ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 117th day of 2020 and the 39th day of spring.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1865, John Wilkes Booth, President Abraham Lincoln's assassin, was killed by Union troops in Virginia.

In 1937, German planes bombed the city of Guernica in Spain.

In 1986, a reactor ruptured at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in the Soviet Union, spreading radioactive material over much of Europe.

In 2000, Vermont Gov. Howard Dean signed the nation's first bill allowing gay couples to form civil unions.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Eugene Delacroix (1798-1863), artist; Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903), landscape architect; Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951), philosopher; Charles Richter (1900-1985), seismologist; Bernard Malamud (1914-1986), author; I.M. Pei (1917-2019), architect; Carol Burnett (1933- ), actress/comedian; Giancarlo Esposito (1958- ), actor; Jet Li (1963- ), actor; Kevin James (1965- ), actor/comedian; Tom Welling (1977- ), actor; Channing Tatum (1980- ), actor; Aaron Judge (1992- ), baseball player.

TODAY'S FACT: The United States has 98 operational nuclear reactors, more than any other nation.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1941, the organ, now a staple at Major League Baseball stadiums, made its debut at Wrigley Field, during a game in which the Chicago Cubs lost to the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-2.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "One can't make pure clay of time's mud. There is no life that can be recaptured wholly; as it was. Which is to say that all biography is ultimately fiction." -- Bernard Malamud, "Dublin's Lives"

TODAY'S NUMBER: 64,000 -- square miles contaminated by radioactive material from the Chernobyl disaster, an area approximately the size of Wisconsin.

TODAY'S MOON: Between new moon (April 22) and first quarter moon (April 30).

ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 116th day of 2020 and the 38th day of spring.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1859, British, French and German engineers began construction on the Suez Canal in Egypt.

In 1898, the United States declared war on Spain.

In 1945, U.S. and Soviet troops met at the Elbe River in Germany, signaling the defeat of German defenses.

In 1953, Francis Crick and James D. Watson published an article describing the double helix structure of DNA.

In 2011, a four-day tornado outbreak in the southern United States began, producing 358 confirmed tornadoes and killing more than 300 people.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658), soldier/politician; Edward R. Murrow (1908-1965), journalist; Ella Fitzgerald (1917-1996), singer; Meadowlark Lemon (1932-2015), basketball player; Jerry Leiber (1933-2011), songwriter/producer; Al Pacino (1940- ), actor; Hank Azaria (1964- ), actor; John Henson (1965-2014), puppeteer; Joe Buck (1969- ), sportscaster; Renee Zellweger (1969- ), actress; Jason Lee (1970- ), actor; Tim Duncan (1976- ), basketball player.

TODAY'S FACT: In 1901, New York became the first state to begin requiring automobile license plates.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1950, Chuck Cooper became the first African American drafted into the NBA when he was selected by the Boston Celtics with the first pick of the second round.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "No one can terrorize a whole nation, unless we are all his accomplices." -- Edward R. Murrow

TODAY'S NUMBER: 26,723 -- nautical miles traveled by the U.S. Navy's nuclear-powered submarine USS Triton during its 60-day, 21-hour submerged circumnavigation of the world, completed on this day in 1960.

TODAY'S MOON: Between new moon (April 22) and first quarter moon (April 30).

ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 115th day of 2020 and the 37th day of spring.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1898, Spain declared war on the United States.

In 1916, the Irish Republican Brotherhood began the Easter Rising in Dublin, Ireland, seizing several key locations and proclaiming Irish independence.

In 1980, the United States launched Operation Eagle Claw, an unsuccessful attempt to free American hostages in Iran that resulted in the deaths of eight U.S. servicemen.

In 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope was launched from the space shuttle Discovery.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Willem de Kooning (1904-1997), artist; Robert Penn Warren (1905-1989), novelist/poet; Richard Donner (1930- ), filmmaker; Shirley MacLaine (1934- ), actress; Sue Grafton (1940-2017), author; Barbra Streisand (1942- ), singer/actress; Cedric the Entertainer (1964- ), comedian/actor; Djimon Hounsou (1964- ), actor; Aidan Gillen (1968- ), actor; Damon Lindelof (1973- ), TV writer/executive; Kelly Clarkson (1982- ), singer-songwriter.

TODAY'S FACT: The Hubble Space Telescope's successor, the James Webb Space Telescope, is scheduled for launch in 2021. NASA estimates that Hubble will make its natural atmospheric re-entry between 2030 and 2040.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1901, the first American League game was played. The Chicago White Stockings defeated the Cleveland Blues, 8-2.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "Historical sense and poetic sense should not, in the end, be contradictory, for if poetry is the little myth we make, history is the big myth we live, and in our living, constantly remake." -- Robert Penn Warren

TODAY'S NUMBER: $300 million -- price reportedly paid by hedge fund manager Kenneth C. Griffin for the Willem de Kooning painting "Interchange" in a private sale in September 2015. It was the highest known price paid for a painting until November 2017, when da Vinci's "Salvator Mundi" sold for $450.3 million.

TODAY'S MOON: Between new moon (April 22) and first quarter moon (April 30).