ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 97th day of 2017 and the 19th day of spring.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1712, slaves in New York City launched a revolt, killing nine white slaveholders.

In 1862, Union forces under Ulysses S. Grant defeated Confederate troops in the Battle of Shiloh.

In 1948, the World Health Organization was established by the United Nations.

In 1994, civil war and ethnic genocide began in Rwanda, claiming an estimated 500,000 to 1 million lives over the next several months.

In 2003, U.S. troops took over Saddam Hussein's presidential palace in Baghdad.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: William Wordsworth (1770-1850), poet; Will Keith Kellogg (1860-1951), Kellogg Company founder; Billie Holiday (1915-1959), singer-songwriter; Ravi Shankar (1920-2012), musician; James Garner (1928-2014), actor; Francis Ford Coppola (1939- ), filmmaker; David Frost (1939-2013), journalist/TV personality; Stan Winston (1946-2008), special effects artist; Jackie Chan (1954- ), actor; James "Buster" Douglas (1960- ), boxer; Russell Crowe (1964- ), actor; Tiki and Ronde Barber (1975- ), football players.

TODAY'S FACT: Educator Booker T. Washington was the first African-American to be depicted on a U.S. postage stamp, issued on this day in 1940.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1963, at age 23, golfer Jack Nicklaus won the first of his six Masters titles.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "True beauty dwells in deep retreats, / Whose veil is unremoved / Till heart with heart in concord beats, / And the lover is beloved." -- William Wordsworth

TODAY'S NUMBER: 1,925 -- performances of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "South Pacific" during its original Broadway run, which began on this day in 1949.

TODAY'S MOON: Between first quarter moon (April 3) and full moon (April 10).

ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 96th day of 2017 and the 18th day of spring.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1830, Joseph Smith established the Mormon Church in Fayette Township, New York.

In 1896, the first modern Olympic Games opened in Athens, 1,500 years after the last recorded original games.

In 1917, the United States formally entered World War I by declaring war on Germany.

In 1947, the first Tony Awards were presented for achievement in live Broadway theater.

In 1992, the Bosnian War began in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Lincoln Steffens (1866-1936), journalist; Gil Kane (1926-2000), illustrator; Gerry Mulligan (1927-1996), jazz musician; Merle Haggard (1937-2016), singer-songwriter; Billy Dee Williams (1937- ), actor; Barry Levinson (1942- ), director/producer; John Ratzenberger (1947- ), actor; Michael Rooker (1955- ), actor; Paul Rudd (1969- ), actor; Zach Braff (1975- ), actor.

TODAY'S FACT: American explorer Robert Peary and his team were long believed to be the first humans to reach the North Pole, on this day in 1909. Navigational errors documented in Peary's journals and analyzed decades later placed the expedition roughly 30 miles outside the Pole.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 2004, the University of Connecticut became the first university to win the NCAA Division I men's and women's basketball championships in the same year. UConn repeated the feat in 2014.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "Remember we really don’t know anything. Keep your baby eyes (which are the eyes of genius) on what we don’t know. That is your playground, bare and graveled, safe and unbreakable." -- Lincoln Steffens

TODAY'S NUMBER: 20 -- medals won by the United States at the first modern Olympic Games, second only to host nation Greece (46).

TODAY'S MOON: Between first quarter moon (April 3) and full moon (April 10).

ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 95th day of 2017 and the 17th day of spring.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1792, George Washington cast the first presidential veto, striking down a bill that concerned representative apportionment among the states.

In 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued an executive order establishing the Civilian Conservation Corps.

In 1955, Winston Churchill resigned as prime minister of Great Britain due to failing health.

In 2010, an explosion at the Upper Big Branch coal mine in West Virginia killed 29 miners.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), philosopher; Booker T. Washington (1856-1915), writer/educator; Spencer Tracy (1900-1967), actor; Bette Davis (1908-1989), actress; Gregory Peck (1916-2003), actor; Roger Corman (1926- ), filmmaker; Colin Powell (1937- ), U.S. Army general/diplomat; Mitch Pileggi (1952- ), actor; Pharrell Williams (1973- ), rapper/producer; Hayley Atwell (1982- ), actress.

TODAY'S FACT: Easter Island, located in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, was given its name by its first recorded European visitor, Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen, who first encountered it on Easter Sunday, on this day in 1722.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1984, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar of the Los Angeles Lakers scored his 31,420th career point, breaking the NBA's all-time scoring record.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "In any country, regardless of what its laws say, wherever people act upon the idea that the disadvantage of one man is the good of another, there slavery exists." -- Booker T. Washington

TODAY'S NUMBER: 2.43 -- length (in miles) of the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge, linking the city of Kobe to Awaji Island in Japan. The bridge, which has the longest main span of any suspension bridge in the world, opened to traffic on this day in 1998.

TODAY'S MOON: Between first quarter moon (April 3) and full moon (April 10).