Our child-president Barack Obama turns a sprightly 49 today, and everyone's excited. The Republican National Committee, for example, have set up a website where you can send very mean birthday cards to the commander-in-chief. Which will you choose?

Today is Barack Obama's 49th birthday! Yesterday he told reporters that he's gotten a lot more gray hair in the past year. For his birthday, we decided to put together a photo comparison for him. Sweet of us, no?

Western lowland gorilla Mouila, who lives in a British zoo, just turned 50 years old! She has eight offspring and is a grandmother. Mouila had a blowout party with six other gorillas, and opened packages filled with treats and straw.

Michelle Obama is bored and so she will spend a few days in Spain, with one of the children — during Barack Obama's birthday! Now he'll just have a slumber party with Biden. And a $1.5 million fundraiser. [Image: AP]

[Tibetan monks prepare to serve sweetened rice at the 75th birthday party for the Dalai Lama in Dharmsala, India, today. He has been living in Dharmsala since 1959, when he fled Tibet after a failed uprising against China. AP]

America's premiere cable news network first debuted on the airwaves at 6pm on June 1, 1980. What a memorable three decades it's been. Short of doing an exhaustive retrospective, let's take a condensed look at some of network's finest moments.

In Switzerland, parents hire "Evil Clown" Dominic Deville to stalk their children for a week, leave them threatening notes, and finally attack them with a cake in the face, for their birthday. Military neutrality has a dark side. [Metro UK]

Today is March 29th. Passover begins at sundown. And pastry lovers are celebrating National Lemon Chiffon Cake Day today.

Did you know today is Greek Independence Day? It is. It's also Maryland Day, which is probably exciting news for people who live in Maryland. Or maybe not.

Birthdays

Today is March 24. Happy World Tuberculosis Day!

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Blessed 68th birthday wishes to maniacal Elvis doppelganger and beloved North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il! While outside agitators allege that Kim's mental and physical health is flagging, we have official word that the truth could not be more opposite.

Style icon Pat Field turns 68 today. Film director Darren Aronofsky is turning 41. Christina Ricci is 30. Senator Arlen Specter is turning 80. Children's author Judy Blume is 72. Josh Brolin, the actor and son of James Brolin, is turning 42. Locanda Verde chef Andrew Carmellini is 39. Tech visionary Raymond Kurzweil turns 61. Celebrity nutritionist Oz Garcia is 59. Fonzworth Bentley, Diddy's former assistant and now the host of his own show on MTV, is 36. Chynna Phillips is turning 42. And Arsenio Hall turns 55 today. A few people celebrating birthdays this weekend—including Mayor Bloomberg—are below.

Jennifer Aniston turns 41 today (even though she celebrated the occasion last weekend with Gerard Butler). The woman who could have been a heartbeat away from becoming president, still thinks she has a chance in 2012, and whose name we cannot even type without feeling nauseous, is turning 46. Sheryl Crow is 48. Brandy is turning 31. Mr. Burt Reynolds will be blowing out 74 candles on top of his cake today. Kelly Rowland is celebrating her 29th. Actress Carey Lowell is 49. Legendary British fashion designer Mary Quant is 76. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is turning 57. The always classy Aubrey O'Day turns 26. And Twilight actor and tween hearthrob Taylor Lautner turns 18 today.

Actress Alexandra Wentworth, wife of George Stephanopolous, decided don a Diane Sawyer wig and leopard-print dress so she could surprise George on the set of GMA. She literally crawled on the desk like a sexed-up panther, and George loved it.

Two of the most overly dramatic—and annoying—people on TV are celebrating birthdays today: CNBC's Jim Cramer is turning 55; Glenn Beck of Fox News turns 45. Good Morning America's new anchor, George Stephanopoulos, is 49. Bob Iger, the CEO of Disney, is 59. Former Mets outfielder and failed financial guru Lenny Dykstra is 47. Actress Laura Dern is turning 43. Director Alexander Payne (Election, Sideways) is 49. R&B singer Roberta Flack is 73. Actress Elizabeth Banks is turning 36. Tween star Emma Roberts is turning 19. Robert Wagner is 80. Olympic swimmer Mark Spitz is turning 60. Golfer Greg Norman is 55. And NYC restaurant legend Elaine Kaufman turns 81 today.

Mia Farrow turns 65 today. Joe Pesci is turning 67. Model Amber Valletta is 37. Actress Mena Suvari is 31. Alice Walker, the author of The Color Purple, is turning 66. Nobel Prize-winning author J.M. Coetzee is 70. Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz is turning 67. Columbia physicist and author Brian Greene is 47. Chinese actress Ziyi Zhang is 31. Virginia Senator Jim Webb is 64. Retired TV news anchor Roger Mudd is 82. Singer-songwriter Carole King is 68. And Judith Light of Who's the Boss fame turns 61 today.