UPI Almanac for Monday, April 30, 2018

Today is Monday, April 30, the 120th day of 2017 with 245 days to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Taurus. They include Hungarian composer Franz Lehar, who wrote the operetta "The Merry Widow," in 1870; actor Eve Arden in 1908; Dutch Queen Juliana in 1909; actor Cloris Leachman in 1926 (age 92); actor Gary Collins in 1938; actor Burt Young in 1940 (age 78); singer Bobby Vee in 1943; actor Jill Clayburgh in 1944; Sweden's King Carl Gustaf XVI in 1946 (age 72); U.S. Olympic champion swimmer Don Schollander in 1946 (age 72); actor Perry King in 1948 (age 70); film director Jane Campion (The Piano) in 1954 (age 64); Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in 1959 (age 59); basketball Hall of Fame member Isiah Thomas in 1961 (age 57); actor Johnny Galecki in 1975 (age 43); actor Sam Heughan in 1980 (age 38); actor Kunal Nayyar in 1981 (age 37); actor Kirsten Dunst in 1982 (age 36); actor Gal Gadot in 1985 (age 33); actor Dianna Agron in 1986 (age 32); rapper Travis Scott, born Jacques Webster, in 1992 (age 26).

On this date in history:

In 1789, George Washington was inaugurated as the first president of the United States.

In 1803, the United States more than doubled its land area with the Louisiana Purchase. It obtained all French territory west of the Mississippi River for $15 million.

In 1812, Louisiana entered the union as the 18th U.S. state.

In 1927, Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford became the first movie personalities to leave their footprints in concrete at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood.

In 1939, Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first U.S. president to appear on television when he was shown on opening day at the New York World's Fair.

In 1945, the burned body of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler was found in a bunker in the ruins of Berlin.

In 1948, 21 countries of the Western Hemisphere formed the Organization of American States.

In 1967, Muhammad Ali was stripped of his world heavyweight boxing championship title after he refused to be drafted into the U.S. military.

In 1975, South Vietnam unconditionally surrendered to North Vietnam. The communists occupied Saigon and renamed it Ho Chi Minh City.

In 1993, tennis star Monica Seles was stabbed and injured by a self-described fan of Steffi Graf during a break between games in a match against another player in Hamburg, Germany. Seles, who won nine grand-slam singles titles in her career, was out of competitive tennis for more than two years after the attack.

In 1997, Ellen DeGeneres' character came out as gay on the popular sitcom Ellen, making it the first sitcom to feature a gay leading character. The local ABC affiliate in Birmingham, Ala., refused to air the episode so gay rights advocates arranged for a satellite downlink to beam the show.

In 2005, the bodies of 113 people, nearly all women and children, were found in a mass grave in southern Iraq.

In 2006, rebel factions in Sudan rejected a peace agreement in the Darfur conflict. Officials estimated the fighting had killed at least 180,000 people and driven more than 2 million from their homes.

In 2009, Chrysler filed for bankruptcy protection in a key move of a restructuring plan backed by the Obama administration.

In 2011, a NATO airstrike in Tripoli killed Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's youngest son and three of his grandchildren but Gadhafi and his wife escaped injury.

In 2012, Israel began construction of a wall that would be 23 feet high and less than a mile long on its border with Lebanon. Security officials said the concrete wall would protect residents in the Matulla area from sniper fire from nearby Lebanese villages.

In 2013, Queen Beatrix, the 75-year-old monarch of the Netherlands, signed a formal declaration abdicating in favor of her eldest son, Willem-Alexander, 46, who became the country's first king in 123 years.

A thought for the day: "You're never too old, too wacky, too wild, to pick up a book and read to a child." -- Dr. Seuss