Today is the 246th day of 2015 and the 75th day of summer.
TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1783, the signing of the Treaty of Paris officially ended the Revolutionary War.
In 1838, abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass escaped slavery in Baltimore.
In 1939, France, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia declared war on Germany in response to the country's invasion of Poland.
In 2004, a three-day hostage situation at a school in Beslan, Russia, ended with a gun battle that killed more than 300 people, including 186 children.
TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Louis Sullivan (1856-1924), architect; Ferdinand Porsche (1875-1951), automotive engineer; Kitty Carlisle (1910-2007), actress; Alan Ladd (1913-1964), actor; Mort Walker (1923- ), cartoonist; Eileen Brennan (1932-2013), actress; Malcolm Gladwell (1963- ), journalist/author; Charlie Sheen (1965- ), actor; Jennie Finch (1980- ), softball player; Shaun White (1986- ), snowboarder/skateboarder.
TODAY'S FACT: Ferdinand Porsche, founder of the automobile company of the same name, designed the first hybrid gasoline-electric car. Known as the Lohner-Porsche Mixte Hybrid, the car went into production in 1900.
TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1950, Guiseppe "Nino" Farina won the Italian Grand Prix to become the first Formula One World Drivers champion.
TODAY'S QUOTE: "He who knows naught of dreaming can, likewise, never attain the heights of power and possibility in persuading the mind to act. He who dreams not creates not." -- Louis Sullivan
TODAY'S NUMBER: 13 -- record number of Winter X Games gold medals claimed by Shaun White from 2003 to 2013.
TODAY'S MOON: Between full moon (Aug. 29) and last quarter moon (Sept. 5).