GOOD MORNING – TODAY IS THURSDAY, April 16, the 106th day of 2015 with 259 to follow. Sunrise in the Boston area is @ 6:02 and sunset is @ 7:25. The moon is waning. The morning stars are stars are Mercury, Neptune & Saturn. The evening stars are Jupiter, Mars, Uranus & Venus.

ON THIS DAY IN: 1851 – A lighthouse was swept away in a gale at Minot’s Ledge, Massachusetts.

1862 – President Abraham Lincoln signed an act abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia.

1900 – The first books of U.S. postage stamps were issued.

1908 – Utah’s Natural Bridges National Monument was established.

1917 – Vladimir Lenin, leader of the revolutionary Bolshevik Party, returned to Petrograd after a decade of exile to take the reins of the Russian Revolution.

1926 – The Book-of-the-Month Club in New York City chose as its first selection, “Lolly Willowes” or “The Loving Huntsman” by Sylvia Townsend.

1935 – The radio comedy program “Fibber McGee and Molly” premiered.

1943 – The hallucinogenic effects of LSD were discovered accidentally by Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman.

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

1947 – Bernard Baruch coined the term “Cold War.”

1962 – Walter Cronkite succeeded Douglas Edwards as anchorman of “The CBS Evening News.”

2003 – Michael Jordan played his last NBA game as his Washington Wizards lost to the Philadelphia 76ers in the last game of the season.

2003 – The Treaty of Accession was signed in Athens admitting 10 new member states to the European Union.