In 1964, Sidney Poitier became the first African-American to win an Oscar for best actor, honored for his work in Lilies of the Field.

In 1965, Lawrence Bradford Jr., a 16-year-old from New York City, started work as the first black page to serve in either chamber of Congress.

In 1972, the first major league baseball strike ended, eight days after it began.

In 1984, Christopher Wilder, the FBI's most wanted man, accidentally killed himself as police moved in to arrest him in New Hampshire. Wilder was a suspect in the deaths, rapes and disappearances of 11 young women in eight states.

In 1987, the Population Reference Bureau reported that the world's population had exceeded 5 billion.

In 1990, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev gave Lithuania a two-day ultimatum, threatening to cut off some supplies to the Baltic republic if it didn't rescind laws passed since a March 11 declaration of independence.

In 1991, an advance team of U.N. observers arrived in Kuwait City to set up a peacekeeping force along the Kuwait-Iraqi border.

In 1992, construction workers breeched a retaining wall in the Chicago River, sending water flooding through a tunnel system connecting buildings in the downtown area.

In 1997, Tiger Woods, 21, won the Masters Tournament, the youngest golfer to accomplish that feat and first African-American to win any of the four major professional golf tournaments for men.

In 2004, U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney said in Beijing that the United States doesn't support independence for Taiwan.

In 2005, as part of a deal to avoid the death penalty, Eric Rudolph pleaded guilty to four bombings that killed two people and injured more than 120. Among the attacks were bombings at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta and two abortion clinics. Rudolph was sentenced to life in prison.

In 2007, U.S. regulators sought to determine whether a chemical was intentionally added in China to wheat gluten destined for pet food. Contaminated wheat gluten was in food reported linked to numerous deaths of dogs and cats in North America and prompted the recall of more than 90 brands of pet food.

In 2008, about 1,300 Iraqi police officers and soldiers were fired in Basra and Kut for failing to fight Shiite militias, the Iraqi government announced. Some were said to have merely switched sides during the battle.

Also in 2008, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission said it would recount ballots in 23 constituencies where the presidential totals in the March 29 voting were disputed, further delaying official results.

The moon is waning. The morning stars are Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune. The evening stars are Mercury and Saturn.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Aries. They include Dutch physicist Christiaan Huygens, founder of the wave theory of light, in 1629; Anne Sullivan, the miracle worker who taught a blind and deaf Helen Keller, in 1866; English historian Arnold Toynbee in 1889; British actor John Gielgud in 1904; Haitian dictator Francois Papa Doc Duvalier in 1907; actors Rod Steiger in 1925 and Bradford Dillman in 1930 (age 79); country singer Loretta Lynn in 1935 (age 74); former New York City police detective Frank Serpico in 1936 (age 73); actress Julie Christie and former baseball star and manager Pete Rose, both in 1941 (age 68); and actors Robert Carlyle in 1961 (age 48); Anthony Michael Hall in 1968 (age 41) and Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) in 1977 (age 32).

In 1828, Noah Webster published his American Dictionary of the English Language. It was the first dictionary of American English to be published.

In 1861, the flag of the Confederacy was raised over Fort Sumter, S.C., as Union troops there surrendered in the early days of the Civil War.

In 1865, John Wilkes Booth shot U.S. President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theater in Washington. Lincoln died the next morning. He was succeeded by Vice President Andrew Johnson.

In 1983, U.S. President Ronald Reagan denied he was trying to overthrow the leftist Nicaraguan government.

In 1986, U.S. warplanes struck Libya in the biggest U.S. airstrike since the Vietnam War. Libya claimed 40 people were killed.

In 1991, 20 major paintings by Van Gogh were stolen from an Amsterdam museum by two gunmen. The paintings were found abandoned 35 minutes later.

In 1992, a federal appeals court in New York ruled that hotel magnate Leona Helmsley, 71, must go to prison for tax evasion.

In 1993, 12 top former Communist officials went on trial charged with treason in the August 1991 coup attempt that hastened the fall of the Soviet Union.

Also in 1993, violence raged throughout South Africa as hundreds of thousands of blacks protested the slaying of popular Communist Party Chief Chris Hani.

In 1994, executives representing seven major tobacco companies told a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee that they didn't believe cigarettes were addictive.

