ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC
Today is the 117th day of 2024 and the 39th day of spring.
TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1865, John Wilkes Booth, President Abraham Lincoln's assassin, was killed by Union troops in Virginia.
In 1937, German and Italian planes bombed the city of Guernica in Spain.
In 1986, a reactor ruptured at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in the Soviet Union, spreading radioactive material over much of Europe.
In 2000, Vermont Gov. Howard Dean signed the nation's first bill allowing same-sex couples to form civil unions.
TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Eugene Delacroix (1798-1863), artist; Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903), landscape architect; Ma Rainey (1886-1939), singer-songwriter; Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951), philosopher; Charles Richter (1900-1985), seismologist; Bernard Malamud (1914-1986), author; I.M. Pei (1917-2019), architect; Carol Burnett (1933- ), actress/comedian; Giancarlo Esposito (1958- ), actor; Jet Li (1963- ), actor; Kevin James (1965- ), actor/comedian; Channing Tatum (1980- ), actor; Aaron Judge (1992- ), baseball player.
TODAY'S FACT: The United States has 93 operational nuclear reactors, more than any other nation.
TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1941, the organ, now a staple at Major League Baseball stadiums, made its debut at Wrigley Field, during a game in which the Chicago Cubs lost to the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-2.
TODAY'S QUOTE: "Philosophy is a battle against the bewitchment of our intelligence by means of language." -- Ludwig Wittgenstein, "Philosophical Investigations"
TODAY'S NUMBER: 57,915 -- square miles contaminated by radioactive material from the Chernobyl disaster, an area approximately the size of Illinois.
TODAY'S MOON: Between full moon (April 23) and last quarter moon (May 1).