ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 243rd day of 2019 and the 72nd day of summer.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1888, the body of the first victim of London serial killer Jack the Ripper was found.

In 1935, President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Neutrality Act.

In 1954, Hurricane Carol made landfall over Long Island and Connecticut and soon became one of the most destructive hurricanes to hit New England.

In 1997, Diana, Princess of Wales, was killed in a car accident in Paris.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Maria Montessori (1870-1952), physician/educator; William Saroyan (1908-1981), playwright; Buddy Hackett (1924-2003), comedian/actor; James Coburn (1928-2002), actor; Frank Robinson (1935- ), baseball player/manager; Van Morrison (1945- ), singer-songwriter; Itzhak Perlman (1945- ), violinist; Tom Coughlin (1946- ), football executive; Richard Gere (1949- ), actor; Debbie Gibson (1970- ), singer-songwriter; Chris Tucker (1971- ), actor; Larry Fitzgerald (1983- ), football player.

TODAY'S FACT: The last original episode of "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" aired on this day in 2001.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1990, Ken Griffey and Ken Griffey Jr., playing for the Seattle Mariners, became the first father-son duo to be in the same Major League Baseball lineup.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "Everything and everybody is sooner or later identified, defined, and put in perspective. The truth as always is simultaneously better and worse than what the popular myth-making has it." -- William Saroyan, "Memories of the Depression"

TODAY'S NUMBER: 6 -- weeks atop the 1951 Billboard charts for Rosemary Clooney's recording of "Come on-a My House," written by Pulitzer Prize-winning author William Saroyen and his cousin Ross Bagdasarian, creator of Alvin and the Chipmunks.

TODAY'S MOON: Between new moon (Aug. 30) and first quarter moon (Sept. 5).

ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 242nd day of 2019 and the 71st day of summer.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1945, British forces ended Japan's occupation of Hong Kong.

In 1963, a United States-Soviet diplomatic teletype "hotline," intended to prevent accidental war, was installed.

In 1967, the U.S. Senate confirmed the appointment of Thurgood Marshall as the first black Supreme Court justice.

In 1996, Russian and Chechen leaders agreed to a ceasefire, ending the First Chechen War.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797-1851), author; Huey Long (1893-1935), politician; Shirley Booth (1898-1992), actress; Roy Wilkins (1901-1981), civil rights activist; Fred MacMurray (1908-1991), actor; Ted Williams (1918-2002), baseball player; Warren Buffett (1930- ), businessman/philanthropist; Robert Crumb (1943- ), writer/illustrator; Peggy Lipton (1946-2019), actress; Lewis Black (1948- ), comedian; Robert Parish (1953- ), basketball player; Michael Chiklis (1963- ), actor; Cameron Diaz (1972- ), actress; Andy Roddick (1982- ), tennis player.

TODAY'S FACT: The number of hours Americans spent online increased more than 100 percent between 2000 and 2018, from 9.4 hours per week to 23.6 hours per week.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1905, Ty Cobb made his major-league debut for the Detroit Tigers.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "There is love in me the likes of which you've never seen. There is rage in me the likes of which should never escape. If I am not satisfied in the one, I will indulge the other." -- Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, "Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus"

TODAY'S NUMBER: 32 -- cases Thurgood Marshall had argued before the Supreme Court before he became a justice. He won 29 of them.

TODAY'S MOON: New moon (Aug. 30).

ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 241st day of 2019 and the 70th day of summer.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1949, the Soviet Union conducted its first atomic bomb test.

In 1957, Democratic Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina concluded his 24-hour-long filibuster against the Civil Rights Act of 1957.

In 1991, the parliament of the Soviet Union suspended all Communist Party activities indefinitely.

In 2005, Category 3 storm Hurricane Katrina made landfall near New Orleans.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: John Locke (1632-1704), philosopher; Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (1809-1894), author; Ingrid Bergman (1915-1982), actress; Charlie Parker (1920-1955), musician; Richard Attenborough (1923-2014), filmmaker; William Friedkin (1935- ), film director; John McCain (1936-2018), U.S. senator; Elliott Gould (1938- ), actor; Joel Schumacher (1939- ), film director; GG Allin (1956-1993), singer-songwriter; Michael Jackson (1958-2009), singer-songwriter; Roy Oswalt (1977- ), baseball player; Lea Michele (1986- ), actress; Liam Payne (1993- ), singer-songwriter.

TODAY'S FACT: Strom Thurmond's 1957 civil rights filibuster remains the longest one-man filibuster in history. It lasted 24 hours, 18 minutes and opened with Thurmond reading the voting laws of all 48 states.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1977, St. Louis Cardinal Lou Brock stole two bases to match, then break, Ty Cobb's record for career stolen bases, which had stood at 892 bases for 49 years.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours." -- John Locke

TODAY'S NUMBER: 175 -- top sustained wind speed (in mph) during Hurricane Katrina.

TODAY'S MOON: Between last quarter moon (Aug. 23) and new moon (Aug. 30).