Today is the 155th day of 2014 and the 77th day of spring.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1917, the first Pulitzer Prizes were awarded.

In 1942, the Battle of Midway began as the Japanese navy launched a raid on Midway Island.

In 1989, Chinese government troops and tanks crushed a massive demonstration of pro-democracy protesters in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

In 1998, Terry Nichols was sentenced to life in prison for his role in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Robert Merrill (1917-2004), opera singer; Dennis Weaver (1924-2006), actor; Ruth Westheimer (1928- ), therapist/media personality; Bruce Dern (1936- ), actor; Mortimer B. Zuckerman (1937- ), publisher/real estate executive; Michelle Phillips (1944- ), singer-songwriter; Keith David (1956- ), actor; John Hockenberry (1956- ), journalist/author; Scott Wolf (1968- ), actor; Noah Wyle (1971- ), actor; Russell Brand (1975- ), comedian/actor; Angelina Jolie (1975- ), actress.

TODAY'S FACT: Union members' wages were about $160 per week higher than non-union workers' wages in 2011.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1927, the United States won golf's first-ever Ryder Cup.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "For me happiness occurs arbitrarily: a moment of eye contact on a bus, where all at once you fall in love; or a frozen second in a park where it's enough that there are trees in the world." -- Russell Brand

TODAY'S NUMBER: 21 -- Pulitzer Prizes normally awarded each year. Online-only news organizations were eligible for 14 journalism prizes for the first time in 2009.

TODAY'S MOON: Between new moon (May 28) and first quarter moon (June 5).

Today is the 154th day of 2014 and the 76th day of spring.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed into law the National Defense Act, expanding the size and scope of the U.S. National Guard.

In 1965, Edward H. White II, an astronaut on Gemini IV, became the first American to "walk" in space.

In 1979, the Ixtoc I oil well in the Gulf of Mexico blew out, spilling more than 600,000 tons of oil over an area of 1,100 square miles.

In 2006, Montenegro formally declared its independence from the Union of Serbia and Montenegro.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Jefferson Davis (1808-1889), president of the Confederate States of America; Raoul Dufy (1877-1953), artist; Tony Curtis (1925-2010), actor; Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997), poet; Chuck Barris (1929- ), game show host; Raul Castro (1931- ), prime minister of Cuba; Larry McMurtry (1936- ), author; Curtis Mayfield (1942-1999), singer-songwriter/musician; Anderson Cooper (1967- ), TV journalist; Rafael Nadal (1986- ), tennis player.

TODAY'S FACT: According to the results of the 1860 census, the slave population outnumbered the free population in two states: Mississippi and South Carolina.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1888, the comic baseball poem "Casey at the Bat," by Ernest Lawrence Thayer, was published in the San Francisco Examiner.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "Poetry is the one place where people can speak their original human mind. It is the outlet for people to say in public what is known in private." -- Allen Ginsberg

TODAY'S NUMBER: 25 -- length, in feet, of the tether attaching Edward H. White II to the Gemini spacecraft during the first U.S. spacewalk.

TODAY'S MOON: Between new moon (May 28) and first quarter moon (June 5).

Today is the 153rd day of 2014 and the 75th day of spring.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1886, President Grover Cleveland married Frances Folsom, becoming the only president to marry in a White House ceremony.

In 1924, an act of Congress granted American Indians U.S. citizenship.

In 1997, Timothy McVeigh was convicted of murder and conspiracy for his role in the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.

In 2012, former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was sentenced to life imprisonment for his role in the deaths of hundreds of protestors during a 2011 uprising.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Marquis de Sade (1740-1814), author/politician; Pope Pius X (1835-1914); Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), poet/novelist; Edward Elgar (1857-1934), composer; Johnny Weissmuller (1904-1984), swimmer/actor; Charlie Watts (1941- ), drummer; Marvin Hamlisch (1944-2012), composer; Dennis Haysbert (1954- ), actor; Wayne Brady (1972- ), actor/comedian; Zachary Quinto (1977- ), actor; Dominic Cooper (1978- ), actor; Fabrizio Moretti (1980- ), musician.

TODAY'S FACT: The White House has hosted 21 weddings, nine of which were for children of sitting presidents.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1935, baseball legend Babe Ruth retired.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "To find beauty in ugliness is the province of the poet." -- Thomas Hardy

TODAY'S NUMBER: 336,337 -- official American Indian population in 1920, according to the U.S. Census.

TODAY'S MOON: Between new moon (May 28) and first quarter moon (June 5).