ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 105th day of 2018 and the 27th day of spring.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1896, closing ceremonies for the first modern Olympic Games were held in Athens.

In 1912, the R.M.S. Titanic sank in the North Atlantic after hitting an iceberg.

In 1923, insulin became available to the general public for the treatment of diabetes.

In 1924, Rand McNally published its first road atlas.

In 2013, two bombs exploded near the finish line at the Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring 264.

In 2014, the Boko Haram terrorist organization kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls in Chibok, Nigeria.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), artist/scientist; Henry James (1843-1916), author; A. Philip Randolph (1889-1979), activist; Bessie Smith (1894-1937), blues singer; Roy Clark (1933- ), singer/actor; Elizabeth Montgomery (1933-1995), actress; Michael Kamen (1948-2003), composer; Evelyn Ashford (1957- ), runner; Emma Thompson (1959- ), actress; Arturo Gatti (1972-2009), boxer; Seth Rogen (1982- ), actor; Emma Watson (1990- ), actress; Maisie Williams (1997- ), actress.

TODAY'S FACT: Tokyo Disneyland, the first Disney park to be located outside the United States, opened on this day in 1983.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1947, Jackie Robinson took the field with the Brooklyn Dodgers, becoming Major League Baseball's first African-American player.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "It takes a great deal of history to produce a little literature." -- Henry James, "Hawthorne"

TODAY'S NUMBER: $10 -- amount offered in 1824 by tailor James Selby to anyone who could return his escaped indentured servant boys, William and Andrew Johnson. The boys were never captured. Andrew went on to have a successful career in politics and was sworn in as the 17th president on this day in 1865, after the death of Abraham Lincoln.

TODAY'S MOON: New moon (April 15).

ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 104th day of 2018 and the 26th day of spring.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1865, John Wilkes Booth shot and fatally wounded President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. Lincoln died the next day.

In 1939, John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath" was published by Viking Press.

In 1986, the United States launched air strikes against Libya in retaliation for an April 5 bombing in West Berlin that killed two U.S. servicemen.

In 2003, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium announced the successful completion of the Human Genome Project.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Anne Sullivan Macy (1866-1936), educator; John Gielgud (1904-2000), actor; Rod Steiger (1925-2002), actor; Loretta Lynn (1932- ), singer-songwriter; Julie Christie (1940- ), actress; Pete Rose (1941- ), baseball player; Peter Capaldi (1958- ), actor; Brad Garrett (1960- ), actor; Greg Maddux (1966- ), baseball player; Adrien Brody (1973- ), actor; Anderson Silva (1975- ), mixed martial artist; Sarah Michelle Gellar (1977- ), actress; Rob McElhenney (1977- ), actor; Abigail Breslin (1996- ), actress.

TODAY'S FACT: Research indicates that genetic heredity plays a major role in only about five to 10 percent of all cancers. The rest are caused by aging and other environmental factors.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 2002, Tiger Woods won his second consecutive Masters Tournament title and third overall.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "Too often, I think, children are required to write before they have anything to say. Teach them to think and read and talk without self-repression, and they will write because they cannot help it." -- Anne Sullivan Macy

TODAY'S NUMBER: 2.25 -- weight (in pounds) of the heaviest hailstone ever recorded, which fell in the Gopalganj district of Bangladesh on this day in 1986, in a storm that killed 92.

TODAY'S MOON: Between last quarter moon (April 8) and new moon (April 15).

ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 103rd day of 2018 and the 25th day of spring.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1870, the Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded in New York City.

In 1941, the Soviet Union and Japan signed a five-year non-aggression pact.

In 1964, Sidney Poitier became the first African-American to win the Academy Award for Best Actor, for his performance in "Lilies of the Field."

In 1970, an oxygen tank exploded on Apollo 13, crippling the spacecraft, which was on its way to the moon.

In 2005, Eric Rudolph pleaded guilty to four bombings between 1996 and 1998, including a blast at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), third U.S. president; Samuel Beckett (1906-1989), playwright; Eudora Welty (1909-2001), author; Howard Keel (1919-2004), actor/singer; Seamus Heaney (1939-2013), poet/playwright; Paul Sorvino (1939- ), actor; Al Green (1946- ), singer-songwriter; Christopher Hitchens (1949-2011), journalist/author; Ron Perlman (1950- ), actor; Max Weinberg (1951- ), drummer/TV personality; Garry Kasparov (1963- ), chess player; Nellie McKay (1982- ), singer-songwriter/actress.

TODAY'S FACT: The first African-American to win the Academy Award for Best Actress was Halle Berry, for the 2001 film "Monster's Ball."

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1997, Tiger Woods became the youngest player to win the Masters Tournament, at age 21.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "Normally I didn't see a great deal. I didn't hear a great deal either. I didn't pay attention. Strictly speaking I wasn't there. Strictly speaking I believe I've never been anywhere." -- Samuel Beckett, "The End"

TODAY'S NUMBER: 24 -- days George Frideric Handel worked to complete the music for "Messiah." The oratorio was performed for the first time in Dublin on this day in 1742.

TODAY'S MOON: Between last quarter moon (April 8) and new moon (April 15).