ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the seventh day of 2025 and the 18th day of winter.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1785, Jean-Pierre Blanchard and John Jeffries crossed the English Channel in a balloon.

In 1927, the first commercial transatlantic telephone call was made between London and New York City.

In 1955, Marian Anderson made her debut at New York's Metropolitan Opera House, becoming the first African American soloist to sing there.

In 2015, gunmen killed 12 people at the Paris offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Millard Fillmore (1800-1874), 13th U.S. president; Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960), author; Francis Poulenc (1899-1963), composer; Charles Addams (1912-1988), cartoonist; Katie Couric (1957- ), TV news anchor; Rand Paul (1963- ), politician; Nicolas Cage (1964- ), actor; Jeremy Renner (1971- ), actor; John Rich (1974- ), singer-songwriter; Francisco Rodriguez (1982- ), baseball player; Jon Lester (1984- ), baseball player; Lamar Jackson (1997- ), football player.

TODAY'S FACT: Millard Fillmore, who assumed the presidency in 1850 upon the death of Zachary Taylor, was the last president from the Whig party. Fillmore sought reelection in 1852, but the Whig party nominated Gen. Winfield Scott instead.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1927, the Harlem Globetrotters (who were actually from Chicago) played their first game in Hinckley, Illinois.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "There are years that ask questions and years that answer." -- Zora Neale Hurston, "Their Eyes Were Watching God"

TODAY'S NUMBER: 2.5 hours -- length of the first balloon trip across the English Channel, which crossed at the channel's narrowest point (21 miles).

TODAY'S MOON: Between first quarter moon (Jan. 6) and full moon (Jan. 13).

ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the sixth day of 2025 and the 17th day of winter.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1838, Samuel F.B. Morse and Alfred Vail publicly demonstrated the telegraph for the first time.

In 1912, New Mexico was admitted as the 47th U.S. state.

In 1974, U.S. daylight saving time was implemented year-round in response to the 1973 oil crisis.

In 2021, rioters broke into the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to disrupt certification of the 2020 presidential election.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Jedediah Smith (1799-1831), explorer/author; Carl Sandburg (1878-1967), poet/biographer; Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931), poet/novelist; Danny Thomas (1912-1991), actor/comedian; Loretta Young (1913-2000), actress; Lou Holtz (1937- ), football coach/sportscaster; Rowan Atkinson (1955- ), actor/comedian; Nancy Lopez (1957- ), golfer; Howie Long (1960- ), football player/broadcaster; John Singleton (1968-2019), filmmaker; Norman Reedus (1969- ), actor; Eddie Redmayne (1982- ), actor; Kate McKinnon (1984- ), actress/comedian.

TODAY'S FACT: Franklin D. Roosevelt's "Four Freedoms," declared during his State of the Union address on this day in 1941, outlined his principal goals for people "everywhere in the world": freedom of speech and worship, and freedom from want and fear.

TODAY's SPORTS: In 1994, U.S. champion figure skater Nancy Kerrigan was clubbed on the knee after a practice session on the orders of skating rival Tonya Harding's ex-husband.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "There is an eagle in me that wants to soar, and there is a hippopotamus in me that wants to wallow in the mud." -- Carl Sandburg

TODAY'S NUMBER: $30,000 -- amount Congress appropriated in 1843 for Samuel F.B. Morse to construct the first experimental telegraph line between Washington, D.C., and Baltimore.

TODAY'S MOON: First quarter moon (Jan. 6).

ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the fifth day of 2025 and the 16th day of winter.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1781, British Loyalist forces led by Brig. Gen. Benedict Arnold captured and burned Richmond, Virginia.

In 1914, Ford Motor Co. raised basic wages from $2.40 for a nine-hour day to $5 for an eight-hour day.

In 1933, construction began on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco Bay.

In 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower announced that the U.S. would intervene militarily and economically at the request of any Middle Eastern nation in response to the spread of communism.

In 2005, the dwarf planet Eris was discovered.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: King Camp Gillette (1855-1932), safety razor inventor; George Reeves (1914-1959), actor; Jane Wyman (1917-2007), actress; Walter Mondale (1928-2021), former U.S. vice president; Alvin Ailey (1931-1989), dancer/choreographer; Robert Duvall (1931- ), actor; Umberto Eco (1932-2016), author/philosopher; Juan Carlos (1938- ), former king of Spain; Diane Keaton (1946- ), actress; Clancy Brown (1959- ), actor; Bradley Cooper (1975- ), actor; January Jones (1978- ), actress.

TODAY'S FACT: The safety razor was one of the first disposable products ever made.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 2004, Pete Rose admitted to gambling on baseball games while serving as manager of the Cincinnati Reds.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "The purpose of a story is to teach and to please at once, and what it teaches is how to recognize the snares of the world." -- Umberto Eco, "The Island of the Day Before"

TODAY'S NUMBER: 1,672 -- performances in the original run of "The Wiz," an adaptation of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz," at the Majestic Theatre and the Broadway Theatre in New York City, after premiering on this day in 1975.

TODAY'S MOON: Between new moon (Dec. 30) and first quarter moon (Jan. 6).