What is Jackie Robinson Day around Major League Baseball and why is it always on April 15?

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jackie Robinson’s legacy is being celebrated around the major leagues on Tuesday, with the day named for the first Black baseball player of the modern era and marking the 78th anniversary of his debut for the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Robinson's historic achievement preceded President Harry S. Truman's desegregation of the military in 1948. Robinson served in the Army for two years before his pro baseball career.

He made a cultural impact not only through his success on the field. His character and his belief in nonviolence in the face of harassment by fans and racist attitudes among some of his fellow players won Robinson widespread respect and admiration. After his career ended, Robinson campaigned for civil rights, was active in politics and spoke out about baseball's lack of minority managers and personnel at MLB headquarters.

“I’m not concerned with your liking or disliking me,” he said. “All I ask is that you respect me as a human being.”

On opening day this year, 6.2% of MLB players were Black, up from 6% in 2024 and the first year-over-year improvement since 2018, according to MLB.com.

It's the day every year that Major League Baseball honors Robinson. His debut on April 15, 1947, ended 80 years of segregation in the sport. It's celebrated at every major league park hosting games that day. It was first held in 2004.

Jack Roosevelt Robinson broke baseball's color line when he started at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers at the relatively advanced age of 28. Until the team signed him, Black players had been relegated to the Negro Leagues since the 1880s.

Born in Georgia, Robinson grew up in Pasadena, California, where his family encountered racism and his brother, Mack, could only find work as a street sweeper after winning a silver medal behind Jesse Owens in the 200 meters at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Robinson participated in football, baseball, basketball and track at Pasadena Junior College and UCLA, where he became a star football player for the Bruins. Robinson's name and likeness now adorns various sites around Pasadena, including the historic Rose Bowl.

He played 10 years with the Dodgers, earning the Rookie of the Year award in 1947, was a six-time All-Star and became the first Black player to win National League Most Valuable Player award in 1949. He played in six World Series and contributed to the Dodgers' 1955 championship team. He was inducted into baseball's Hall of Fame in 1962, his first year of eligibility. Robinson died at age 53 of a heart attack in 1972. He's buried at Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn.

A Department of Defense webpage describing Robinson’s military service was restored last month after it was missing. Pages honoring a Black Medal of Honor winner and Japanese American service members were taken down, which the Pentagon said was a mistake. The Defense Department has been removing online content singling out contributions by women and minority groups, which President Donald Trump's administration considers to be diversity, equity and inclusion.

Robinson wore No. 42 during his playing days with the Dodgers. In 2009, every player, manager and coach began wearing the number to honor Robinson, which can make identifying them confusing. The umpires also wear the number, the only one universally retired by all major league teams.

The date marks the anniversary of Robinson's debut in 1947. It was also opening day in baseball that season. He started at first base and went 0 for 3, but reached base on an error and scored the winning run in a 5-3 victory over the Boston Braves in Brooklyn.

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB

Former NBA basketball player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar prepares to speak to members of the Los Angeles Dodgers to commemorate Jackie Robinson Day before a baseball game against the Colorado Rockies at Dodger Stadium Tuesday, April 15, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

People gather at Dodger Stadium to commemorate Jackie Robinson Day before a baseball game against the Colorado Rockies Tuesday, April 15, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani, left, hugs members of the Colorado Rockies at Dodger Stadium during an event to commemorate Jackie Robinson Day before a baseball game Tuesday, April 15, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

FILE - Los Angeles Dodgers and Washington Nationals team members arrive to celebrate Jackie Robinson Tribute Day before a baseball game at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, on Monday, April 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

FILE - Ayo Robinson, the granddaughter of baseball great Jackie Robinson, pauses next to a sculpture of her grandfather on Jackie Robinson Day before a baseball game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Washington Nationals at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, Monday, April 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

FILE - Brooklyn Dodgers' infielder Jackie Robinson is photographed on April 18, 1948. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - Brooklyn Dodgers' Jackie Robinson safely steals home plate under the tag of New York Yankees catcher Yogi Berra as pinch-hitter Frank Kellert looks on in the eighth inning of the World Series opener at New York's Yankee Stadium, Sept. 28, 1955. (AP Photo/John Rooney, File)

FILE - Baseball Player Jackie Robinson with the Montreal Royals club at Sanford, Fla., March 4, 1946. (AP Photo/Bill Chaplis, File)

ANTALYA, Turkey (AP) — NATO foreign ministers on Thursday debated an American demand to massively ramp up defense investment to 5% of gross domestic product over the next seven years, as the U.S. focuses on security challenges outside of Europe.

At talks in Antalya, Turkey, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said that more investment and military equipment are needed to deal with the threat posed by Russia and terrorism, but also by China which has become the focus of U.S. concern.