Also in 1994, in what was called a tragic mistake, two U.S. warplanes shot down two U.S. Army helicopters in northern Iraq's no fly zone. All 26 people aboard, including 15 Americans, were killed.

In 1997, comedian Ellen DeGeneres revealed she was a lesbian in an interview with Time magazine. Her ABC-TV sitcom didn't long survive her revelation.

In 2002, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell met with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in an unsuccessful effort to ease tensions with Israel and stop a wave of suicide bombings.

In 2003, U.S. military officials declared that the principal fighting in Iraq was over after Marines captured Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's home town.

Also in 2003, as looting became widespread in Iraq, U.S. Marines and Iraqi policemen began joint security patrols in Baghdad.

In 2005, several indictments were handed down in the U.N. oil-for-food program. A U.S. oil trader was charged with making kickbacks to Iraqis to win contracts.

Also in 2005, the U.S. Transportation Security Administration began enforcing a ban on all types of lighters on planes and in the secure areas of airports.

And, a wave of violence in several parts of Iraq killed about 30 people over the next three days, focusing mostly on police officers.

In 2007, a reported 32 people died when a bus carrying elementary school students collided with a truck on a highway in Turkey.

In 2008, major U.S. airlines Delta and Northwest agreed on a $3.1 billion merger deal.

Also in 2008, Silvia Berlusconi, a staunch U.S. ally, swept back into power in a third term as prime minister of Italy in a new election that gave him control of both houses of parliament.

The moon is waning. The morning stars are Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune. The evening stars are Mercury and Saturn.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Aries. They include Italian painter and inventor Leonardo da Vinci in 1452; British polar explorer James Clark Ross in 1800; author Henry James in 1843; painter Thomas Hart Benton in 1889; actress Marian Jordan, who played Molly in the long-running Fibber McGee and Molly radio show, in 1897; Harold Washington, the first black mayor of Chicago, in 1922; country singer Roy Clark in 1933 (age 76); actresses Elizabeth Montgomery in 1933, Claudia Cardinale in 1938 (age 71) and Amy Wright in 1950 (age 59); newspaper columnist Heloise Cruse Evans (Hints from Heloise) in 1951 (age 58); and actress Emma Thompson in 1959 (age 50).

In 1817, the first U.S. public school for the deaf, Connecticut Asylum for the Education and Instruction of Deaf and Dumb Persons (now the American School for the Deaf), was founded at Hartford, Conn.

In 1861, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln sent Congress a message recognizing a state of war with the Southern states and calling for 75,000 volunteer soldiers.

In 1865, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln died of an assassin's bullet. Vice President Andrew Johnson was sworn in as chief executive.

In 1912, the luxury liner Titanic sank in the northern Atlantic Ocean off Newfoundland after striking an iceberg the night before. Some 1,500 lives were lost.

In 1955, the first franchised McDonald's was opened in Des Plaines, Ill., by Ray Kroc, who got the idea from a hamburger restaurant in San Bernardino, Calif., run by the McDonald brothers.

In 1985, U.S. officials in Seattle indicted 23 members of a neo-Nazi group for robbery and murder. Ten gang members were convicted and sentenced to 40 to 100 years in prison.

In 1991, the European Community lifted its remaining economic sanctions against South Africa, allowing the import of gold coins, iron and steel -- despite pleas by the African National Congress to continue the sanctions.

In 1998, Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge leader who presided over a reign of terror in Cambodia in the late 1970s, died at a jungle outpost near the Cambodian-Thailand border.

In 1999, astronomers announced they had discovered evidence of a planetary system in the constellation Andromeda. At the time it was the only known such system other than the one around the sun.

In 2003, more than 100 Iraqis protested in Baghdad against what they called the U.S. military occupation, shouting Death to America ... Death to Bush.

In 2004, the U.S. Department of Defense announced it was extending the tours of duty of some 21,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, going back on a promise made last year to keep deployments to 12 months.

In 2007, Iran announced it was accepting bids for a contract to build two nuclear power plants in the southern city of Bushehr.

Also in 2007, a group of retired U.S. military generals warned that global warming could destabilize vulnerable states in Africa and Asia.

