ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 93rd day of 2017 and the 15th day of spring.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1865, Union forces captured Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the Confederacy.

In 1882, American outlaw Jesse James was killed by Robert Ford, a member of James' own gang who hoped to earn a state reward.

In 1948, President Harry Truman signed into law the Marshall Plan aid bill, which was designed to help rebuild war-torn Europe.

In 1996, "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski was arrested at his cabin near Lincoln, Montana.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Washington Irving (1783-1859), writer; Marlon Brando (1924-2004), actor; Doris Day (1924- ), singer/actress; Gus Grissom (1926-1967), astronaut; Jane Goodall (1934- ), primatologist; Wayne Newton (1942- ), singer; Alec Baldwin (1958- ), actor; David Hyde Pierce (1959- ), actor; Eddie Murphy (1961- ), actor/comedian; Adam Scott (1973- ), actor; Cobie Smulders (1982- ), actress; Amanda Bynes (1986- ), actress.

TODAY'S FACT: After Marlon Brando returned his script for "On the Waterfront" twice, Frank Sinatra was cast in the lead role. Brando was ultimately convinced to star and went on to win an Oscar for his iconic performance.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1988, Mario Lemieux of the Pittsburgh Penguins won the NHL's Art Ross trophy as the league's top scorer, ending Wayne Gretzky's streak of consecutive scoring titles at seven.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "How convenient it would be to many of our great men and great families of doubtful origin, could they have the privilege of the heroes of yore, who, whenever their origin was involved in obscurity, modestly announced themselves descended from a god." – Washington Irving, "Knickerbocker’s History of New York"

TODAY'S NUMBER: 214,488 -- offshore entities (used as tax havens) revealed in the "Panama Papers," a massive leak of financial and legal documents first published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists on this day in 2016.

TODAY'S MOON: First quarter moon (April 3).

ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 92nd day of 2017 and the 14th day of spring.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1792, Congress passed the Coinage Act, establishing the U.S. Mint.

In 1865, Confederate President Jefferson Davis fled Richmond, Virginia, as Union forces closed in on the Confederate capital.

In 1917, President Woodrow Wilson asked Congress for a declaration of war against Germany.

In 1982, Argentine forces mounted amphibious landings on the British-held Falkland Islands, marking the beginning of the Falklands War.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875), writer; Emile Zola (1840-1902), author/critic; Walter Chrysler (1875-1940), Chrysler founder; Max Ernst (1891-1976), artist; Buddy Ebsen (1908-2003), actor; Alec Guinness (1914-2000), actor; Jack Webb (1920-1982), actor; Marvin Gaye (1939-1984), singer-songwriter; Emmylou Harris (1947- ), singer-songwriter; Christopher Meloni (1961- ), actor; Clark Gregg (1962- ), actor; Michael Fassbender (1977- ), actor; Jesse Plemons (1988- ), actor.

TODAY'S FACT: German artist Max Ernst created an art technique called "frottage" in which blank paper is placed over an object and rubbed with a pencil or another drawing tool to reproduce the texture or pattern of the object's surface.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1931, Jackie Mitchell, a 17-year-old female pitcher, struck out both Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in an exhibition match between the Class AA minor league Chattanooga Lookouts and the New York Yankees.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "There are two men inside the artist, the poet and the craftsman. One is born a poet. One becomes a craftsman." -- Emile Zola

TODAY'S NUMBER: 4,700 -- area (in square miles) of the Falkland Islands, which is slightly less than the state of Connecticut.

TODAY'S MOON: Between new moon (March 27) and first quarter moon (April 3).

ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 91st day of 2017 and the 13th day of spring.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1826, Samuel Morey received the patent for the first internal combustion engine.

In 1945, Operation Iceberg began as U.S. troops landed on the Japanese island of Okinawa.

In 1970, President Richard Nixon signed the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act, which required the surgeon general's warning on tobacco products and banned cigarette ads on radio and TV.

In 2011, a mob protesting the burning of the Quran attacked the United Nations compound in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan, causing the deaths of 13 people.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898), German political leader; Edmond Rostand (1868-1918), playwright; Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943), composer; Milan Kundera (1929- ), author; Debbie Reynolds (1932-2016), actress; Ali MacGraw (1939- ), actress; Samuel Alito (1950- ), Supreme Court justice; Method Man (1971- ), rapper; Rachel Maddow (1973- ), TV personality; Asa Butterfield (1997- ), actor.

TODAY'S FACT: Two monumental innovations in meteorology occurred on April 1: In 1875, Francis Galton published the first newspaper weather map; in 1960, TIROS-1, the first weather satellite, was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1985, the eighth-seeded Villanova Wildcats defeated the top-seeded and heavily favored Georgetown Hoyas 66-64 in the NCAA championship game.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "Not even one's own pain weighs so heavy as the pain one feels with someone, for someone, a pain intensified by the imagination and prolonged by a hundred echoes." – Milan Kundera, "The Unbearable Lightness of Being"

TODAY'S NUMBER: $734 billion -- value of Apple Inc. in March 2017. The company was founded in Cupertino, California, by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne on this day in 1976.

TODAY'S MOON: Between new moon (March 27) and first quarter moon (April 3).