ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 159th day of 2017 and the 81st day of spring.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1789, James Madison, then a member of the House of Representatives, proposed the Bill of Rights to Congress.

In 1949, George Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four" was published.

In 1968, James Earl Ray, who was suspected of assassinating Martin Luther King Jr., was arrested in London.

In 1982, President Ronald Reagan became the first U.S. president to address a joint session of the British Parliament.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Robert Schumann (1810-1856), composer; Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959), architect; Francis Crick (1916-2004), biophysicist; Barbara Bush (1925- ), U.S. first lady; Jerry Stiller (1927- ), comedian/actor; Joan Rivers (1933-2014), comedian/actress; Tim Berners-Lee (1955- ), World Wide Web inventor; Scott Adams (1957- ), cartoonist; Julianna Margulies (1966- ), actress; Kanye West (1977- ), rapper/producer; Maria Menounos (1978- ), actress/TV personality.

TODAY'S FACT: George Orwell died just seven months after "Nineteen Eighty-Four" was published, due to complications from tuberculosis.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1966, the National Football League and the American Football League announced their merger as the NFL, with American and National conferences.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "A free America, democratic in the sense that our forefathers intended it to be, means just this: individual freedom for all, rich or poor, or else this system of government we call 'democracy' is only an expedient to enslave man to the machine and make him like it." -- Frank Lloyd Wright, "The Future of Architecture"

TODAY'S NUMBER: 65 -- seats in the first session of the House of Representatives (1789-1791).

TODAY'S MOON: Between first quarter moon (June 1) and full moon (June 9).

ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 158th day of 2017 and the 80th day of spring.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1776, Richard Henry Lee proposed a resolution calling for a declaration of independence to the Continental Congress.

In 1929, Vatican City became a sovereign state.

In 1942, the Battle of Midway ended in an Allied victory.

In 1971, a U.S. Supreme Court ruling set the precedent that vulgar writing is protected under the First Amendment.

In 2006, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, was killed by a U.S. airstrike.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Paul Gauguin (1848-1903), painter; James Braddock (1905-1974), boxer; Jessica Tandy (1909-1994), actress; Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000), poet; Dean Martin (1917-1995), singer/actor; Tom Jones (1940- ), singer; Liam Neeson (1952- ), actor; Orhan Pamuk (1952- ), author; Prince (1958-2016), singer-songwriter/musician; Karl Urban (1972- ), actor; Bear Grylls (1974- ), TV personality; Allen Iverson (1975- ), basketball player; Bill Hader (1978- ), actor/comedian; Anna Kournikova (1981- ), tennis player; Michael Cera (1988- ), actor.

TODAY'S FACT: Pope Julius II hired the Swiss Guard to serve as his personal protection in 1506. The paid mercenary force has been protecting popes in Vatican City ever since.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1978, the Washington Bullets (now Wizards) won the franchise's first and only NBA championship.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "Art hurts. Art urges voyages -— / and it is easier to stay at home." -- Gwendolyn Brooks, "Chicago Picasso"

TODAY'S NUMBER: 800 -- estimated population of Vatican City in 2016.

TODAY'S MOON: Between first quarter moon (June 1) and full moon (June 9).

ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 157th day of 2017 and the 79th day of spring.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1844, the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) was founded in London.

In 1889, a fire destroyed all of downtown Seattle, Washington.

In 1944, 155,000 Allied troops landed at Normandy, France, on D-Day as Operation Overlord, the invasion of Europe, began.

In 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon.

In 2002, President George W. Bush proposed consolidating 22 federal agencies under a single, Cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Diego Velazquez (1599-1660), painter; Nathan Hale (1755-1776), soldier; John Trumbull (1756-1843), painter; Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837), poet; Karl Braun (1850-1918), physicist; Thomas Mann (1875-1955), author; V.C. Andrews (1923-1986), author; Robert Englund (1947- ), actor; Harvey Fierstein (1954- ), actor; Bjorn Borg (1956- ), tennis player; Jason Isaacs (1963- ), actor; Paul Giamatti (1967- ), actor; Natalie Morales (1972- ), TV journalist.

TODAY'S FACT: Basketball, racquetball and volleyball were all invented at YMCA facilities.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1946, the Basketball Association of America, which would later become the National Basketball Association, was founded in New York City.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "War is only a cowardly escape from the problems of peace." -- Thomas Mann

TODAY'S NUMBER: 74 -- seasons Shankweiler's Drive-In, the oldest drive-in movie theater in the United States, has been in operation since opening in Orefield, Pennsylvania, in 1934. The first drive-in movie theater opened in Camden, New Jersey, on this day in 1932.

TODAY'S MOON: Between first quarter moon (June 1) and full moon (June 9).