In 2008, on his first papal visit to the United States, Pope Benedict XVI met with U.S. President George Bush, addressed the U.N., conducted masses at the new Washington Nationals baseball park and Yankee Stadium and celebrated his 81st birthday among a heavy schedule and apologized for the scandal that grew from alleged child abuse by priests.

Also in 2008, 63 people died in two suicide bombings in Baqubas and Ramadi, two former Sunni strongholds in Iraq.

The moon is waning. The morning stars are Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune. The evening stars are Mercury and Saturn.

Those born this date are under the sign of Aries. They include French writer Anatole France in 1844; aviation pioneer Wilbur Wright in 1867; movie legend Charlie Chaplin in 1889; British actor Peter Ustinov in 1921; composer/conductor Henry Mancini in 1924; jazz flutist Herbie Mann in 1930; singer Bobby Vinton in 1935 (age 74); former basketball star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1947 (age 62); actors Ellen Barkin in 1954 (age 55) and Jon Cryer and Martin Lawrence, both in 1965 (age 44); and Tejeno singer Selena (Quintanilla) in 1971.

In 1862, the U.S. Congress abolished slavery in the District of Columbia.

In 1947, in Texas City's port on Galveston Bay, a fire aboard the French freighter Grandcamp ignited ammonium nitrate and other explosive materials in the ship's hold, causing a massive blast that destroyed much of the city and claimed nearly 600 lives.

In 1972, Apollo 16 blasted off on an 11-day moon mission with three U.S. astronauts aboard.

In 1975, the government of Cambodia asked communist insurgents for a cease-fire and offered to turn power over to them.

In 1991, the first Jewish settlement under the Israeli government opened in the occupied territories, defying a U.S. request to stop such settlement activity in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

In 1992, the U.S. House of Representatives ethics committee released the names of more than 300 check-bouncers, ending an inquiry into the House bank scandal that rocked the U.S. Congress and raised havoc in election campaigns.

Also in 1992, the FDA ruled silicone breast implants may be returned to market but only with severe restrictions limiting them to women who have urgent need.

In 1999, hockey legend Wayne Gretzky announced his retirement from the NHL after 21 years.

In 2002, the premier and members of his Dutch government resigned after a report faulted them, along with the United Nations, for a 1995 massacre of 7,500 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica, Bosnia.

In 2005, Sudan said initial oil drilling operations in the troubled Darfur region indicate there is abundant oil in the area.

In 2006, Iranian officials said they had 40,000 suicide bombers ready to attack U.S. and British targets in the Middle East if Iran's nuclear facilities are attacked.

In 2007, a Virginia Tech senior, on a sudden campus shooting rampage, killed 27 fellow students and five faculty members before shooting himself fatally. The shooter, Cho Seung-hui, 23, a South Korea native, was accused further of wounding 24 others.

Also in 2007, Wal-Mart reclaimed the No. 1 position on the 2007 Fortune 500 list with $351.1 billion in revenue for fiscal year 2006, with Exxon Mobil dropping to runner-up.

In 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 7-2 decision, ruled that Kentucky's method of execution by lethal injection didn't violate the constitutional bar against cruel and unusual punishment. Thirty-five of the 36 states that have the death penalty use the method.

The moon is waning. The morning stars are Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune. The evening stars are Mercury and Saturn.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Aries. They include American industrialist and financier J.P. Morgan in 1837; Danish author Karen Blixen (Out of Africa), who wrote under the name Isak Dinesen, in 1885; Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in 1894; novelist and playwright Thornton Wilder in 1897; actor William Holden in 1918; television journalist Harry Reasoner in 1923; music promoter Don Kirshner in 1934 (age 75) and actress Olivia Hussey in 1951 (age 57).

In 1421, the sea broke the dikes at Dort, Holland, drowning an estimated 100,000 people.

In 1521, Martin Luther was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church after refusing to admit to charges of heresy.

In 1524, Italian navigator Giovanni Verrazano discovered New York Harbor.

In 1790, American statesman, printer, scientist and writer Benjamin Franklin died in Philadelphia at age 84.

In 1961, a force of anti-Castro Cuban rebels began what was to end as the ill-fated Bay of Pigs attempt to overthrow Cuba's new Communist government.

