UPI Almanac for Sunday, March 3, 2024

Today is Sunday, March 3, the 63rd day of 2024 with 303 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Pisces. They include English poet Edmund Waller in 1606; industrialist George Pullman, inventor of the railway sleeping car, in 1831; telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell in 1847; Charles Ponzi, convicted of fraud for a pyramid scheme that bears his name, in 1882; movie star Jean Harlow in 1911; actor James "Scotty" Doohan in 1920; musician Arthel Lane "Doc" Watson in 1923; Lee Radziwill, sister of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, in 1933; filmmaker George Miller in 1945 (age 79); author Ron Chernow in 1949 (age 75); actor Miranda Richardson in 1958 (age 66); radio show host Ira Glass in 1959 (age 65); football star Herschel Walker, 1982 Heisman Trophy winner, in 1962 (age 62); Olympic gold medal heptathlete Jackie Joyner-Kersee in 1962 (age 62); actor Julie Bowen in 1970 (age 54); actor David Faustino in 1974 (age 50); celebrity baker Buddy Valastro in 1977 (age 47); actor Jessica Biel in 1982 (age 42); singer Camila Cabello in 1997 (age 27); actor Amber Midthunder in 1997 (age 27); actor Thomas Barbusca in 2003 (age 21).

On this date in history:

In 1845, Florida was admitted to the United States as the 27th state.

In 1875, "Carmen" by Georges Bizet premiered in Paris.

In 1879, attorney Belva Ann Lockwood became the first woman to argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court.

In 1923, Time magazine published its first issue. The magazine was published weekly until March 2020, when it began publishing every other week.

In 1931, an act of Congress designated "The Star-Spangled Banner" the national anthem of the United States.

In 1938, the last of three of Stalin's public show trials, the Trial of the Twenty-One, began, with the defendants being charged in a plot to murder Josef Stalin as well as some of the highest officials of the Soviet regime.

In 1974, a Turkish jetliner crashed near Paris, killing 345 people. Investigators initially suspected a bomb aboard the DC-10 aircraft, but they later determined a cargo door was incorrectly closed and burst open once in the air. It was the deadliest air disaster at the time.

In 1982, the Argentine government threatened to break off diplomatic relations with Britain if the Falkland Islands were not handed back by the following year's 150th anniversary of the British presence on the islands. A month later, the Falklands War broke out between the two countries, resulting in a British victory. To this day, the South American archipelago remains a British territory.

In 1985, coal miners in Britain ended a yearlong strike, the longest and costliest labor dispute in British history.

In 1986, the U.S. President's Commission on Organized Crime, ending a 32-month investigation, called for drug testing of most working Americans, including all federal employees.

In 1991, home video captured a Los Angeles police beating of motorist Rodney King that triggered a national debate on police brutality. Acquittal of the LAPD officers in 1992 led to deadly riots during which King asked at a news conference, "Can we all get along?" King died at the age of 47 in 2012.

In 2006, former U.S. Rep. Randy Cunningham, R-Calif., was sentenced to eight years in prison for taking $2.4 million in bribes from military contractors. Cunningham was released from prison in 2013.

In 2015, the State Department confirmed that Hillary Clinton exclusively used a personal email server to conduct official business while serving as U.S. secretary of state.

In 2019, SpaceX's unmanned Crew Dragon docked with the International Space Station, the company's first ISS docking.

In 2020, for the first time in the Pritzker Architecture Prize's four-decade history, the organization handed out the industry's most prestigious award to two women.

In 2022, the International Paralympic Committee announced that Russian and Belarusian athletes would not be permitted to compete at the Beijing Winter Games after the former's invasion of Ukraine.

A thought for the day: "I don't think being an athlete is unfeminine. I think of it as a kind of grace." -- American track star Jackie Joyner-Kersee