TODAY’S HISTORY

1712: slaves in New York City launched a revolt, killing nine white slaveholders.

1862: Union forces under Ulysses S. Grant defeated Confederate troops in the Battle of Shiloh.

1948: the World Health Organization was established by the United Nations.

1994: civil war and ethnic genocide began in Rwanda, claiming an estimated 500,000 to 1 million lives over the next several months.

2003: U.S. troops took over Saddam Hussein’s presidential palace in Baghdad.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: William Wordsworth (1770-1850), poet; Will Keith Kellogg (1860-1951), Kellogg Company founder; Billie Holiday (1915-1959), singer-songwriter; Ravi Shankar (1920-2012), musician; James Garner (1928-2014), actor; Francis Ford Coppola (1939-), filmmaker; David Frost (1939-2013), journalist/ TV personality; Stan Winston (1946-2008), special effects artist; Jackie Chan (1954-), actor; James “Buster” Douglas (1960-), boxer; Russell Crowe (1964-), actor; Tiki and Ronde Barber (1975-), football players.

TODAY’S FACT: Educator Booker T. Washington was the first African American to be depicted on a U.S. postage stamp, issued on this day in 1940.

TODAY’S SPORTS: In 1963, at age 23, golfer Jack Nicklaus won the first of his six Masters titles.

TODAY’S QUOTE: “Wisdom is oft-times nearer when we stoop / Than when we soar.” — William Wordwsworth, “The Excursion”

TODAY’S NUMBER: 1,925 — performances of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “South Pacific” during its original Broadway run, which began on this day in 1949.

TODAY’S MOON: Between new moon (March 31) and first quarter moon (April 8).