UPI Almanac for Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2019

Today is Tuesday, Aug. 25, the 238th day of 2020 with 128 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Virgo. They include Czar Ivan IV, "Ivan the Terrible," of Russia, in 1530; composer/conductor Leonard Bernstein in 1918; former Alabama Gov. George Wallace in 1919; game show host Monty Hall in 1921; tennis champion Althea Gibson in 1927; actor Sean Connery in 1930 (age 90); TV personality Regis Philbin in 1931; actor Tom Skerritt in 1933 (age 87); writer Frederick Forsyth in 1938 (age 82); baseball Hall of Fame member Rollie Fingers in 1946 (age 74); writer Martin Amis in 1949 (age 71); actor John Savage in 1949 (age 71); rock singer Gene Simmons in 1949 (age 71); singer/songwriter Elvis Costello in 1954 (age 66); film director Tim Burton in 1958 (age 62); country singer Billy Ray Cyrus in 1961 (age 59); actor Ally Walker in 1961 (age 59); actor Blair Underwood in 1964 (age 56); actor Tom Hollander in 1967 (age 53); television cook Rachael Ray in 1968 (age 52); supermodel Claudia Schiffer in 1970 (age 50); actor Alexander Skarsgard in 1976 (age 44); actor Kel Mitchell in 1978 (age 42); actor Rachel Bilson in 1981 (age 39); actor Blake Lively in 1987 (age 33); actor China Anne McClain in 1998 (age 22).

On this date in history:

In 1609, Galileo Galilei exhibited his first telescope in Venice.

In 1718, the city of New Orleans was founded.

In 1875, Matthew Webb, a 27-year-old British merchant navy captain, became the first person known to successfully swim the English Channel.

In 1944, allied forces and the French resistance freed the city of Paris from German occupation during World War II.

In 1967, a sniper assassinated American Nazi leader George Lincoln Rockwell in Arlington, Va.

In 1984, In Cold Blood and Breakfast at Tiffany's author Truman Capote died at age 59.

In 1985, Samantha Smith, 13, was killed with her father and six other people in a plane crash in Maine. Samantha's 1983 letter to Soviet President Yuri Andropov about her fear of nuclear war earned her a visit to the Soviet Union.

In 1989, Voyager 2, after a 4 billion-mile journey, made its closest pass over Neptune, sending back images of southern lights and its moon, Triton, to Earth.

In 2006, Pulkova Airlines Flight 612 crashed near the Russian border in Ukraine, killing 171 people.

In 2009, U.S. Sen. Edward "Ted" Kennedy, D-Mass., a liberal fixture in the Senate for 46 years, died of brain cancer at the age of 77.

In 2012, former astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, died in Cincinnati. He was 82.

In 2017, Hurricane Harvey made landfall on San Jose Island, Texas, as a Category 4 storm. Harvey killed more than 100 people and caused $125 billion in damage.

In 2019, Rory McIlroy won the FedEx Cup at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, taking home the largest payout in golf history -- $15 million.

A thought for the day: "Being a champ is all well and good, but you can't eat a crown." -- American tennis star Althea Gibson