ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC
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Today is the 204th day of 2017 and the 34th day of summer.
TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1962, the Telstar 1 satellite transmitted the first live, trans-Atlantic TV broadcast, featuring CBS news anchor Walter Cronkite.
In 1967, the 12th Street Riots began in Detroit, ending five days later and resulting in 43 people dead, hundreds injured and more than 1,400 buildings burned to the ground.
In 1999, with the launch of Columbia, Eileen Collins became the first woman to command a U.S. space shuttle flight.
TODAY'S BIRTHDAY: Emil Jannings (1884-1950), actor; Raymond Chandler (1888-1959), author; Anthony M. Kennedy (1936- ), Supreme Court justice; Don Imus (1940- ), radio personality; Woody Harrelson (1961- ), actor; Slash (1965- ), guitarist/songwriter; Philip Seymour Hoffman (1967-2014), actor; Alison Krauss (1971- ), musician/singer-songwriter; Marlon Wayans (1972- ), actor; Daniel Radcliffe (1989- ), actor.
TODAY'S FACT: Comet Hale-Bopp, discovered on this day in 1995, was visible to the naked eye for a record 18 months, from May 1996 to December 1997. The previous record holder, the Great Comet of 1811, was visible for about nine months.
TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1996, injured American gymnast Kerri Strug scored a 9.7 on the vault as the U.S. won its first-ever Olympic gold medal in the women's team gymnastics competition.
TODAY'S QUOTE: "Neither of the two people in the room paid any attention to the way I came in, although only one of them was dead." -- Raymond Chandler, "The Big Sleep"
TODAY'S NUMBER: 1,400 -- the distance from Earth (in light years) of Kepler-452b, a potentially Earthlike exoplanet orbiting within the "habitable zone" of a star in the constellation Cygnus. NASA announced its discovery on this day in 2015.
TODAY'S MOON: New moon (July 23).