UPI Almanac for Saturday, March 30, 2024

Today is Saturday, March 30, the 90th day of 2024 with 276 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Aries. They include Spanish painter Francisco Jose de Goya in 1746; German chemist Robert Bunsen, inventor of the Bunsen gas burner, in 1811; English author Anna Sewell in 1820; Civil War spy Mary Elizabeth Bowser in 1839; English social reformer Charles Booth in 1840; Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh in 1853; Irish dramatist Sean O'Casey in 1880; philanthropist Brooke Astor in 1902; singer Frankie Laine in 1913; TV host Peter Marshall in 1926 (age 98); actor Richard Dysart in 1929; actor John Astin in 1930 (age 94); actor Warren Beatty in 1937 (age 87); basketball Hall of Fame member Jerry Lucas in 1940 (age 84); rock musician Graeme Edge in 1941; British blues/rock guitarist Eric Clapton in 1945 (age 79); actor Robbie Coltrane in 1950; actor Paul Reiser in 1957 (age 67); rapper MC Hammer, born Stanley Burrell, in 1962 (age 62); singer Tracy Chapman in 1964 (age 60); actor Ian Ziering in 1964 (age 60); television commentator Piers Morgan in 1965 (age 59); singer Celine Dion in 1968 (age 56); actor Mark Consuelos in 1971 (age 53); singer Norah Jones in 1979 (age 45); actor Katy Mixon in 1981 (age 43); country singer Justin Moore in 1984 (age 40); actor Tessa Ferrer in 1986 (age 38); country singer Thomas Rhett in 1990 (age 34); actor Simone Ashley in 1995 (age 29); actor Gideon Adlon in 1997 (age 27).

On this date in history:

In 1842, Dr. Crawford Long became the first physician to use anesthetic (ether) in surgery.

In 1858, a U.S. patent was granted to Hymen Lipman for a pencil with an attached eraser.

In 1867, U.S. Secretary of State William Seward reached an agreement with Russia for the purchase of Alaska for $7.2 million in gold.

In 1870, the 15th Amendment, granting African-American men the right to vote, was adopted into the U.S. Constitution.

In 1923, the Cunard liner Laconia arrived in New York City, the first passenger ship to circumnavigate the world. The cruise lasted 130 days.

In 1975, the South Vietnamese city of Da Nang fell to North Vietnamese forces. UPI correspondent Paul Vogle described "the flight out of hell" as refugees attempted to flee the city.

In 1981, On March 30, 1981, John Hinckley Jr. shot and injured U.S. President Ronald Reagan outside a Washington hotel. White House press secretary James Brady, a Secret Service agent and a Washington police officer also sustained injuries. Hinckley was released from a psychiatric hospital in September 2016.

In 1999, a jury in Oregon awarded $81 million in damages to the family of a smoker who died from lung cancer. A state judge reduced the punitive portion to $32 million.

In 2006, Jill Carroll, a freelance reporter for The Christian Science Monitor, was freed in Baghdad after being held for 82 days by kidnappers.

In 2018, at least a dozen Palestinians died in the first week of the so-called Great March of Return protests in Gaza.

In 2023, a Manhattan grand jury took the unprecedented step of voting to indict a former president, formally charging Donald Trump in an investigation into hush-money payments made to adult film actor Stephanie Clifford, known professionally as Stormy Daniels.

A thought for the day: "I can't think of anything worse, really, than to try to live up to someone else's expectations of what you should be. You don't make art by consensus." -- American musician Tracy Chapman