UPI Almanac for Wednesday, May 22, 2019

Today is Wednesday, May 22, the 142nd day of 2019 with 223 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Gemini. They include German composer Richard Wagner in 1813; artist Mary Cassatt in 1844; Scottish writer Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, in 1859; baseball Hall of Fame member Al Simmons in 1902; actor Laurence Olivier in 1907; pioneering jazz musician Sun Ra, born Herman Blount, in 1914; critic Judith Crist in 1922; French singer Charles Aznavour in 1924; entrepreneur T. Boone Pickens Jr. in 1928 (age 91); activist/San Francisco Mayor Harvey Milk in 1930; pianist/composer Peter Nero in 1934 (age 85); actor Richard Benjamin in 1938 (age 81); actor Paul Winfield in 1939; journalist Bernard Shaw in 1940 (age 79); Theodore Kaczynski, the so-called "Unabomber," in 1942 (age 77); Northern Irish political activist/Nobel Peace Prize laureate Betty Williams in 1943 (age 76); British songwriter Bernie Taupin in 1950 (age 69); singer Morrissey, born Steven Patrick Morrissey, in 1959 (age 60); singer Johnny Gill in 1966 (age 53); model/actor Naomi Campbell in 1970 (age 49); actor Ginnifer Goodwin in 1978 (age 41); actor Maggie Q, born Margaret Denise Quigley, in 1979 (age 40); Olympic champion speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno in 1982 (age 37); tennis player Novak Djokovic in 1987 (age 32); Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz in 1984 (age 35); actor Peyton Elizabeth Lee in 2004 (age 15).

On this date in history:

In 1868, seven members of the Reno gang stole $98,000 from a railway car at Marshfield, Ind. It was the original "Great Train Robbery."

In 1972, Richard Nixon became the first U.S president to visit Moscow.

In 1987, a tornado flattened Saragosa, Texas, population 185, killing 29 residents and injuring 121.

In 1990, after 150 apart, South Yemen and North Yemen united, forming the new Yemeni Arab Republic.

In 1992, Johnny Carson ended his nearly 30-year career as host of The Tonight Show.

In 2002, authorities in Birmingham, Ala., convicted a fourth suspect in a 1963 church bombing that killed four black girls. Bobby Frank Cherry, 71, a former Ku Klux Klansman, was sentenced to life in prison.

In 2003, Annika Sorenstam became the first woman in 59 years to compete in a PGA event but her 5-over-par 145 through two rounds of the Bank of America Colonial tournament failed to make the cut.

In 2011, the deadliest tornado to strike the United States in half a century roared into the heart of Joplin, Mo., with winds of 200 mph. It killed nearly 160 people, injured about 1,100 others and destroyed nearly one-third of the city. Damage was estimated in the $3 billion range.

In 2014, Thailand's military announced it had taken control of the country and suspended the Constitution. The coup followed months of political turmoil.

In 2015, voters in Ireland overwhelmingly approved a measure to allow civil same-sex marriage, making it the first nation in the world to legalize gay unions through a popular vote.

In 2017, a suicide bomber killed 22 people attending an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England. More than 500 people sustained injuries.

In 2018, Philip Wilson, the archbishop of Adelaide, Australia, was found guilty of concealing abuse by another priest. A judge overturned the conviction in December.

A thought for the day: "There are those who look at things the way they are and ask why ... I dream of things that never were and ask why not?" -- Robert F. Kennedy