UPI Almanac for Monday, April 22, 2024

Today is Monday, April 22, the 113th day of 2024 with 253 to follow.

This is Earth Day.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Taurus. They include Spanish Queen Isabella I, who funded the first voyage of Christopher Columbus to the New World, in 1451; Pope Alexander VIII in 1610; British novelist Henry Fielding in 1707; German philosopher Immanuel Kant in 1724; Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, leader of Russia's 1917 Communist revolution, in 1870; novelist Vladimir Nabokov in 1899; pioneer nuclear physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer in 1904; jazz bass player Charles Mingus in 1922; painter Richard Diebenkorn in 1922; TV producer Aaron Spelling in 1923; actress Charlotte Rae in 1926; actor Estelle Harris in 1928; singer Glen Campbell in 1936; actor Jack Nicholson in 1937 (age 87); author Janet Evanovich in 1943 (age 81); businessman/balloon-flight record-setter Steve Fossett in 1944; filmmaker John Waters in 1946 (age 78); rock guitarist/singer Peter Frampton in 1950 (age 74); actor Marilyn Chambers in 1952; actor Ryan Stiles in 1959 (age 65); comedian/TV host Byron Allen in 1961 (age 63); actor Chris Makepeace in 1964 (age 60); actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan in 1966 (age 58); actor Sherri Shepherd in 1967 (age 57); actor Eric Mabius in 1971 (age 53); musician Shavo Odadjian (System of a Down) in 1974 (age 50); musician Daniel Johns (Silverchair) in 1979 (age 45); actor Amber Heard in 1986 (age 38); musician Machine Gun Kelly, born Colson Baker, in 1990 (age 34); actor Violet McGraw in 2011 (age 13).

On this date in history:

In 1500, explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral arrived in South America, claiming what would later be known as Brazil for Portugal.

In 1889, about 20,000 homesteaders massed along the border of the Oklahoma Territory, awaiting the signal to start the Oklahoma land rush.

In 1914, U.S. forces took control of the Mexican port city of Veracruz during the fighting of the Mexican Revolution.

In 1915, during World War I, German forces became the first to use poison gas on the Western Front during the Second Battle of Ypres.

In 1954, the Army-McCarthy hearings began in which Sen. Joseph McCarthy, R-Wis., accused the Army go going soft on communism, while the Army said it was pressured to give a speedy commission to a McCarthy aide.

In 1970, Earth Day was first observed.

In 1972, Apollo 16 astronauts John Young and Charles Duke walked and rode on the surface of the moon for 7 hours, 23 minutes. Young, whose career with NASA began in 1962, would spend the next four decades as an astronaut, retiring in 2004 at the age of 74.

In 1985, Jose Sarney was sworn in as Brazil's first civilian president in 21 years.

In 1992, more than 200 people died when a gas leak caused sewers in Guadalajara, Mexico, to explode.

In 1993, the Holocaust Memorial Museum was dedicated in Washington, D.C.

In 1994, Richard Nixon, the 37th U.S. president and the only one to resign from the office, died four days after having a stroke. He was 81.

In 1997, a 126-day standoff at the Japanese Embassy in Lima ended after Peruvian commandos stormed the building and freed 72 hostages held by the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement. All 14 rebels were killed.

In 2004, former NFL star Pat Tillman, who turned down a lucrative contract with the Arizona Cardinals to join the U.S. Army Rangers, was killed in Afghanistan. The U.S. military said later he was a victim of friendly fire.

In 2005, Zacarias Moussaoui, the only man charged in the United States in connection with the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison.

In 2006, Iraq's Parliament ratified the selection of Nouri al-Maliki as prime minister, ending a four-month political deadlock.

In 2016, world leaders from 175 countries gathered in New York on Earth Day to sign the Paris Agreement, the first international accord that outlines steps to combat climate change and lower carbon levels by 2100.

In 2020, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to temporarily close U.S. borders to migrants during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A thought for the day: "No idea is so antiquated that it was not once modern. No idea is so modern that it will not someday be antiquated." -- American author Ellen Glasgow