“When it comes to the core defense spending, we need to do much, much more,” Rutte told reporters. He underlined that once the war in Ukraine is over, Russia could reconstitute its armed forces within three to five years.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio underlined that “the alliance is only as strong as its weakest link.” He insisted that the U.S. investment demand is about “spending money on the capabilities that are needed for the threats of the 21st century.”

The debate on defense spending is heating up ahead of a summit of U.S. President Donald Trump and his NATO counterparts in the Netherlands on June 24-25. It's a high-level gathering that will set the course for future European security, including that of Ukraine.

In 2023, as Russia’s full-scale war on Ukraine entered its second year, NATO leaders agreed to spend at least 2% of GDP on national defense budgets. So far, 22 of the 32 member countries have done so.

The new spending plan under consideration is for all allies to aim for 3.5% of GDP on their defense budgets by 2032, plus an extra 1.5% on potentially defense-related things like infrastructure — roads, bridges, airports and seaports.

While the two figures add up to 5%, factoring in infrastructure and cybersecurity would change the basis on which NATO traditionally calculates defense spending. The seven-year time frame is also short by the alliance’s usual standards.

Rutte refused to confirm the numbers under consideration, but he acknowledged the importance of including infrastructure in the equation, “for example to make sure that bridges, yes, are there for you and me to drive our cars but also if necessary to make sure that the bridge will hold a tank. So all these expenditures have to be taken into account.”

But he didn't signal any progress on narrowing the numbers down after the meeting, which came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy waited, apparently in vain, in the Turkish capital Ankara for Russian President President Vladimir to hold face-to-face talks on ending their 3-year-old war.

It’s difficult to see how many members would reach a new 3.5% goal. Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Italy, Luxembourg, Montenegro, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain are not even spending 2% yet, although Spain does expect to reach that goal in 2025, a year past the deadline.

The U.S. demand would require investment at an unprecedented scale, but Trump has cast doubt over whether the U.S. would defend allies that spend too little, and this remains an incentive to do more, even as European allies realize that they must match the threat posed by Russia.

Europe-wide, industry leaders and experts have pointed out challenges the continent must overcome to be a truly self-sufficient military power, chiefly its decades-long reliance on the U.S. as well as its fragmented defense industry.

“There is a lot at stake for us,” Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys said. He urged his NATO partners to meet the investment goals faster than the 2032 target "because we see the tempo and the speed, how Russia generates its forces now as we speak.”

British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said his country should reach 2.5% by 2027, and then 3% by the next U.K. elections planned for 2029.

“It’s hugely important that we recommit to Europe’s defense and that we step up alongside our U.S. partners in this challenging geopolitical moment where there are so many precious across the world, and particularly in the Indo-Pacific,” he said.

As an organization, NATO plays no direct security role in Asia, and it remains unclear what demands the Trump administration might make of the allies as it turns its attention to China. The last NATO security operation outside the Euro-Atlantic area, its 18-year stay in Afghanistan, ended in chaos.

Asked after the meeting about whether the next summit communique will underline that still Russia poses the greatest threat to all NATO allies, Rutte refused to be drawn: “We will see what is the best way to play that,” he said.

Question marks also hang over the way the leaders will frame NATO's commitment to Ukraine. The war there has dominated recent summits, with envoys struggling to find language that would further anchor the country to the alliance without actually allowing it to join.

But this year, the United States has taken Ukraine's membership off the table. Trump has shown impatience with Zelenskyy and remains unclear whether he will be invited to the meeting in The Hague.

Cook reported from Brussels, and Fraser from Ankara, Turkey.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, right, talks to Luxembourg's Foreign Minister Xavier Bettel as they arrive for a group photo during a NATO's informal meeting of foreign ministers in Antalya, southern Turkey, Thursday, May 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Turkey's Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, center, talks to British Foreign Secretary David Lammy, right, next to Germany's Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, left, as they wait for a group photo during a NATO's informal meeting of foreign ministers in Antalya, southern Turkey, Thursday, May 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte talks to journalists as he arrives for a NATO's informal meeting of foreign ministers in Antalya, southern Turkey, Thursday, May 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

British Foreign Secretary David Lammy talks to journalists as he arrives for a NATO's informal meeting of foreign ministers in Antalya, southern Turkey, Thursday, May 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

NATO foreign ministers pose for a group photo during their informal meeting in Antalya, southern Turkey, Thursday, May 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Turkey's Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan talks to journalists as he arrives for a NATO's informal meeting of foreign ministers in Antalya, southern Turkey, Thursday, May 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio, right, talks to British Foreign Secretary David Lammy during an informal meeting of NATO's foreign ministers in Antalya, southern Turkey, Thursday, May 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte talks to journalists as he arrives for NATO's informal meeting of foreign ministers in Antalya, southern Turkey, Thursday, May 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a joint press statement with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (Alexander Nemenov/Pool Photo via AP)

Secretary of State Marco Rubio departs a lunch between President Donald Trump and Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani at the Amiri Diwan in Doha, Qatar, Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)