Andrews McMeel Almanac

ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 104th day of 2025 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 1986, the United States launched airstrikes 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.

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

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Anne Sullivan Macy (1866-1936), educator; John Gielgud (1904-2000), actor; Rod Steiger (1925-2002), actor; Loretta Lynn (1932-2022), singer-songwriter; Julie Christie (1940- ), actress; Pete Rose (1941-2024), baseball player/manager; Peter Capaldi (1958- ), 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; Baker Mayfield (1995- ), football player; Abigail Breslin (1996- ), actress.

TODAY'S FACT: Research indicates that genetic heredity plays a major role in only about 5% to 10% 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: "I never taught language for the purpose of teaching it; but invariably used language as a medium for the communication of thought; thus the learning of language was coincident with the acquisition of knowledge." -- 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 hailstorm that killed 92.

TODAY'S MOON: Between full moon (April 12) and last quarter moon (April 20).

ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 103rd day of 2025 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 nonaggression 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 (1939-2022), actor; Al Green (1946- ), singer-songwriter; Christopher Hitchens (1949-2011), journalist/author; Ron Perlman (1950- ), actor; Garry Kasparov (1963- ), chess player; Glenn Howerton (1976- ), actor; Nellie McKay (1982- ), singer-songwriter/actress.

TODAY'S FACT: The first African American and first person of color 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 first African American and the youngest player to win the Masters Tournament, at age 21.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "For in me there have always been two fools, among others, one asking nothing better than to stay where he is and the other imagining that life might be slightly less horrible a little further on." -- Samuel Beckett, "Molloy"

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 full moon (April 12) and last quarter moon (April 20).

ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 102nd day of 2025 and the 24th day of spring.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1861, Confederate forces fired on Union-held Fort Sumter in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina, in the first engagement of the Civil War.

In 1945, President Franklin D. Roosevelt died at his retreat in Warm Springs, Georgia.

In 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human being to travel in space and the first to orbit the Earth.

In 1981, the first space shuttle, Columbia, was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Henry Clay (1777-1852), politician/statesman; Lily Pons (1898-1976), opera singer/actress; Beverly Cleary (1916-2021), author; Herbie Hancock (1940- ), musician; Ed O'Neill (1946- ), actor; Tom Clancy (1947-2013), author; David Letterman (1947- ), TV personality; Scott Turow (1949- ), author; Jon Krakauer (1954- ), author; Andy Garcia (1956- ), actor; Vince Gill (1957- ), singer-songwriter; Shannen Doherty (1971- 2024), actress; Claire Danes (1979- ), actress; Saoirse Ronan (1994- ), actress.

TODAY'S FACT: At the time of his death, seven of the nine Supreme Court justices had been appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1981, the New York Giants selected University of North Carolina linebacker Lawrence Taylor second overall in the first round of the NFL draft.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "Quite often somebody will say, 'What year do your books take place?' and the only answer I can give is, in childhood." -- Beverly Cleary

TODAY'S NUMBER: 108 -- length (in minutes) of the first orbital human spaceflight by Yuri Gagarin aboard the Vostok 3KA spacecraft.

TODAY'S MOON: Full moon (April 12).