NEA DATEBOOK

TODAY’S HISTORY: In 1917, Vladimir Lenin returned to Russia in a sealed train after years in exile.

In 1943, Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann discovered the hallucinogenic effects of LSD.

In 1947, a fertilizer explosion during the loading of the freighter Grandcamp at a pier in Texas City, Texas, left more than 500 dead.

In 1963, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. penned his famous “Letter From Birmingham City Jail.”

In 2007, a gunman killed 32 people in a shooting spree on the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, Virginia.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Anatole France (1844-1924), writer; Wilbur Wright (18671912), pilot/engineer; Charlie Chaplin (18891977), filmmaker; Peter Ustinov (1921-2004), actor; Henry Mancini (1924-1994), composer; Pope Benedict XVI (1927-2022); Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1947- ), basketball player; Bill Belichick (1952- ), football coach; Ellen

Barkin (1954- ), actress; Jon Cryer (1965- ), actor; Martin Lawrence (1965- ), actor; Chance the Rapper (1993- ), rapper; Anya Taylor-Joy (1996- ), actress.

TODAY’S FACT: Charlie Chaplin’s body was stolen in 1978 by grave robbers hoping to extort money from his family for its return. It was recovered 11 weeks later, and the perpetrators were arrested.

TODAY’S SPORTS: 0 — hits allowed by Cleveland Indians pitcher Bob Feller on this day in 1940. Feller’s performance remains the only opening day no-hitter in Major League Baseball history.

TODAY’S QUOTE: “Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.” — Anatole France

TODAY’S NUMBER: 13,981 — performances of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “The Phantom of the Opera,” the longest-running show in the history of Broadway. Its 35-year run ended on April 16, 2023.

TODAY’S MOON: Between first quarter moon (April 15) and full moon (April 23).