Honors

Happy Earth Day! It's been 43 years since Wisconsin Sen. Gaylord Nelson celebrated the very first Earth Day on April 22, 1970. It's not yet a federal holiday, but Earth Day is celebrated by schoolkids from coast to coast (along with many adults). Of course, it goes without saying that for some folks, every day is Earth Day. Here are seven things you might not have known about Earth Day (and the spirit of environmentalism it represents): * More than 1 billion people in 192 countries are doing something to mark Earth Day this year, according to estimates from the Earth Day Network . In Veracruz, Mexico, volunteers will clean up beaches to improve the habitat for sea turtles.

Red Sox outfielder Jonny Gomes honored the victims killed in the Boston Marathon bombings as well as the slain MIT police officer this weekend by having their names etched on his bat. Teammate Will Middlebrooks sent out an Instagram photo on Twitter. The names of Krystle Campbell, Lu Lingzi, Martin Richard and Officer Sean Collier were emblazoned below the phrase "Boston Strong. " The third baseman's tweet about Gomes' bat follows. Jonny Gomes bat today twitter.com/middlebrooks/s… - Will Middlebrooks (@middlebrooks)

Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, took on some major royal duties Sunday when she honored the Queen's Scouts at Windsor Castle. The former Kate Middleton attended the National Review of Queen's Scouts for the first time in place of the queen, who was celebrating her 87th birthday privately, the Daily Mail reported . And it looks as if she's got this royal duty down pat. Since the duchess, a trained scout volunteer, joined the scouts in...

Atwood will appear at the Festival of Books in conversation with Michael Silverblatt at 11 a.m. on Saturday. More information: latimes.com/festivalofbooks If you want a sense of how Margaret Atwood operates, you could do a lot worse than to watch her keynote address at the 2011 O'Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing Conference in New York. "This is not the kind of thing I usually do," the author begins, speaking in a quiet deadpan, before stepping from behind a podium and moving to the lip of the stage.

Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy's buddy cop comedy "The Heat" will be screened in advance for Boston police officers and FBI agents. The city was stunned Monday after twin bombings at the Boston Marathon killed three people and injured scores more. Bullock, who plays an uptight "Miss Congeniality"-esque FBI agent sent to work on a case in Boston in the film, thought the screening was a small token of appreciation. "It's been an amazing tightknit community before this happened, and it just bonded a community even more," Bullock told CNN at tge CinemaCon gathering in Las Vegas.

BOSTON -- Boston University set up a scholarship fund Thursday in honor of student Lu Lingzi, one of three people killed in Monday's bombing at the city's marathon. Donors have already committed $560,000 toward the fund, the university said. On a day when President Obama delivered a rousing speech at a religious service in Boston honoring the victims, the university said Lu's family would travel to Boston from their home in Shenyang, China, as soon as this weekend. The university may hold a memorial service next week, depending on the family's wishes, a university spokesman said.

Run for Boston. A phrase circulating among running communities nationwide made its way to the Santa Monica Pier on Wednesday, where dozens gathered to honor the victims of the Boston Marathon bombings. The impromptu run was organized largely through word of mouth, social media and text message. The runners met at the pier at 6 a.m. with a 26.2-mile route -- marathon distance -- mapped out. FULL COVERAGE: Boston Marathon attack " Calling all of LA's runners and run clubs/teams together to run in unity in honor of the 2013 Boston Marathon tragedy," according to a Facebook event posting by the L.A. Speed Project.

Teams in the English Premier League were divided over whether to hold a pregame moment of silence to honor the memory of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who died this month. Not so with victims of Monday's bombing at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Before the team's clash with Wigan on Wednesday at Etihad Stadium, staff from Manchester City laid two wreaths at midfield "for the victims and all those affected" by the bombing. And while the wreaths may have been small, the gesture was great, coming as it did in a city that was to be the target of a terrorist plot foiled in 2009.

The New York Yankees paid tribute to victims of the Boston Marathon bombings by playing the Fenway Park favorite "Sweet Caroline" at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday night. The song has been featured at Boston Red Sox home games since 2002. The Yankees played the Neil Diamond hit after the third inning against Arizona. Yankees fans sang along, and some people in the crowd wore Red Sox caps and jerseys. Diamond himself took to Twitter to thank the Yankees. Thank you NY Yankees for playing 'Sweet Caroline' for the people of Boston.

In her prolific career, singer Margaret Whiting recorded 500 songs, including such signature hits as "It Might as Well Be Spring," "That Old Black Magic" and "Baby It's Cold Outside. " Along with such legends as Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald, Whiting was regarded as one of the premiere interpreters of what is known as the Great American Songbook - songs written by such renowned composers and lyricists of the 20th century as George and Ira Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart, Oscar Hammerstein II, Frank Loesser, Johnny Mercer and Richard Whiting, Margaret's father.