UPI Almanac for Saturday, July 18, 2020

Today is Saturday, July 18, the 200th day of 2020 with 166 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Cancer. They include English novelist William Makepeace Thackeray in 1811; Titanic survivor Margaret Brown "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" in 1867; playwright Clifford Odets in 1906; comedian Red Skelton in 1913; South African leader/Nobel Peace Price laureate Nelson Mandela in 1918; astronaut/Sen. John Glenn, D-Ohio, in 1921; gold medal ice skater Dick Button in 1929 (age 91); journalist/author Hunter S. Thompson in 1937; pop singer Dion DiMucci in 1939 (age 81); actor James Brolin in 1940 (age 80); former baseball manager Joe Torre in 1940 (age 80); singer Martha Reeves in 1941 (age 79); publisher Steve Forbes in 1947 (age 73); businessman Richard Branson in 1950 (age 70); country singer Ricky Skaggs in 1954 (age 66); actor Elizabeth McGovern in 1961 (age 59); talk show host Wendy Williams in 1964 (age 56); actor Vin Diesel in 1967 (age 53); rapper MIA, born Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam, in 1975 (age 45); actor Kristen Bell in 1980 (age 40); actor Michiel Huisman in 1981 (age 39); actor Priyanka Chopra in 1982 (age 38); actor Chace Crawford in 1985 (age 35); actor Fionn Whitehead in 1997 (age 23).

On this date in history:

In 1925, Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf was published. The book hit bookstores in Germany for the first time in 70 years in 2016 and became a best-seller. The new version included 3,500 annotations and 2,000 pages versus the original's 800.

In 1938, Douglas Corrigan took off from Floyd Bennett Field in New York for a return flight to California but lost his bearings in the clouds, he said, and flew instead to Ireland. He became an instant celebrity called "Wrong Way" Corrigan.

In 1939, after a sneak preview of The Wizard of Oz, producers debated about removing "Over the Rainbow" because it seemed to slow things down. The song later contributed to the evolution of the rainbow flag as a gay icon.

In 1947, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed Florence Blanchfield lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, becoming the first woman to hold a permanent military rank.

In 1969, a car driven by Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., plunged from a bridge into a tidal pond at Chappaquiddick Island in Massachusetts, killing his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne.

In 1976, Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci became the first person in Olympic Games history to be awarded the score of a perfect 10 in gymnastics.

In 1977, Vietnam was admitted to the United Nations.

In 1984, a gunman opened fire at a McDonald's restaurant in San Ysidro, Calif., killing 21 people.

In 1989, My Sister Sam actor Rebecca Schaeffer was shot to death in her Los Angeles apartment. Her death led to the passage of an anti-stalking law in California.

In 1994, a car bombing in Buenos Aires killed about 100 people in or near a building that housed Jewish organizations.

In 2007, Michael Vick, quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons of the National Football League, was indicted on federal charges related to an illegal dogfighting operation. He was subsequently sentenced to 23 months in prison.

In 2012, victims of a suicide bomb at Syria's National Security Bureau included Defense Minister Daoud Rajiha, Deputy Defense Minister Assef Shawkat (President Bashar al-Assad's brother-in-law), former Defense Minister Hassan Turkomani and NSB chief Hisham Ikhtiar.

In 2013, Detroit became the largest U.S. city to file for bankruptcy.

In 2019, an arson attack on Kyoto Animation studio in Japan killed 33 people.

A thought for the day: "The most important thing we can do is inspire young minds and to advance the kind of science, math and technology education that will help youngsters take us to the next phase of space travel." -- American astronaut John Glenn