Today is the 162nd day of 2015 and the 84th day of spring.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1770, Captain James Cook discovered the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Australia by accidentally running aground on a shoal.

In 1963, Alabama Gov. George Wallace, confronted by National Guard troops, allowed the University of Alabama to be desegregated.

In 1963, Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc set himself on fire at a busy intersection in Saigon, South Vietnam, in protest of the government's religious persecution.

In 2001, Timothy McVeigh, convicted in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that resulted in the deaths of at least 168 people, was executed by lethal injection.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Richard Strauss (1864-1949), composer/conductor; Jacques Cousteau (1910-1997), explorer/inventor/writer; Vince Lombardi (1913-1970), football coach; William Styron (1925-2006), author; Gene Wilder (1933- ), actor; Joe Montana (1956- ), football player; Hugh Laurie (1959- ), actor; Peter Dinklage (1969- ), actor; Joshua Jackson (1978- ), actor; Diana Taurasi (1982- ), basketball player; Shia LaBeouf (1986- ), actor.

TODAY'S FACT: Captain James Cook named the Glass House Mountains in Queensland, Australia, after glass furnaces familiar in his native Yorkshire, England.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1919, Sir Barton won the Belmont Stakes, becoming the first horse to win horse racing's Triple Crown.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "The good writing of any age has always been the product of someone's neurosis, and we'd have a mighty dull literature if all the writers that came along were a bunch of happy chuckleheads." -- William Styron

TODAY'S NUMBER: 12 -- percentage of the student population enrolled for the fall 2014 semester at the University of Alabama that was African-American.

TODAY'S MOON: Between last quarter moon (June 9) and new moon (June 16).

Today is the 161st day of 2015 and the 83rd day of spring.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1935, Dr. Robert Smith and Bill Wilson founded Alcoholics Anonymous in Akron, Ohio.

In 1964, the U.S. Senate voted to end a filibuster staged in opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, clearing the way for the bill's eventual approval.

In 1967, Israel and Syria agreed to a cease-fire, ending the Six-Day War.

In 2003, NASA launched the Mars exploration rover Spirit from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Hattie McDaniel (1895-1952), actress; Prince Philip (1921- ), husband of Queen Elizabeth II; Judy Garland (1922-1969), actress/singer; Nat Hentoff (1925- ), historian/author; Maurice Sendak (1928-2012), author/illustrator; Jeanne Tripplehorn (1963- ), actress; Elizabeth Hurley (1965- ), model/actress; Bill Burr (1968- ), actor/comedian; Tara Lipinski (1982- ), figure skater; Andy Schleck (1985- ), cyclist; Kate Upton (1992- ), model/actress.

TODAY'S FACT: Texas (160,000) and California (136,000) have the largest prisoner populations in the United States, but the highest incarceration rates per population of 100,000 belong to Louisiana (847) and Mississippi (692).

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1978, Affirmed won the Belmont Stakes, becoming the 11th horse to win horse racing's Triple Crown.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "I remember my own childhood vividly ... I knew terrible things. But I knew I mustn't let adults know I knew. It would scare them." -- Maurice Sendak

TODAY'S NUMBER: 15 -- age of Joe Nuxhall of the Cincinnati Reds when he pitched two-thirds of an inning against the St. Louis Cardinals on this day in 1944, becoming the youngest player to ever take the field in a major league baseball game.

TODAY'S MOON: Between last quarter moon (June 9) and new moon (June 16).

Today is the 160th day of 2015 and the 82nd day of spring.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1790, John Barry's "The Philadelphia Spelling Book" became the first copyrighted work in the United States.

In 1856, nearly 500 Mormon "handcart pioneers" began a pilgrimage on foot from Iowa City, Iowa, to Salt Lake City, Utah.

In 1954, Army counsel Joseph Welch confronted Sen. Joseph McCarthy during the Army-McCarthy hearings.

In 1999, Yugoslavia signed a peace treaty pledging that Serbian forces would withdraw from Kosovo in 11 days.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Cole Porter (1891-1964), composer; Robert Cummings (1910-1990), actor; Les Paul (1915-2009), musician/inventor; Robert McNamara (1916-2009), World Bank head/U.S. secretary of defense; Jackie Wilson (1934-1984), singer-songwriter; Dick Vitale (1939- ), sportscaster; Gregory Maguire (1954- ), author; Michael J. Fox (1961- ), actor; Aaron Sorkin (1961- ), screenwriter/producer; Johnny Depp (1963- ), actor; Natalie Portman (1981- ), actress.

TODAY'S FACT: Legendary guitarist Les Paul is the only person to be inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

TODAY'S SPORTS: Secretariat, who claimed horse racing's Triple Crown on this day in 1973, was one of three non-human athletes included in ESPN's list of the 100 greatest 20th-century athletes.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "Music is what mathematics does on a Saturday night." -- Aaron Sorkin, "The Farnsworth Invention"

TODAY'S NUMBER: 5 -- weeks that Robert McNamara served as the president of Ford Motor Co. before he was appointed the secretary of defense in 1960. McNamara was the first Ford president who was not related to founder Henry Ford.

TODAY'S MOON: Last quarter moon (June 9).