UPI Almanac for Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2019

Today is Wednesday, Oct. 23, the 296th day of 2019 with 69 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Scorpio. They include Adlai E. Stevenson I, U.S. vice president under Grover Cleveland, in 1835; pioneering college football coach John Heisman, for whom the Heisman Trophy is named; in 1869; William Coolidge, inventor of the X-ray tube, in 1873; vaudevillian Milton "Gummo" Marx in 1893; Gertrude Ederle, the first woman to swim the English Channel, in 1905; former Tonight Show host Johnny Carson in 1925; pro golfer Juan "Chi Chi" Rodriguez in 1935 (age 84); Brazilian soccer star Pele, born Edson Arantes do Nascimento, in 1940 (age 79); author Michael Crichton in 1942; filmmaker Ang Lee in 1954 (age 65); singer Dwight Yoakam in 1956 (age 63); civil rights activist Martin Luther King III in 1957 (age 62); singer "Weird Al" Yankovic in 1959 (age 60); television talk show host Nancy Grace in 1959 (age 60); former football star Doug Flutie in 1962 (age 57); medical reporter Sanjay Gupta in 1969 (age 51); actor Kate del Castillo in 1972 (age 47); actor Ryan Reynolds in 1976 (age 43); author/television personality Meghan McCain in 1984 (age 35); actor Emilia Clarke in 1986 (age 33); model Ireland Baldwin in 1995 (age 24); actor Amandla Stenberg in 1998 (age 21).

On this date in history:

In 1707, the British Parliament met for the first time.

In 1915, an estimated 25,000 women marched in New York City demanding the right to vote throughout the United States.

In 1942, the British Eighth Army launched an offensive at El Alamein in Egypt, a World War II battle that eventually swept the Germans out of North Africa.

In 1945, Jackie Robinson, the first black baseball player hired by a major league team, was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers and sent to their Montreal farm team. He moved up to the Dodgers in 1947 and became one of the sport's greatest stars.

In 1946, the United Nations General Assembly convened for the first time, at an auditorium in Flushing, Queens, New York City.

In 1962, President John F. Kennedy signed Proclamation 3504, authorizing the naval blockade of Cuba following the discovery of Soviet missiles on the island.

In 1972, earthquakes killed more than 10,000 people in Nicaragua.

In 1983, suicide bomb attacks on peacekeeping troops in Beirut killed 241 U.S. Marines and 58 French soldiers. Warnings ignored, defenses left vulnerable in attack on Marines in Lebanon.

In 1987, the U.S. Senate rejected U.S. President Ronald Reagan's nomination of Judge Robert Bork to the U.S. Supreme Court by the biggest margin in history, 58-42.

In 1989, Hungary formally declared an end to 40 years of communist rule and proclaimed itself a republic, setting the stage for creation of Western-style democracy in the Eastern Bloc state.

In 1998, Dr. Barnett Slepian, an obstetrician who performed abortions, was killed by a sniper who fired a bullet through a window of Slepian's home in Amherst, N.Y. The shooter, James Kopp, received life plus 10 years in prison in 2007 for the shooting.

In 2005, a Nigerian plane crashed shortly after takeoff from Lagos, killing all 117 people aboard.

In 2006, Panamanians voted overwhelmingly to support a proposal to expand the Panama Canal to allow larger ships to pass through.

In 2008, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan told a U.S. House committee the United States is "in the midst of a once-in-a-century credit tsunami" that left him in a state of "shocked disbelief."

In 2011, southeastern Turkey was struck by a 7.2-magnitude earthquake that killed more than 600 people and injured about 4,100.

In 2018, Chinese President Xi Jinping inaugurated the world's longest sea bridge, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge, which is 34 miles long.

A thought for the day: "The advancement of knowledge must be translated into increasing health and education for the children." -- U.S. President Herbert Hoover