UPI Almanac for Wednesday, July 31, 2024

Today is Wednesday, July 31, the 213th day of 2024 with 153 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Leo. They include Confederate guerrilla leader William Quantrill in 1837; Kmart founder S.S. Kresge in 1867; pollster Elmo Burns Roper Jr. in 1900; actor France Nuyen in 1939 (age 85); actor Geraldine Chaplin in 1944 (age 80); musician Gary Lewis (Gary Lewis & the Playboys) in 1946 (age 78); actor Richard Griffiths in 1947; tennis legend Evonne Goolagong Cawley in 1951 (age 73); actor Alan Autry in 1952 (age 72); musician Daniel Ash (Love and Rockets/Bauhaus) in 1957 (age 67); actor Dirk Blocker in 1957 (age 67); musician Bill Berry (R.E.M.) in 1958 (age 66); businessman Mark Cuban in 1958 (age 66); actor Wesley Snipes in 1962 (age 62); musician Fatboy Slim, born Norman Cook, in 1963 (age 61); musician Jim Corr (Corrs) in 1964 (age 60); writer Joanne "J.K." Rowling in 1965 (age 59); actor Dean Cain in 1966 (age 58); actor Eve Best in 1971 (age 53); musician Zac Brown in 1978 (age 46); actor B.J. Novak in 1979 (age 45); actor Charlie Carver in 1988 (age 36); actor Alexis Knapp in 1989 (age 35); musician Lil Uzi Vert, born Symere Bysil Woods, in 1995 (age 29); actor Rico Rodriguez in 1998 (age 26).

On this date in history:

In 1498, on his third voyage to the New World, Christopher Columbus discovered the island of Trinidad.

In 1556 Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuit order of Roman Catholic missionaries and educators, died in Rome.

In 1792, director David Rittenhouse laid the cornerstone in Philadelphia for the U.S. Mint, the first building of the federal government.

In 1964, Ranger 7, an unmanned U.S. lunar probe, took the first close-up images of the moon.

In 1974, Watergate figure John Ehrlichman was sentenced to prison for his role in the break-in at the office of Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist. He was in prison 18 months. Ellsberg was the Pentagon consultant who leaked the "Pentagon Papers," documents about the war in Vietnam.

In 1991, the U.S. Senate overturned a 43-year-old law and voted to allow women to fly military warplanes in combat. The House had already approved similar legislation.

In 1992, a Thai Airways International jetliner carrying 113 people crashed as it tried to fly out of bad weather that prevented it from landing in Kathmandu, Nepal. There were no survivors.

In 1999, NASA intentionally crashes the Lunar Prospector spacecraft into the moon with the hopes of discovering evidence of water. Researchers said it didn't reveal any such signs.

In 2011, with default by the U.S. government just days away and after months of frustrating debate, U.S. President Barack Obama and congressional leaders announced an agreement that would raise the debt ceiling by up to $2.4 trillion in two stages, enough to keep borrowing into 2013.

In 2014, officials reported the number of people killed in a 3-week-old Israeli-Hamas Gaza conflict had risen to 1,360 Palestinians and 59 Israelis, including 56 soldiers.

In 2021, American Katie Ledecky became the first swimmer to win the Olympics gold medal three consecutive times in the 800-meter freestyle at the Tokyo Games.

In 2022, U.S. President Joe Biden announced that the United States had killed the top al-Qaida leader in a drone strike in Afghanistan. Ayman al-Zawahiri, who took over after Osama bin Laden's death, was believed to be one of the central planners behind the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on the United States.

A thought for the day: "Racism is about education. Racism is ignorance." -- Australian tennis legend Evonne Goolagong Cawley