UPI Almanac for Saturday, Dec. 7, 2019

Today is Saturday, Dec. 7, the 341st day of 2019 with 24 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Sagittarius. They include Italian sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini in 1598; Theodor Schwann, German physiologist/co-originator of cell theory, in 1810; novelist Willa Cather in 1873; department store chain founder Richard Sears in 1863; linguist Noam Chomsky in 1928 (age 91); actor Ellen Burstyn in 1932 (age 87); rock/folksinger Harry Chapin in 1942; baseball Hall of Fame member Johnny Bench in 1947 (age 72); singer/songwriter Tom Waits in 1949 (age 70); basketball Hall of Fame member Larry Bird in 1956 (age 63); actor C Thomas Howell in 1966 (age 53); former NFL player Terrell Owens in 1973 (age 46); singer/TV host Nicole Appleton in 1974 (age 45); singer Sara Bareilles in 1979 (age 40); actor Jennifer Carpenter in 1979 (age 40); pop singer Aaron Carter in 1987 (age 32); actor Emily Browning in 1988 (age 31); actor Nicholas Hoult in 1989 (age 30).

On this date in history:

In 1787, Delaware became the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

In 1909, Leo Baekeland patented the process for making Bakelite, giving birth to the modern plastics industry.

In 1941, Japan launched a sneak attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, catapulting the United States into World War II. The attack killed 2,403 people, wounded hundreds, destroyed 188 planes and crippled the U.S. Pacific Fleet. The following day, President Franklin D. Roosevelt called Dec. 7 "a date which will live in infamy."

In 1972, Apollo 17 was launched on the last scheduled manned mission to the moon. Astronauts Eugene Cernan and Jack Schmitt left a commemorative plaque on the lunar surface as they left.

In 1975, Indonesia invaded East Timor after the latter declared itself a democratic republic in the wake of Portugal's departure from the island. More than 100,000 East Timorese died in the conflict, most of whom were civilians placed in internment camps or killed by the Indonesian military.

In 1982, the first execution by lethal injection took place at the state penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas.

In 1987, Mikhail Gorbachev became the first Soviet leader to officially visit the United States since 1973.

In 1988, an estimated 25,000 people died in a powerful earthquake in Armenia.

In 1992, the destruction of a 16th-century mosque by militant Hindus touched off five days of violence across India that left more than 1,100 people dead.

In 1993, U.S. Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary revealed the United States had conducted 204 underground nuclear tests from 1963 to 1990 without informing the public.

In 1993, Colin Ferguson opened fire on a New York commuter train, killing six people and injuring 19 others. The shooter, who was from Jamaica, blamed his hatred of white people.

In 2004, Hamid Karzai was sworn in as Afghanistan's first popularly elected president.

In 2016, a Pakistan International Airlines aircraft crashed near Islamabad, killing 48 people. Among the dead was pop-star-turned-Muslim-cleric Junaid Jamshed.

In 2016, a 6.5-magnitude earthquake rattled Indonesia's Aceh province, killing nearly 100 people.

In 2018, comedian Kevin Hart withdrew from hosting the 2019 Academy Awards after coming under fire for past homophobic tweets.

A thought for the day: President George H.W. Bush said, "In the wake of the Cold War, in a world where we are the only remaining superpower, it is the role of the United States to marshal its moral and material resources to promote a democratic peace. It is our responsibility, it is our opportunity to lead. There is no one else."