UPI Almanac for Tuesday, March 13, 2018

Today is Tuesday, March 13, the 72nd day of 2018 with 293 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Pisces. They include English chemist Joseph Priestley, the discoverer of oxygen, in 1733; astronomer Percival Lowell in 1855; publisher Walter Annenberg in 1908; L. Ron Hubbard, science fiction writer and founder of the Church of Scientology, in 1911; former CIA Director William Casey in 1913; cartoonist Al Jaffee in 1921 (age 97); Helen "Callaghan" Candaele Saint Aubin, known as the "Ted Williams of women's baseball," in 1923; singer/songwriter Neil Sedaka in 1939 (age 79); actor William H. Macy in 1950 (age 68); political commentator Charles Krauthammer in 1950 (age 68); actor Dana Delany in 1956 (age 62); musician Adam Clayton, U2 bass player, in 1960 (age 58); actor Annabeth Gish in 1971 (age 47); actor/rapper Common, born Lonnie Rashid Lynn Jr., in 1972 (age 46); actor Danny Masterson in 1976 (age 42); actor Noel Fisher in 1984 (age 34); actor Emile Hirsch in 1985 (age 33); actor Harry Melling in 1989 (age 29); actor Kaya Scodelario in 1992 (age 26); U.S. Olympic gold alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin in 1995 (age 23).

On this date in history:

In 1781, the planet Uranus was discovered by British astronomer William Herschel.

In 1868, the Republican-dominated U.S. Senate began impeachment proceedings against U.S. President Andrew Johnson, a Democrat and successor to Abraham Lincoln, climaxing a political feud following the Civil War. He was acquitted by one vote.

In 1881, Czar Alexander II, the ruler of Russia since 1855, was killed in a St. Petersburg street by a bomb thrown by a member of the revolutionary People's Will group.

In 1933, in the depths of the Great Depression, banks throughout the United States began to reopen after a weeklong bank holiday declared by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in a successful effort to stop runs on bank assets.

In 1933, President Roosevelt sent word to Congress calling for the immediate modification of the Volstead act to permit the manufacture and sale of beer.

In 1990, the Soviet Congress of People's Deputies formally ended the Communist Party's monopoly rule, establishing a presidential system and giving Mikhail Gorbachev broad new powers.

In 1992, a 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck northeast Turkey, killing at least 500 people and leaving some 50,000 homeless.

In 1996, a gun collector opened fire at a school in Dunblane, Scotland, killing 16 kindergarten children and their teacher, and then himself.

In 2000, the Tribune Co. and the Times Mirror Co., media giants featuring two of the nation's oldest and largest newspapers (Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times) announced they would merge.

In 2004, opera singer Luciano Pavarotti sang his final opera at New York City's Metropolitan Opera house.

In 2005, Robert Iger is named as Michael Eisner's replacement as chief executive of the Walt Disney Company.

In 2008, gold prices on the New York Mercantile Exchange hit $1,000 per ounce for the first time.

In 2011, the Dalai Lama, 75-year-old spiritual leader of Tibet, formally submitted his resignation as Tibet's political leader, a post he had held since he was 18, to the Tibetan Parliament-in-exile.

In 2013, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, a Jesuit, became pope of the Catholic Church. He chose the name of Francis.

In 2016, an explosion in the Turkish capital of Ankara killed 37 and injured 127. Government sources said a female suicide bomber and alleged PKK member crashed her bomb-laden car into a bus.

A thought for the day: Donald Trump said, "Sometimes your best investments are the ones you don't make."