The Almanac
Today is Friday, March 17, the 76th day of 2017 with 289 to follow.
This is St. Patrick's Day. The moon is waning. Morning stars are
Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Venus. Evening stars are Mercury, Venus,
Uranus and Mars. Those born on this date are under the sign of Pisces.
They include German engineer Gottlieb Daimler, inventor of the
gasoline-burning internal combustion engine, in 1834; children's author
and illustrator Kate Greenaway in 1846; composer Alfred Newman in 1900;
golf legend Bobby Jones in 1902; football Hall of Fame member Sammy
Baugh in 1914; singer/pianist Nat King Cole in 1919; ballet dancer
Rudolf Nureyev in 1938; rock musician Paul Kantner in 1941; writer
William Gibson in 1948 (age 69); actor Patrick Duffy in 1949 (age 68);
actor Kurt Russell in 1951 (age 66); actor Lesley-Anne Down in 1954
(age 63); actor Gary Sinise in 1955 (age 62); actor Vicki Lewis in 1960
(age 57); actor Rob Lowe in 1964 (age 53); singer-songwriter Billy
Corgan in 1967 (age 50); soccer star Mia Hamm in 1972 (age 45);
Caroline Corr of the Irish pop band The Corrs in 1973 (age 44); actor
John Boyega in 1992 (age 25). On this date in history: In 1762, New
York City staged its first parade honoring the Roman Catholic feast day
of St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. It was led by Irish
soldiers serving in the British army. In 1776, the Continental Army
under Gen. George Washington forced British troops to evacuate Boston.
In 1901, 71 paintings by the late Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh were
shown at the Bernheim-Jeune gallery in Paris and caused a sensation
across the art world. In 1917, Russia appeared headed toward a republic
following the end of the 300-year-old rule of the Romanoff family. In
1958, the U.S. Navy launched the satellite Vanguard 1 into orbit around
Earth. In 1959, the Dalai Lama flees Tibet for India. In 1969, Golda
Meir, a 70-year-old former Milwaukee schoolteacher, was elected first
female prime minister of Israel. In 1974, the oil-producing Arab
countries agreed to lift a five-month embargo on petroleum sales to the
United States. The embargo, during which gasoline prices soared 300
percent, was in retaliation for U.S. support of Israel during the
October 1973 Middle East War. In 1992, South African whites, by a
margin of 68.7 percent to 31.2 percent, voted to end minority rule. In
2003, as war with Iraq seemed a certainty, U.S. President George W.
Bush gave Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and his sons 48 hours to leave
the country. The ultimatum was rejected. In 2012, John Demjanjuk, 91,
onetime Ohio autoworker, died in Germany where, in 2011, he was
convicted of assisting in mass murder as a Nazi death camp guard during
World War II. In 2013, a judge found two Steubenville, Ohio, teenage
football players guilty of raping an intoxicated 16-year-old girl. A
thought for the day: I never liked being called the 'most-decorated'
soldier. There were so many guys who should have gotten medals and
never did -- guys who were killed. -- Audie Murphy .
