Today is Wednesday, April 18, the 108th day of 2018 with 257 to follow.
The moon is waxing. Morning stars are Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Neptune and Saturn. Evening stars are Jupiter and Venus.
Those born on this date are under the sign of Aries. They include Italian Duchess Lucrezia Borgia in 1480; lawyer Clarence Darrow in 1857; musician Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown in 1924; actor Barbara Hale in 1922; actor Hayley Mills in 1946 (age 72); actor James Woods in 1947 (age 71); actor Rick Moranis in 1953 (age 65); actor Eric Roberts in 1956 (age 62); actor Jane Leeves in 1961 (age 57); talk show host Conan O’Brien in 1963 (age 55); actor Eric McCormack in 1963 (age 55); actor Maria Bello in 1967 (age 51); actor David Tennant in 1971 (age 47); actor Melissa Joan Hart in 1976 (age 42); TV personality Kourtney Kardashian in 1979 (age 39); actor America Ferrera in 1984 (age 34); actor Britt Robertson in 1990 (age 28); actor Chloe Bennet in 1992 (age 26); actor Moises Arias in 1994 (age 24).
On this date in history:
In 1506, the cornerstone was placed for St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.
In 1775, U.S. patriot Paul Revere began his famous ride through the Massachusetts countryside, crying out “The British are coming!” to rally the minutemen.
In 1906, an earthquake estimated at magnitude-7.8 struck San Francisco, collapsing buildings and igniting fires that destroyed much of what remained of the city. Researchers and historians concluded that about 3,000 people died in the quake and its aftermath, and roughly 250,000 were left homeless.
In 1912, three days after the sinking of Titanic, her survivors arrived in New York City aboard the RMS Carpathia.
In 1923, Yankee Stadium opened in New York.
In 1942, Lt. Col. James Doolittle led a squadron of B-25 bombers in a surprise raid against Tokyo in response to the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.
In 1945, U.S. journalist Ernie Pyle, a popular World War II correspondent, was killed by Japanese machine-gun fire on the island of Ie Shima in the Pacific.
In 1949, the Republic of Ireland formally declared itself independent from Britain.
In 1968, McCulloch Oil Corp. paid $2.24 million to buy London Bridge, which was sinking into the Thames under the weight of 20th century traffic. The oil company rebuilt the bridge bloc by block over Lake Havasu in Arizona.
In 1980, Rhodesia became the independent African nation of Zimbabwe.
In 1983, the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, was severely damaged by a car-bomb explosion that killed 63 people, including 17 Americans.
In 1992, an 11-year-old Florida boy sued to “divorce” his natural parents and remain with his foster parents. The boy eventually won his lawsuit.
In 2002, former U.S. Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-Neb., revealed that at least 13 civilians were killed by his U.S. Navy unit in a Vietnamese village in 1969.
In 2004, in one of his first acts as Spain’s prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero issued orders withdrawing all 1,300 Spanish troops from Iraq.
In 2007, more than 125 people were killed in a suicide car-bomb explosion near a Baghdad market.
In 2012, Secretary of State Leon Panetta condemned the behavior of U.S. soldiers photographed posing with corpses of Afghan insurgents in 2010.
In 2012, TV legend Dick Clark died at a Los Angeles hospital after a heart attack. He was 82.
In 2014, an avalanche on what is known as a particularly dangerous route to the top of Mount Everest in the Himalayas killed 16 Sherpa guides.
A thought for the day: Edward W. Howe said, “If you don’t learn to laugh at troubles, you won’t have anything to laugh at when you grow old.”
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