Today is the 181st day of 2012 and the 10th day of summer.
TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1956, the Federal-Aid Highway Act was signed, creating the interstate system.
In 1972, in Furman v. Georgia, the Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty as it was then applied in the United States was unconstitutional "cruel and unusual punishment."
In 1995, the space shuttle Atlantis docked with the Russian Mir station in orbit for the first time.
TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Harry Frazee (1881-1929), producer/Red Sox owner; Alan Blumlein (1903-1942), engineer; Leroy Anderson (1908-1975), composer; Harmon Killebrew (1936-2011), baseball player; Gary Busey (1944- ), actor; Richard Lewis (1947- ), actor/comedian; Matthew Weiner (1965- ), TV writer/producer; Joe Johnson (1981- ), basketball player.
TODAY'S SPORTS: In 2004, Arizona Diamondback pitcher Randy Johnson became the fourth pitcher in Major League Baseball history to pass the 4,000-strikeout milestone.
TODAY'S FACT: Leopold Stokowski, conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, made the first "stereophonic" recording, Scriabin's "Poem of Fire," with Bell Labs on March 12, 1932.
TODAY'S QUOTE: "The creative conquest of space will serve as a wonderful substitute for war." -- James McDonnell, designer of the Mercury and Gemini spacecraft
TODAY'S NUMBER: 46,876 -- miles of roads in the U.S. interstate highway system.
TODAY'S MOON: Between first quarter moon (June 26) and full moon (July 3).