UPI Almanac for Sunday, April 2, 2023

Today is Sunday, April 2, the 92nd day of 2023 with 273 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Aries. They include Charlemagne, founder of the Holy Roman Empire, in 742; Italian adventurer Giacomo Casanova in 1725; Danish storyteller Hans Christian Andersen in 1805; French novelist Emile Zola in 1840; automaker Walter Chrysler in 1875; surrealist artist Max Ernst in 1891; baseball Hall of Fame member Luke Appling in 1907; actor Buddy Ebsen in 1908; actor Alec Guinness in 1914; Australian auto racer Jack Brabham in 1926; singer/songwriter Marvin Gaye in 1939; radio personality Dr. Demento, born Barret Hansen, in 1941 (age 82); singer/songwriter Leon Russell in 1942; actor Linda Hunt in 1945 (age 78); literary/cultural critic Camille Paglia in 1947 (age 76); country singer Emmylou Harris in 1947 (age 76); actor Pamela Reed in 1949 (age 74); Alberto Fernández, president of Argentina, in 1959 (age 64); actor Christopher Meloni in 1961 (age 62); actor Clark Gregg in 1962 (age 61); actor Adam Rodriguez in 1975 (age 48); actor Pedro Pascal in 1975 (age 48); actor Michael Fassbender in 1977 (age 46); actor Bethany Joy Lenz in 1981 (age 42); actor Jesse Plemons in 1988 (age 35); rapper Quavo Marshall in 1991 (age 32); actor Emma Myers in 2002 (age 21).

On this date in history:

In 1513, Ponce De Leon of Spain landed at what is now St. Augustine, Fla., to search for the Fountain of Youth.

In 1792, Congress passed legislation authorizing the U.S. Mint to coin money, all to be inscribed with the Latin words "E Pluribus Unum," a motto meaning "Out of Many, One."

In 1877, President Rutherford B. Hayes and his wife, Lucy Hayes, brought the annual Easter Egg Roll to the White House. Prior to that, it had been held on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol.

In 1917, President Woodrow Wilson asked Congress for a declaration of war against Germany.

In 1932, aviator Charles Lindbergh left $50,000 in a New York City cemetery for the return of his kidnapped son. The child was later found dead. Bruno Hauptmann subsequently was convicted of kidnapping and murder, and was executed.

In 1975, South Vietnamese military and civilians began evacuating Quang Ngai province from the city of Qui Nhon as the North Vietnamese began its march toward Saigon. The North captured the capital city later in the month.

In 1982, Argentine troops stormed the Falkland Islands in South America, overwhelming the small British marine unit stationed there.

In 1992, a New York jury convicted mob boss John Gotti in five killings, racketeering and other charges. Gotti died in prison in 2002.

In 2005, Pope John Paul II, head of the Roman Catholic Church for more than a quarter century, died at his Vatican apartment. The 84-year-old pontiff had urinary and bacterial infections that led to organ failure.

In 2007 the University of Florida repeated as NCAA Division I basketball champion, becoming the first school to win both the national collegiate major basketball and football titles the same calendar year.

In 2012, One Goh, a 38-year-old former nursing student in Oakland, Calif., opened fire on the Oikos University campus, killing seven people and injuring three others, authorities said. He was captured a short time later.

In 2014, a soldier shot and killed three service members, injured 16 others, then killed himself at Fort Hood, Texas, 4 1/2 years after 13 people died in a shooting spree at the same base.

In 2015, al-Shabab militants conducted an "operation against the infidels," killing 148 people at Garissa University College in Kenya.

In 2021, authorities put the U.S. Capitol complex on lockdown after a car rammed into a barricade, leaving a police officer and the suspect dead.

A thought for the day: "The Earth will not continue to offer its harvest, except with faithful stewardship. We cannot say we love the land and then take steps to destroy it for use by future generations." -- Pope John Paul II