Army and federalized National Guard troops, began a four-day march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala., to demand federal protection of voting rights. This was the main Selma-Montgomery march. Two previous attempts had stopped in Selma -- one blocked by state troopers on March 7 ("Bloody Sunday"); the other halted voluntarily on March 9.

In 1984, a nuclear-powered Soviet submarine collided with the U.S. aircraft carrier, the USS Kitty Hawk, in the Sea of Japan but no significant damage was reported.

In 1985, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev chaired his first regular Politburo meeting since taking power and renewed his call for detente with the West. Meanwhile, President Ronald Reagan stated that it was ''high time'' for a U.S.-Soviet summit and that he was ready to meet with Gorbachev.

In 1989, Dick Clark retired from hosting the TV show American Bandstand after 33 years.

In 1999, Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones landed near Cairo after becoming the first people to circle the globe by balloon.

In 2002, Pope John Paul II, referring to the sexual abuse scandal that had shaken the Roman Catholic clergy, wrote that "a dark shadow of suspicion" had fallen over all priests because of the behavior of those who had succumbed to "the most grievous forms" of evil.

In 2005, a 17-year-old boy at the Red Lake Indian Reservation in Minnesota killed nine people, injured several others and then killed himself.

In 2010, the first eruption of a volcano in southern Iceland since the 1820s forced the evacuation of 450 people, but there were no reports of injuries or major property damage.

In 2011, surgeons at a Boston hospital said they had performed the first full-face transplant in the United States on a Texas man burned in a 2008 electrical accident.

In 2014, Jack Fleck, a former municipal course pro whose U.S. Open playoff win over Ben Hogan in 1955 was considered one of golf's biggest upsets, died at the age of 92 in Fort Smith, Ark.

In 2017, police mistakenly handcuffed singer Wyclef Jean as they searched for an armed robbery suspect in Los Angeles. "LAPD another case of mistaken identity. Black man with red bandana robbed a gas station as I was in the studio working but im in handcuffs?" he said on Twitter.

A thought for the day: "Someday you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again." -- C.S. Lewis