UPI Almanac for Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2023

Today is Wednesday, Sept. 27, the 270th day of 2023 with 95 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Libra. They include statesman Samuel Adams in 1722; political cartoonist Thomas Nast in 1840; magician Harry Blackstone Sr. in 1885; actor Jayne Meadows in 1919; filmmaker Arthur Penn in 1922; actor William Conrad in 1920; actor Wilford Brimley in 1934; golf Hall of Fame member Kathy Whitworth in 1939; rock musician Randy Bachman in 1943 (age 80); actor Liz Torres in 1947 (age 76); singer Meat Loaf, born Michael Lee Aday, in 1947; baseball Hall of Fame member Mike Schmidt in 1949 (age 74); actor/singer Shaun Cassidy in 1958 (age 65); gold medal-winning speed skater Beth Heiden in 1959 (age 64); actor Gwyneth Paltrow in 1972 (age 51); rapper Lil Wayne, born Dwayne Michael Carter Jr., in 1982 (age 41); actor Anna Camp in 1982 (age 41); singer Avril Lavigne in 1984 (age 39); model/actor Arielle Vandenberg in 1986 (age 37); actor Thomas Mann in 1991 (age 32); actor Jenna Ortega in 2002 (age 21).

On this date in history:

In 1540, the Society of Jesus, known as the Jesuits, was chartered by the Roman Catholic Church.

In 1825, in England, George Stephenson operated the first locomotive to pull a passenger train.

In 1930, golfer Bobby Jones won the U.S. Amateur Championship, capturing the era's Grand Slam. Earlier in the year, he won the British Amateur, British Open and U.S. Open.

In 1938, Queen Elizabeth christened the world's largest ocean liner with her own name during a ceremony in Scotland. The Queen Elizabeth was the sister ship of the Queen Mary, which was christened four years earlier.

In 1939, after 19 days of heavy air raids and artillery bombardment, Polish defenders of Warsaw surrendered to German forces.

In 1954, The Tonight Show made its television debut with host Steve Allen.

In 1964, the Warren Commission report on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy was released after a 10-month investigation, concluding that there was no conspiracy and that Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin, acted alone.

In 1998, Gerhard Schroeder led Germany's Social Democratic Party to victory in parliamentary elections, bringing to an end 16 years of power by Chancellor Helmut Kohl and his Christian Democratic Party.

In 2008, Zhai Zhigang left the Shenzhou VII spacecraft and became the first Chinese astronaut to take a space walk.

In 2010, Jimi Heselden, 62, manufacturer of the upright Segway scooter, was killed when he apparently lost control of one of the two-wheeled, self-balancing machines and ran over a cliff into a river.

In 2014, Mount Ontake, Japan's second highest volcano, erupted in a cloud of ash, killing 63 people, many of them hikers.

In 2017, Thailand's Supreme Court ruled unanimously to sentence former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to five years in prison for failing to report false and corrupt government-to-government sales in a rice-pledging scheme.

In 2021, a federal jury in Brooklyn found singer R. Kelly guilty on charges he sexually assaulted women and girls for years. A judge sentenced him to 30 years in prison.

In 2022, Cuba's aging electrical grid failed after Hurricane Ian dealt the island a devastating blow.

A thought for the day: "Sore laborers have hard hands and old sinners have brawny consciences." -- English poet Anne Bradstreet