UPI Almanac for Sunday, Dec. 23, 2018

Today is Sunday, Dec. 23, the 357th day of 2018 with eight to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Capricorn. They include John Jay, first chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, in 1745; Egyptologist Jean Francois Champollion, who deciphered the Rosetta Stone, in 1790; Mormon church founder Joseph Smith in 1805; entrepreneur/philanthropist Madam C.J. Walker in 1867; former West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt in 1918; Japanese Emperor Akihito in 1933 (age 85); football Hall of Fame member Paul Hornung in 1935 (age 83); Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Jorma Kaukonen in 1940 (age 78); actor/comedian Harry Shearer in 1943 (age 75); marathon runner Bill Rodgers in 1947 (age 71); football Hall of Fame member Jack Ham in 1948 (age 70); political commentator William Kristol in 1952 (age 66); actor Susan Lucci in 1946 (age 72); actor Corey Haim in 1971; rock musician Eddie Vedder in 1964 (age 54); model/TV personality Holly Madison in 1979 (age 39); actor/singer Alison Sudol in 1985 (age 33); actor Sofia Black D'elia in 1991 (age 27); actor Finn Wolfhard in 2002 (age 16).

On this date in history:

In 1620, construction began on the first permanent European settlement in New England. It was one week after the Mayflower arrived at Plymouth Harbor in present-day Massachusetts.

In 1783, Gen. George Washington resigned his commission with the U.S. Army and retired to Mount Vernon, Va. He became the new nation's first president in 1789.

In 1913, the U.S. Federal Reserve System was established.

In 1947, the transistor was invented, leading to a revolution in communications and electronics.

In 1948, former Prime Minister Hideki Tojo and six other Japanese war leaders were hanged in Tokyo under sentence of the Allied War Crimes Commission.

In 1972, a series of earthquakes killed about 5,000 people and left the Nicaraguan capital of Managua in ruins.

In 1973, the shah of Iran announced that the petroleum-exporting states of the Persian Gulf would double the price of their crude oil.

In 1982, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told the residents of Times Beach, Mo., to evacuate the town, which was contaminated with the chemical dioxin. The government bought all but one house in the town, which was disincorporated.

In 1987, Dick Rutan and Jeana Yaeger landed the experimental aircraft Voyager at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., completing a record nine-day, 25,012-mile global flight without refueling.

In 1987, Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, serving a sentence for attempting to assassinate President Gerald Ford, escapes from a West Virginia prison. She was captured two days later.

In 1995, fire engulfed a tent set up for a school ceremony in Mandi Dabwali, India, killing more than 500 people.

In 2003, the first case of mad cow disease was reported in the United States when a Holstein in Washington state tested positive for the ailment.

In 2008, officials in Guinea's army announced the country's government had been dissolved and the Constitution suspended after the death of President Lansana Conte, who had ruled the African nation for 24 years.

In 2009, Mexico City voters approved a sweeping gay rights measure allowing same-sex couples to marry and adopt children.

In 2013, two members of the Pussy Riot punk band, Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, were released from prison in Russia in an amnesty program. They had served most of their two-year sentences after being convicted of hooliganism for participating in a performance critical of President Vladimir Putin.

In 2016, the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution condemning ongoing construction of Israeli settlements in disputed territory. The United States abstained from voting.

A thought for the day: "I don't think the human race will survive the next thousand years unless we spread into space." -- Stephen Hawking