UPI Almanac for Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2018

Today is Tuesday, Sept. 18, the 261st day of 2018 with 104 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Virgo. They include English poet/lexicographer Samuel Johnson, writer of the first English dictionary, in 1709; Pope Gregory XVI in 1765; U.S. Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story in 1779; French physicist Leon Foucault, inventor of the gyroscope, in 1819; actor Greta Garbo in 1905; actor Robert Blake in 1933 (age 86); film producer Bud Greenspan in 1926; comedian Fred Willard in 1939 (age 80); singer/actor Frankie Avalon in 1940 (age 79); musician Dee Dee Ramone in 1951; U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson in 1951 (age 68); basketball Hall of Fame member Rick Pitino in 1952 (age 67); Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges in 1956 (age 63); baseball Hall of Fame member Ryne Sandberg in 1959 (age 60); actor James Gandolfini in 1961; actor Holly Robinson Peete in 1964 (age 55); actor Aisha Tyler in 1970 (age 49); actor Jada Pinkett Smith in 1971 (age 48); cyclist Lance Armstrong in 1971 (age 48); actor James Marsden in 1973 (age 46); rapper Xzibit, born Alvin Nathaniel Joiner, in 1974 (age 45); actor Jason Sudeikis in 1975 (age 44); model Patrick Schwarzenegger in 1993 (age 26); country singer Taylor Dye in 1995 (age 24).

On this date in history:

In 1850, the U.S. Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act, allowing slave owners to reclaim slaves who escaped into another state.

In 1927, the Columbia Broadcasting System was born. Originally known as the Tiffany Network, its first program was an opera, The King's Henchman.

In 1928, a hurricane that lashed Florida and Caribbean islands for several days left an estimated 4,000 people dead and $30 million in damage.

In 1961, U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold died when his plane crashed under mysterious circumstances near Ndola in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia).

In 1970, rock star Jimi Hendrix died at the age of 27 following a drug overdose in London.

In 1975, FBI agents in San Francisco captured former hostage Patricia Hearst along with two members of a group called the Symbionese Liberation Army. Hearst was convicted in an SLA bank robbery and served 22 months in prison before her sentence was commuted. She later was granted a full pardon by U.S. President Bill Clinton.

In 1976, Chinese leader Mao Zedong's public funeral took place in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. He was permanently interred in a mausoleum.

In 1983, British adventurer George Meegan finished a 19,021-mile, six-year walk from the tip of South America to the Arctic Ocean at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska.

In 1996, the shuttle Atlantis docked with the Mir space station to pick up U.S. astronaut Shannon Lucid, who had set a U.S. record for time spent in space.

In 2003, Hurricane Isabel slammed into the North Carolina coast, causing nearly 40 deaths and inflicting property damage estimated at $4 billion.

In 2005, Afghanistan had its first free election in 25 years, drawing millions of voters despite Taliban threats.

In 2009, the final episode of The Guiding Light was broadcast. The soap opera had run on radio and television for 72 years.

In 2010, violence and threats of violence during Afghanistan's parliamentary elections kept 60 percent of eligible voters from polls and left at least 14 people dead. A total of 2,514 candidates vied for seats in the 249-member Parliament.

In 2014, Scotland chose to remain in the United Kingdom, rejecting independence in a historic national referendum that had a voter turnout of 84 percent. More than 55 percent of voters were against leaving the U.K.

In 2018, China hit the United States with $60 billion in tariffs in retaliation for $200 billion in tariffs the United States levied the day before.

A thought for the day: "Farewell to the Highlands, farewell to the North, the birthplace of valor, the country of worth! Wherever I wander, wherever I rove, The hills of the Highlands for ever I love." -- Scottish poet Robert Burns