Today is the 121st day of 2015 and the 43rd day of spring.
TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1840, the Penny Black, the world's first adhesive postage stamp, was issued in Great Britain.
In 1898, the U.S. Navy, led by Commodore George Dewey, defeated the Spanish Pacific fleet in the first battle of the Spanish-American War.
In 1948, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) was established.
In 2011, President Barack Obama announced that U.S. forces had killed Osama bin Laden, mastermind of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, in a nighttime raid in Pakistan.
TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Martha "Calamity Jane" Burke (1852-1903), frontierswoman; Jack Paar (1918-2004), comedian/TV host; Joseph Heller (1923-1999), author/playwright; Scott Carpenter (1925-2013), astronaut; John Woo (1946- ), filmmaker; Tim McGraw (1967- ), singer-songwriter; Wes Anderson (1969- ), filmmaker; Wes Welker (1981- ), football player; Emilia Clarke (1987- ), actress.
TODAY'S FACT: Japan formally annexed Korea in 1910 and held possession of the former "Hermit Kingdom" until after World War II.
TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1991, Rickey Henderson of the Oakland Athletics stole his 939th base, setting a new major-league record. Later that evening, Texas Rangers pitcher Nolan Ryan threw his seventh career no-hitter, breaking his own record.
TODAY'S QUOTE: "It was miraculous. It was almost no trick at all, he saw, to turn vice into virtue and slander into truth, impotence into abstinence, arrogance into humility, plunder into philanthropy, thievery into honor, blasphemy into wisdom, brutality into patriotism, and sadism into justice. Anybody could do it; it required no brains at all. It merely required no character." -- Joseph Heller, "Catch-22"
TODAY'S NUMBER: 1,250 -- architectural height (in feet) of the Empire State Building in New York City, dedicated on this day in 1931.
TODAY'S MOON: Between first quarter moon (April 25) and full moon (May 3).