Here are five things you need to know today:

1) Sunshine returns: After such a dreary Wednesday, we are happy to report that the National Weather Service is expecting clear skies today. With sunshine most of the day, temperatures will be in the low 50s. But, beware, we’ll likely get some rain and/or snow overnight and into Friday.

2) Don’t forget: As if you could! School vacation starts tomorrow, Friday, Dec. 23, for all public school students. Woburn Memorial High School will be dismissed at 11:30 a.m., middle schools at 12 p.m. and elementary schools at 12:30 p.m.

3) Event spotlight: OK, it’s not the most exciting event spotlight ever, but we’ll go with it all the same. The Woburn Biomedical Oversight Committee will meet at 5 p.m. today in the City Hall Board of Health conference room. On the agenda for discussion is Batavia BioServices of 300 TradeCenter.

4) In case you missed it: The Kennedy Middle School Giving Tree was highlighted in a wonderful story yesterday by Nadine Wandzilak. Click here to read this heartwarming story of children helping other children.

5) A gorilla is born: On this day in 1956, the first baby gorilla was born in captivity at the Columbus Zoo in Ohio. Little Colo was reared by zookeepers in a nursery at the zoo. Today, gorillas born in captivity are briefly handled by humans before being raised by mother gorillas in zoo habitats. Colo is still alive today and became a great-great-grandmother in 2003.

To find out what is going on today in Woburn, check out our events listings.