UPI Almanac for Thursday, Oct. 25, 2018

Today is Thursday, Oct. 25, the 298th day of 2018 with 67 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Scorpio. They include Austrian composer Johann Strauss in 1825; French composer Georges Bizet in 1838; automobile entrepreneur John Francis Dodge in 1864; Spanish artist Pablo Picasso in 1881; artist Tyrus Wong in 1910; country comedian Minnie Pearl in 1912; actor Marion Ross in 1928 (age 90); basketball Hall of Fame member Bob Knight in 1940 (age 78); author Anne Tyler in 1941 (age 77); pop singer Helen Reddy in 1941 (age 77); rock singer Jon Anderson in 1944 (age 74); political strategist James Carville in 1944 (age 74); basketball Hall of Fame member Dave Cowens in 1948 (age 70); Olympic gold medal wrestler Dan Gable in 1948 (age 70); Olympic gold medal U.S. hockey team member Mike Eruzione in 1954 (age 64); voice actor Nancy Cartwright in 1957 (age 61); actor Tracy Nelson in 1963 (age 55); Rock and Roll Hall of fame member Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers) in 1961 (age 57); comedian Samantha Bee in 1969 (age 49); actor Adam Goldberg in 1970 (age 48); actor Craig Robinson in 1971 (age 47); violinist Midori Goto in 1971 (age 47); singer Katy Perry in 1984 (age 34); singer Ciara in 1985 (age 33).

On this date in history:

In 1854, known to history as the Charge of the Light Brigade, 670 British cavalrymen fighting in the Crimean War attacked a heavily fortified Russian position and were killed.

In 1929, during the Teapot Dome scandal, Albert B. Fall, who served as U.S. President Warren Harding's interior secretary, was found guilty of accepting a bribe while in office. He was the first presidential Cabinet member convicted of a crime.

In 1944, the Japanese military employed its first unit of Kamikaze pilots during the Battle of Leyte Gulf off the coast of the Philippines.

In 1971, the United Nations admitted China as a member, ousting the Nationalist Chinese government of Taiwan.

In 1983, U.S. troops, supported by six Caribbean nations, invaded the tiny, leftist-ruled island of Grenada, rescuing 1,000 American students and restoring order to the country. The death toll in about two months of fighting exceeded 100.

In 1993, Canadian voters rejected the Progressive Conservative Party of Prime Minister Kim Campbell and gave the Liberal Party, led by Jean Chretien of Quebec, a firm majority in Parliament.

In 1994, Susan Smith falsely reported her two young sons were missing after a carjacking. After several days of intense public and media scrutiny, the South Carolina woman admitted she drove her car with her children inside it into a lake, killing them. She was sentenced to life in prison for the murders.

In 2002, Democratic U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone of Minnesota and seven others were killed in the crash of a small plane about 180 miles northeast of Minneapolis.

In 2009, the World Health Organization reported a global death toll from the H1N1 virus, known as swine flu, at 5,700. About 440,000 people were confirmed as having the disease.

In 2010, more than 400 coastal residents in western Sumatra were killed and thousands left homeless by a tsunami triggered by a 7.7-magnitude earthquake. About 750 miles away in central Java, the Mount Merapi volcano began a series of three eruptions that left a reported death toll of more than 300 with about 6,000 homeless.

In 2013, the Obama administration said it had hired a new contractor to fix the healthcare.gov website, which had been plagued by problems since it opened on Oct 1.

A thought for the day: "The Earth will not continue to offer its harvest, except with faithful stewardship. We cannot say we love the land and then take steps to destroy it for use by future generations." -- Pope John Paul II