The Almanac, Celebrity Birthdays, Today in History, April 23 Today is Tuesday, April 23, the 113th day of 2013 with 252 to follow. They include English playwright William Shakespeare in 1564; James Buchanan, 15th president of the United States, in 1791; Nobel Prize-winning physicist Max Planck in 1858; Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev in 1891; Canadian Prime Minister and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Lester Pearson in 1897; baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Warren Spahn in 1921; actor/diplomat Shirley Temple Black in 1928 (age 85); distance runner and author Jim Fixx in 1932; singer Roy Orbison in 1936; actors Lee Majors and David Birney, both in 1939 (age 74), Sandra Dee in 1942, Herve Villechaize in 1943, Joyce DeWitt in 1949 (age 64), Jan Hooks in 1957 (age 56), Valerie Bertinelli in 1960 (age 53), George Lopez in 1961 (age 52); Melina Kanakaredes in 1967 (age 46) and Kal Penn in 1977 (age 36); documentarian Michael Moore in 1954 (age 59); and Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh in 1968. In 1635, the first public school in America, the Boston Latin School, was opened. In 1898, the first movie theater opened at the Koster and Bials Music Hall in New York City. In 1898, the U.S. government asked for 125,000 volunteers to fight against Spain in Cuba. In 1965, more than 200 U.S. planes struck North Vietnam in one of the heaviest raids of the Vietnam War. In 1985, former U.S. Sen. Sam Ervin died at age 88. The North Carolina Democrat directed the Senate Watergate investigation that led to President Richard Nixon's resignation. In 1991, Virgilio Pablo Paz Romero was arrested for the 1976 car-bomb killing of Chilean Ambassador Orlando Letelier in Washington. In 1992, McDonald's opened its first restaurant in Beijing. In 1993, United Farm Workers founder Cesar Chavez died at age 66. In 2002, Pope John Paul II met with U.S. cardinals to discuss the sexual abuse scandal that rocked the Roman Catholic Church. He expressed an apology to victims of abuse, saying what had happened to them was a crime and "an appalling act in the eyes of God." In 2006, Hungary's Socialist-Liberal coalition recaptured government control by a comfortable majority in parliamentary elections. In 2007, former Russian President Boris Yeltsin, who faced down army tanks during the fall of the Soviet Union, died of cardiac arrest at the age of 76. In 2008, U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus, top U.S. military official in Iraq, was promoted to head of Central Command, overseeing military affairs in the Middle East and Central Asia, including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2009, the U.S. government told Chrysler, the third member of Detroit's "Big 3" automakers, to prepare to file for bankruptcy. Chrysler was given a few days to complete a deal with Fiat, the Italian carmaker. In 2010, Arizona enacted a law requiring local governments and police to crack down on illegal immigrants. The law, among other things, made it a state crime to be in the United States illegally and eased the process of making arrests. In 2011, Syrian police were accused of firing at mourners at funerals for protesters killed a day earlier, claiming six lives. At least 104 people were reported killed the day before in one of the most violent days in protests against President Bashar al-Assad. In 2012, French election results had Socialist Francois Hollande edging President Nicolas Sarkozy, setting up a May 6 runoff. A thought for the day: Douglas Adams observed, "I may not have gone where I intended to go but I think I have ended up where I intended to be."