In 1964, Jerrie Mock of Columbus, Ohio, became the first woman to complete a solo flight around the world.

In 1970, with the world anxiously watching via television, Apollo 13, a U.S. lunar spacecraft that suffered a severe malfunction on its journey to the moon, safely returned to Earth.

In 1989, the Polish labor union Solidarity was granted legal status after nearly a decade of struggle and suppression, clearing the way for the downfall of Poland's Communist Party.

In 1991, the Dow Jones industrial average closed at more than 3,000 for the first time.

In 1993, a federal court jury convicted two Los Angeles police officers of violating Rodney King's civil rights in the black motorist's 1991 arrest and beating. Two other officers were acquitted.

In 2001, Mississippi voters, by a 2-1 ratio, decided to keep their state flag, which includes the Confederate battle cross in the upper left-hand corner.

In 2003, billionaire philanthropist John Paul Getty Jr. died at a London hospital. Getty, who was being treated for a chest infection, was 70.

In 2004, the U.S. General Accounting Office, looking into the oil-for-food program, administered by the U.N. for Iraq, estimated the Saddam Hussein regime collected more than $11 billion in kickbacks and illegal sales.

Also in 2004, the Israeli army confirmed it had killed the new Hamas leader, Abdel Aziz Rantissi, who had headed the militant group less than a month after his predecessor also was assassinated.

In 2005, 115 Roman Catholic cardinals gathered in the Vatican to begin the selection of a new pope.

In 2006, former Illinois Gov. George Ryan, a Republican, was convicted of 18 felony counts, including racketeering conspiracy and tax and mail fraud.

Also in 2006, at least 63 people were killed when a bus full of Mexican tourists plunged nearly 800 feet off a cliff in eastern Mexico between Vera Cruz and Mexico City.

In 2007, thousands of people gathered on the Virginia Tech campus to mourn the 32 students and staff members slain by a student armed with two handguns who also killed himself, U.S. President George Bush led a national mourning for the victims.

In 2008, during his first papal visit to the United States, Pope Benedict XVI included a recurring theme in his remarks about the scandal that grew from allegations of child abuse by Roman Catholic priests. He said he was deeply ashamed and in a surprise gesture, met with several victims of sexual abuse by priests in the Boston archdiocese.

Also in 2008, a suicide bomber detonated an explosive vest during a tribal leader's funeral in northern Iraq, killing at least 50 people, authorities said. Witnesses reported at least 30 others were injured.

The moon is waning. The morning stars are Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune. The evening stars are Mercury and Saturn.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Aries. They include Italian duchess Lucrezia Borgia in 1480; lawyer Clarence Darrow in 1857; conductor Leopold Stokowski in 1882; actors Barbara Hale in 1921 (age 88), Hayley Mills in 1946 (age 63), James Woods in 1947 (age 62), Rick Moranis in 1953 (age 56), Eric Roberts in 1956 (age 53) and Jane Leeves (Frasier) in 1961 (age 48); late night talk show host Conan O'Brien and actor Eric McCormack (Will & Grace), both in 1963 (age 46); and actress Melissa Joan Hart in 1976 (age 33).

In 1775, American patriot Paul Revere began his famed ride through the Massachusetts countryside, crying out The British are coming! to rally the Minutemen.

In 1906, an earthquake struck San Francisco, collapsing buildings and igniting fires that destroyed much of what remained of the city. By the time it was over three days later, almost 500 people were dead and more than 250,000 were homeless.

In 1923, Yankee Stadium opened in New York.

In 1942, U.S. planes bombed the Japanese mainland for the first time during World War II.

In 1945, journalist Ernie Pyle, America's most popular World War II correspondent, was killed by Japanese machine-gun fire on the island of Ie Shima in the Pacific.

In 1949, the Republic of Ireland formally declared itself independent from Britain.

In 1980, Rhodesia became the independent African nation of Zimbabwe.

In 1983, the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, was severely damaged by a car-bomb explosion that killed 63 people, including 17 Americans.

In 1992, an 11-year-old Florida boy sued to divorce his natural parents and remain with his foster parents. The boy eventually won his suit.

In 1993, the U.N. Security Council voted to toughen sanctions against Serbia because of its support for Bosnian Serbs trying to carve an ethnically pure state out of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

In 1996, gunmen killed 18 people and wounded 15 more in an attack on tourists at the Egyptian pyramids.

In 2002, former U.S. Sen. Bob Kerrey, D.-Neb., revealed that at least 13 civilians were killed by his U.S. Navy unit in a Vietnamese village in 1969.

In 2003, Abu Dhabi TV aired videotape showing a man who appeared to be Saddam Hussein greeting a crowd of supporters as coalition forces entered Baghdad.

In 2004, in one of his first acts as Spain's new prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero issued orders withdrawing all 1,300 Spanish troops from Iraq.

In 2005, the leaders of archrivals India and Pakistan issued a joint statement saying peace between the two nuclear powers was irreversible.

In 2006, two members of the Duke University lacrosse team were arrested and charged with raping a dancer who had performed at a team party. A third player was charged later. All were later exonerated and all charges dropped.

In 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court, on a 5-4 vote, upheld a 2003 law banning so-called partial-birth abortion, a procedure performed usually late in pregnancy.

Also in 2007, a reported 127 people were killed and 148 were wounded in a suicide car bomb explosion near a Baghdad market.

In 2008, a Texas judge ordered 416 children taken from a polygamist religious sect be held in protective custody pending an investigation into abuse allegations.

The moon is waning. The morning stars are Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune. The evening stars are Mercury and Saturn.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Aries. They include statesman Roger Sherman, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, in 1721; music patron Augustus Juilliard in 1836; federal agent Eliot Ness, head of the untouchables team that brought down Al Capone, in 1903; actors Jayne Mansfield in 1933; Hugh O'Brian in 1925 (age 84), Dudley Moore in 1935, Elinor Donahue in 1937 (age 72), Tim Curry in 1946 (age 63) and Ashley Judd in 1968 (age 41); auto racer Al Unser Jr. in 1962 (age 47).

In 1775, the American Revolutionary War began at the Battle of Lexington, Mass. Eight Minutemen were killed and 10 wounded in an exchange of musket fire with British Redcoats.

In 1861, one week after the Civil War began, the first Americans died, the result of a clash between a secessionist mob in Baltimore and Massachusetts troops bound for Washington. Four soldiers and 12 rioters were killed.

In 1943, Jewish residents of the Warsaw Ghetto revolted when the Germans tried to resume deportations to the Treblinka concentration camp. When the uprising ended on May 16, 300 Germans and 7,000 Jews had died and the ghetto lay in ruins.

In 1971, the Soviet Union launched its first Salyut space station.

In 1989, an explosion in a gun turret aboard the battleship USS Iowa killed 47 sailors.

Also in 1989, pro-democracy demonstrations began in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

In 1990, the U.S.-backed Contra rebels and the outgoing Nicaraguan government agreed to an immediate cease-fire and a formula to disarm and demobilize the Contras by June 10.

In 1993, the 51-day Branch Davidian standoff near Waco, Texas, ended when fire destroyed the fortified compound after authorities tear-gassed the place. Cult leader David Koresh and 85 followers, including 17 children, were killed.

Also in 1993, the governor of South Dakota and seven other people were killed in a plane crash in Iowa.

In 1994, a federal jury awarded police beating victim Rodney King $3.8 million in compensatory damages from the city of Los Angeles.

In 1995, 168 people were killed and more than 400 injured when a bomb exploded outside a federal office building in Oklahoma City.

In 1997, the rising Red River drove tens of thousands of people from their homes in North Dakota and Minnesota.

In 2000, a federal appeals court ruled in a high-profile case that 6-year-old Cuban refugee Elian Gonzalez may stay in the United States until the court heard the full appeal from his relatives, who sought to retain custody of the boy. Eventually, he was returned to his father and went back to Cuba.

In 2005, conservative German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, already a major power in the Roman Catholic Church, was elected pope to succeed the John Paul II. He chose the name of Benedict XVI.

In 2008, Iraqi security forces gained control over a Mehdi Army stronghold in Basra with help from U.S. and British air and artillery.

Also in 2008, Egypt's foreign minister says his country is having success bringing forward a peace agreement between Israel and Hamas. Egypt's government is reported trying to get the two sides to agree on a period of quiet.