UPI Almanac for Thursday, April 25, 2024

Today is Thursday, April 25, the 116th day of 2024 with 250 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Taurus. They include Oliver Cromwell, lord protector of England, in 1599; inventor/physicist Guglielmo Marconi in 1874; U.S. Supreme Court Justice William Brennan in 1906; pioneer broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow in 1908; singer Ella Fitzgerald in 1917; artist Edwin Parker "Cy" Twombly in 1928; former Harlem Globetrotters basketball player George "Meadowlark" Lemon III in 1932; actor Al Pacino in 1940 (age 84); TV personality/dancer Len Goodman in 1944; musician Stu Cook (Creedence Clearwater Revival) in 1945 (age 79); musician Bjorn Ulvaeus (ABBA) in 1945 (age 79); actor Talia Shire in 1946 (age 78); actor Jeffrey DeMunn in 1947 (age 77); musician Andy Bell (Erasure) in 1964 (age 60); actor Hank Azaria in 1964 (age 60); musician Eric Avery (Jane's Addiction) in 1965 (age 59); sports broadcaster Joe Buck in 1969 (age 55); actor Renee Zellweger in 1969 (age 55); actor Gina Torres in 1969 (age 55); actor Jason Lee in 1970 (age 54); actor Emily Bergl in 1975 (age 49); basketball hall of fame member Tim Duncan in 1976 (age 48); actor Marguerite Moreau in 1977 (age 47); champion skier Anja Paerson in 1981 (age 43); actor Daniel Sharman in 1986 (age 38); actor Sara Paxton in 1988 (age 36); actor Jonathan Bailey in 1988 (age 36); actor Adria Arjona in 1992 (age 32).

On this date in history:

In 1507, German geographer and mapmaker Martin Waldseemuller published a book in which he named the newly discovered continent of the New World "America" after the man he mistakenly thought had discovered it, Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci.

In 1792, "La Marseillaise," composed by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, became the French national anthem.

In 1859, ground was broken for the Suez Canal at Port Said, Egypt.

In 1901, New York became the first state to require license plates on automobiles.

In 1915, the Battle of Gallipoli began when Allied troops launched an invasion of the Turkish Gallipoli Peninsula, landing at Anzac Cove and Cape Helles. The conflict lasted eight months, two weeks and one day, and ended in an Ottoman victory.

In 1945, delegates of 46 countries gathered in San Francisco to organize a permanent United Nations.

In 1967, the first law legalizing abortion in the United States was signed into law by Colorado Gov. John Arthur Love.

In 1982, Israel turned over the final third of the occupied Sinai Peninsula to Egypt under the Camp David peace agreement.

In 1993, an estimated 300,000 people took part in a gay rights march on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

In 2000, Vermont approved a measure legalizing "civil unions" among same-sex couples, becoming the first U.S. state to give same-sex couples the same legal status as traditional married couples.

In 2005, the crash of a commuter train near Osaka, Japan, killed more than 70 people and injured about 300 others.

In 2011, nearly 800 classified U.S. military documents released by WikiLeaks revealed details about the alleged terrorist activities of al-Qaida operatives held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

In 2013, the George W. Bush Presidential Library was dedicated on the Southern Methodist University campus in Dallas.

In 2015, a 7.9-magnitude earthquake struck Kathmandu, Nepal, killing nearly 9,000 people and leaving millions homeless.

In 2015, protests -- some violent -- broke out in Baltimore following the death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year old black man, while in police custody.

In 2021, a fire at the Ibn al-Khatib hospital in Baghdad killed 82 people after an explosion of oxygen tanks meant for COVID-19 patients.

A thought for the day: "Hollywood is like an empty wastebasket." -- American dancer/actor Ginger Rogers