UPI Almanac for Sunday, April 28, 2019

Today is Sunday, April 28, the 118th day of 2019 with 247 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Taurus. They include British King Edward IV in 1442; James Monroe, fifth president of the United States, in 1758; British engineer/mathematician/physicist/inventor Hertha Marks Ayrton in 1854; actor Lionel Barrymore in 1878; German industrialist Oskar Schindler, credited with saving almost 1,200 Jews during the World War II Holocaust, in 1908; automaker Ferruccio Lamborghini in 1916; novelist Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird) in 1926; former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker in 1930 (age 89); actor Carolyn Jones in 1930; Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in 1937; actor Madge Sinclair in 1940; actor Ann-Margret in 1941 (age 78); actor Marcia Strassman in 1948; author Terry Pratchett in 1948; actor Bruno Kirby in 1949; former Tonight Show host Jay Leno in 1950 (age 69); U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan in 1960 (age 59); Hall of Fame baseball player Barry Larkin in 1964 (age 55); golfer John Daly in 1966 (age 53); rapper Too Short, born Todd Anthony Shaw, in 1966 (age 53); actor Bridget Moynahan in 1971 (age 48); actor Jorge Garcia in 1973 (age 46); actor Penelope Cruz in 1974 (age 45); TV personality Drew Scott in 1978 (age 41); TV personality Jonathan Scott in 1978 (age 41); actor Jessica Alba in 1981 (age 38); actor Harry Shum Jr. in 1982 (age 37); actor Jenna Ushkowitz in 1986 (age 33).

On this date in history:

In 1788, Maryland ratified the U.S. Constitution, becoming the seventh state of the Union.

In 1789, the most famous of all naval mutinies took place aboard the HMS Bounty en route from Tahiti to Jamaica.

In 1915, the International Congress of Women, convening in The Hague, selected Miss Jane Addams of Chicago as its permanent chairman.

In 1930, the first night game in organized baseball history was played in Independence, Kan.

In 1945, fascist leader Benito Mussolini, his mistress and several of his friends were executed by Italian partisans.

In 1947, Thor Heyerdahl and five crew members began a trip from Peru to Polynesia on the Kon-Tiki, a raft raft made of balsa logs and other natural materials. The voyage covered 4,300 miles over 101 days.

In 1955, the Public Health Service urged parents to move swiftly in having their children vaccinated for polio.

In 1975, North Vietnamese forces advanced to the outskirts of Saigon in the Vietnam War. Two days later, South Vietnam surrendered.

In 1988, an Aloha Airlines Boeing 737 lost an 18-foot section of its roof at 24,000 feet between Hilo, Hawaii, and Honolulu, killing a flight attendant. The pilot landed on Maui with the remaining 94 passengers and crew members, 61 of them injured.

In 1994, former CIA officer Aldrich Ames pleaded guilty to spying for the Soviet Union. He was sentenced to life in prison.

In 1995, an underground gas explosion at a subway construction site killed about 100 people in Taegu, South Korea.

In 1996, a rampage by a gunman in Port Arthur, Tasmania, Australia, killed 35 people.

In 2001, California businessman Dennis Tito became the first tourist in space. He reportedly paid Russia's space agency $20 million to give him a ride to the International Space Station.

In 2005, a Shiite-led Cabinet was approved by Iraq's National Assembly for its first freely elected government.

In 2009, U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, winding up his fifth term as a Republican stalwart, announced he would seek re-election in 2010 as a Democrat, switching parties because he found himself "increasingly at odds" with the Republican Party.

In 2009, three Albanian immigrant brothers were sentenced to life in prison for their part in a plot to attack soldiers at Fort Dix.

In 2013, renowned concert cellist Janos Starker, who gave his first public performance at age 6 as a child prodigy in Hungary, died in Bloomington, Ind. He was 88.

A thought for the day: H. Jackson Brown Jr. said, "Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking."