UPI Almanac for Friday, March 22, 2024

Today is Friday, March 22, the 82nd day of 2024 with 284 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Aries. They include Flemish painter Anthony van Dyck in 1599; author Louis L'Amour in 1908; actor Leonard "Chico" Marx of the Marx Brothers comedy team in 1887; actor Karl Malden in 1912; French mime Marcel Marceau in 1923; newspaper executive Allen Neuharth in 1924; Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama in 1929 (age 95); composer Stephen Sondheim in 1930; televangelist Pat Robertson in 1930; actor William Shatner in 1931 (age 93); former U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, in 1934; actor M. Emmet Walsh in 1935; singer George Benson in 1943 (age 81); author James Patterson in 1947 (age 77); British composer Andrew Lloyd Webber in 1948 (age 76); television journalist Wolf Blitzer in 1948 (age 76); actor Fanny Ardant in 1949 (age 75); sportscaster Bob Costas in 1952 (age 72); actor Lena Olin in 1955 (age 69); actor Matthew Modine in 1959 (age 65); actor Keegan-Michael Key in 1971 (age 53); actor Will Yun Lee in 1971 (age 53); Canadian skater Elvis Stojko in 1972 (age 52); actor Guillermo Diaz in 1975 (age 49); actor Cole Hauser in 1975 (age 49); actor Kellie Williams in 1976 (age 48); actor Reese Witherspoon in 1976 (age 48); musician John Otto in 1977 (age 47); actor Constance Wu in 1982 (age 42); actor Dominique Fishback in 1991 (age 33); actor Nick Robinson in 1995 (age 29).

On this date in history:

In 1765, the Stamp Act was passed by Britain's Parliament, introducing a tax on printed materials in the American colonies. Colonists believed this to be a violation of their rights and was a major grievance listed in the Declaration of Independence.

In 1794, President George Washington signed legislation forbidding slave trading with foreign nations.

In 1894, hockey teams played the first championship series to win Lord Stanley's Cup in Montreal, Canada.

In 1941, the Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River began producing electrical power for the Pacific Northwest.

In 1945, representatives from Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Transjordan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Yemen met in Cairo to establish the Arab League.

In 1968, U.S. President Lyndon Johnson recalled Army Gen. William Westmoreland as commander of U.S. troops in Vietnam and made him Army chief of staff. Gen. Creighton Abrams took over in Saigon.

In 1972, the U.S. Senate passed the Equal Rights Amendment and sent it to the states for ratification, which failed. The would-be 27th Amendment would have prohibited discrimination on the basis of sex.

In 1989, Pete Rozelle resigned as commissioner of the National Football League after holding the job 30 years.

In 1992, a USAir plane skidded off a runway at New York's LaGuardia Airport during a snowstorm and landed in Flushing Bay. Twenty-seven people died.

In 2003, a U.S. Army maintenance convoy in Iraq made a wrong turn and was ambushed. Eleven soldiers were killed and seven, including Pfc. Jessica Lynch, were captured. Lynch later said she was erroneously praised for heroism: "I'm not a hero. I'm just a survivor."

In 2004, the founder and spiritual leader of the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas, Ahmed Yassin, was killed in an Israeli missile strike in the Gaza Strip.

In 2011, an Israeli court sentenced former President Moshe Katsav to seven years in prison for rape and sexual harassment.

In 2012, a group of military officers seized control of the Mali government and ousted President Amadou Toumani Toure, even though he had planned to step down the following month.

In 2014, a mudslide in Oso, Wash., left 43 people dead after a portion of a hill collapsed in the wake of weeks of rain.

In 2016, three coordinated bombings in Belgium -- two at Brussels Airport and one at Maalbeek metro station -- killed 35 people, including three attackers. The Islamic State claimed responsibility.

In 2017, an attacker drove a vehicle into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge in London before abandoning the car, fatally stabbing an unarmed police officer and being shot and killed by another officer. Six people, including the attacker, died.

In 2021, a shooting at a Boulder, Colo., grocery store killed 10 people, including police officer Eric Talley.

In 2023, the American Library Association announced it had a record number of requests to censor library materials in 2022, with 1,269 demands, up 38% from 2021. It said it also had a record 2,571 unique titles targeted by the requests, a majority of which were LGBTQ-related.

A thought for the day: "True friendship is never serene." -- French aristocrat/letter writer Marie de Rabutin-Chantal