ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC
Advertisement
Today is the 237th day of 2017 and the 67th day of summer.
TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed legislation establishing the National Park Service.
In 1944, Allied troops liberated Paris after four years of German occupation.
In 1950, President Harry Truman ordered the Army to take control of U.S. railroads in order to prevent strikes.
In 1967, American Nazi Party leader George Lincoln Rockwell was shot dead by a former aide in Arlington, Virginia.
TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Allan Pinkerton (1819-1884), detective; Walt Kelly (1913-1973), cartoonist; Van Johnson (1916-2008), actor; Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990), conductor/composer; Monty Hall (1921- ), TV personality; Althea Gibson (1927-2003), tennis player; Sean Connery (1930- ), actor; Regis Philbin (1931- ), TV personality; Tom Skerritt (1933- ), actor; Elvis Costello (1954- ), singer-songwriter/musician; Tim Burton (1958- ), filmmaker; Rachael Ray (1968- ), TV personality; Alexander Skarsgard (1976- ), actor; Blake Lively (1987- ), actress.
TODAY'S FACT: The Voyager 2 spacecraft, which made its closest approaches to Saturn and Neptune on this day in 1981 and 1989, respectively, continues to receive and transmit data -- 38 years since its launch in August 1977.
TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1985, 20-year-old pitching phenom Dwight Gooden of the New York Mets became the youngest 20-game winner in major league history.
TODAY'S QUOTE: "People told me I couldn't kill Nicholson, so I cast him in two roles and killed him off twice." -- Tim Burton, who directed Jack Nicholson in 1989's "Batman"
TODAY'S NUMBER: 39 -- miles swum (on a zigzagging course) by Capt. Matthew Webb as he became the first person in recorded history to cross the English Channel unassisted, on this day in 1875.
TODAY'S MOON: Between new moon (Aug. 21) and first quarter moon (Aug. 29).