UPI Almanac for Monday, May 21, 2018

Today is Monday, May 21, the 141st day of 2018 with 224 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Gemini. They include German painter Albrecht Durer in 1471; King Philip II of Spain, who launched the Spanish Armada, in 1527; English poet and satirist Alexander Pope in 1688; French painter Henri Rousseau in 1844; French diplomat/Nobel Peace Prize laureate Leon Bourgeois in 1851; architect Marcel Breuer in 1902; composer and barrelhouse piano player Thomas "Fats" Waller in 1904; singer Dennis Day in 1916; actor Raymond Burr in 1917; Hall of Fame football Coach Ara Parseghian in 1923; actor Peggy Cass in 1924; former baseball manager Bobby Cox in 1941 (age 77); singer Ronald Isley in 1941 (age 77); former U.S. Sen./comedian Al Franken, D-Minn., in 1951 (age 67); convicted serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer in 1960; actor Mr. T, born Lawrence Tureaud, in 1952 (age 66); actor Lisa Edelstein in 1966 (age 52); rapper The Notorious B.I.G. in 1972; singer Gotye, born Wouter "Wally" De Backer, in 1980 (age 38); British Olympic diver Tom Daley in 1994 (age 24).

On this date in history:

In 1832, the first Democratic Party national convention convened in Baltimore.

In 1856, Lawrence, Kan., was burned by pro-slavery forces.

In 1881, Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross.

In 1927, Charles Lindbergh landed the Spirit of St. Louis in Paris, completing the first non-stop solo flight across the Atlantic in 33 1/2 hours.

In 1932, five years to the day after Charles Lindbergh ended his historic flight, Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic from Newfoundland, Canada, to Ireland. She completed her flight in 13 1/2 hours.

In 1941, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt proclaimed "an unlimited state of national emergency" -- seven months before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

In 1988, Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev, in an effort to consolidate power, sacked the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan after bloody nationalist demonstrations over the disputed region of Nagorno Karabakh.

In 1991, former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated while campaigning.

In 1998, two students were killed and 25 wounded by a classmate who opened fire in a high school cafeteria in Springfield, Ore. The 15-year-old shooter, Kipland "Kip" Kinkel, had also killed his parents. He was sentenced to 111 years in prison.

In 2003, an earthquake near Algiers, Algeria, killed more than 2,200 people and injured another 10,000.

In 2006, the FBI accused U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., of taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes and said agents found $90,000 of the money in a freezer at his home. Jefferson was eventually sentenced to 13 years in federal prison.

In 2012, a New Jersey judge sentenced Dharun Ravi to 30 days in jail, 300 hours of community service, three years' probation and ordered him to contribute $10,000 to an organization that helps victims of bias crimes. Ravi had been convicted of invasion of privacy and other charges for using a webcam to spy on his gay college roommate, Tyler Clementi, who later killed himself by jumping off a bridge.

A thought for the day: Women "get more glory than men for comparable feats. But also, women get more notoriety when they crash." -- Amelia Earhart