Today Date / Date

Returns the current date.
 
SELECT CURRENT_DATE()

        -> 2008-06-13

Now

Returns the current date and time. NOW() returns the time at which the function or triggering statement began to execute. Differs from the behavior for SYSDATE(), which returns the exact time at which it executes.
 
SELECT NOW() n1, SLEEP(2), NOW() n2

    -> 2006-04-12 13:47:36 # n1
    -> 2006-04-12 13:47:36 # n2

SELECT SYSDATE() s1, SLEEP(2), SYSDATE() s2

    -> 2006-04-12 13:47:36 # s1
    -> 2006-04-12 13:47:38 # s2




References: