ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC
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Today is the 140th day of 2017 and the 62nd day of spring.
TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act, which provided Western settlers free land for farms.
In 1873, Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis received the U.S. patent for blue jeans.
In 1902, Cuba declared independence from the United States.
In 1969, the Battle of Hamburger Hill ended in South Vietnam.
In 2006, Nouri al-Maliki took office as prime minister of Iraq.
TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Honore de Balzac (1799-1850), author; John Stuart Mill (1806-1873), philosopher; William Fargo (1818-1881), Wells Fargo co-founder; Jimmy Stewart (1908-1997), actor; Joe Cocker (1944-2014), singer-songwriter; Cher (1946- ), singer-songwriter/actress; Ted Allen (1965- ), TV personality; Timothy Olyphant (1968- ), actor; Tony Stewart (1971- ), race car driver; Busta Rhymes (1972- ), rapper; Matt Czuchry (1977- ), actor.
TODAY'S FACT: In 1916, the Saturday Evening Post published its first issue featuring a Norman Rockwell painting ("Boy with Baby Carriage") on the cover.
TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1989, Sunday Silence beat Easy Goer by a nose in the 114th Preakness Stakes, the horse race's closest margin.
TODAY'S QUOTE: "He who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side; if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion." -- John Stuart Mill, "On Liberty"
TODAY'S NUMBER: 270 million -- acres of U.S. land given away through the Homestead Act.
TODAY'S MOON: Between last quarter moon (May 18) and new moon (May 25).