TODAY’S HISTORY

1865: Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia, effectively ending the Civil War.

1940: Germany launched Operation Weseruebung, invading Norway and Denmark.

1959: NASA announced the selection of the first astronauts, whom the media dubbed the “Mercury Seven.”

2003: Iraqis celebrating the collapse of Saddam Hussein’s regime destroyed a 20-foot statue of Hussein in Baghdad’s Firdaus Square.

TODAY’S

BIRTHDAYS: Charles Baudelaire (18211867), poet; Curly Lambeau (18981965), football player/ coach; Paul Robeson (1898-1976), athlete/ actor/singer; Hugh Hefner (1926-2017), publisher; Carl Perkins (1932-1998), singer-songwriter; Peter Gammons (1945-), sportswriter; Dennis Quaid (1954-), actor; Joe Scarborough (1963-), TV personality; Jeffrey Zucker (1965-), TV executive; Cynthia Nixon (1966-), actress; Jay Baruchel (1982-), actor; Keshia Knight Pulliam (1979-), actress; Kristen Stewart, (1990-), actress; Elle Fanning (1998-), actress.

TODAY’S FACT: The “Mercury Seven” were Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard and Donald Slayton.

TODAY’S SPORTS: In 1965, the Astrodome in Houston, Texas, hosted the first Major League Baseball game to be played indoors. The Astros defeated the New York Yankees in the exhibition game by a score of 2-1.

TODAY’S QUOTE: “Genius is nothing more nor less than childhood recaptured at will.” — Charles Baudelaire

TODAY’S NUMBER: $384 million — estimated cost of the Mercury program (1959-1963), NASA’S first human spaceflight project.

TODAY’S MOON: Between last quarter moon (April 4) and new moon (April 11).