Today is the 105th day of 2015 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: After hitting the iceberg, the R.M.S. Titanic stayed partially afloat for 2 hours and 40 minutes before sinking completely beneath the surface.

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: "If one is strong, one loves the more strongly." -- Henry James, "The Portrait of a Lady"

TODAY'S NUMBER: 24 -- hours after Germany's 1939 invasion of Poland that U.S. stores were completely sold out of Rand McNally maps of Europe.

TODAY'S MOON: Between last quarter moon (April 11) and new moon (April 18).

Today is the 104th day of 2015 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 (1941- ), 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: The lowest point on Earth is called Challenger Deep, located at the bottom of the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean, nearly 36,000 feet (about 6.8 miles) below sea level.

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

TODAY'S QUOTE: "I wonder how many people I've looked at all my life and never seen." -- John Steinbeck, "The Winter of Our Discontent"

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

TODAY'S MOON: Between last quarter moon (April 11) and new moon (April 18).

Today is the 103rd day of 2015 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: "The tears of the world are a constant quantity. For each one who begins to weep somewhere else another stops. The same is true of the laugh." -- Samuel Beckett, "Waiting for Godot"

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 11) and new moon (April 18).