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Andrews McMeel Almanac for August 18, 2014

Andrews McMeel Almanac by by the Editors at Andrews McMeel Syndication
by the Editors at Andrews McMeel Syndication
Andrews McMeel Almanac | August 18th, 2014

Today is the 230th day of 2014 and the 59th day of summer.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1587, Virginia Dare became the first English child born in America.

In 1590, Roanoke Island governor John White returned from a supply trip to England to find the colony deserted.

In 1920, the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, extending the right to vote to women.

In 2008, Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf resigned under threat of impeachment.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Meriwether Lewis (1774-1809), explorer; Shelley Winters (1920-2006), actress; Rosalynn Carter (1927- ), first lady; Roman Polanski (1933- ), filmmaker; Roberto Clemente (1934-1972), baseball player; Robert Redford (1936- ), actor/director; Patrick Swayze (1952-2009), actor; Dennis Leary (1957- ), actor/comedian; Edward Norton (1969- ), actor/director; Christian Slater (1969- ), actor; Kaitlin Olson (1975- ), actress; Andy Samberg (1978- ), actor/comedian.

TODAY'S FACT: In the 2012 presidential election, 55 percent of women voters voted for Barack Obama, while only 44 percent voted for Mitt Romney. Female voters made up 54 percent of the electorate.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1992, Larry Bird announced his retirement from the NBA after 13 seasons.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "I've got a theory that if you give 100 percent all of the time, somehow things will work out in the end." -- Larry Bird

TODAY'S NUMBER: 300,000 -- copies of Vladimir Nabokov's controversial novel "Lolita" that were sold in the first three weeks after its U.S. publication on this day in 1958.

TODAY'S MOON: Between last quarter moon (Aug. 17) and new moon (Aug. 25).

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Andrews McMeel Almanac for August 17, 2014

Andrews McMeel Almanac by by the Editors at Andrews McMeel Syndication
by the Editors at Andrews McMeel Syndication
Andrews McMeel Almanac | August 17th, 2014

Today is the 229th day of 2014 and the 58th day of summer.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1863, Union forces began shelling Fort Sumter in South Carolina.

In 1959, a magnitude-7.3 earthquake struck near Hebgen Lake in Montana, causing a landslide that later formed Earthquake Lake.

In 1988, Pakistani President Muhammad Zia died in an airplane crash.

In 1998, President Bill Clinton testified before a grand jury and later apologized on national television for having a "wrong" relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Davy Crockett (1786-1836), frontiersman/soldier; Marcus Garvey (1887-1940), Black Nationalist leader; Samuel Goldwyn (1882-1974), film producer; Mae West (1893-1980), actress; W. Mark Felt (1913-2008), FBI agent; Maureen O'Hara (1920- ), actress; Robert De Niro (1943- ), actor; Sean Penn (1960- ), actor/director; Jon Gruden (1963- ), football coach/analyst; Donnie Wahlberg (1969- ), singer/actor; Dustin Pedroia (1983- ), baseball player.

TODAY'S FACT: At the time when he was providing key information on the Watergate scandal to Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, W. Mark Felt was the associate director of the FBI, the bureau's second-highest ranking official.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 2008, swimmer Michael Phelps won a gold medal in the 400-meter medley relay, becoming the first athlete to win eight gold medals in a single Olympic Games.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots." -- Marcus Garvey

TODAY'S NUMBER: 17,508 -- islands counted within the territory of Indonesia, which declared its independence from the Netherlands on this day in 1945.

TODAY'S MOON: Last quarter moon (Aug. 17).

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Andrews McMeel Almanac for August 16, 2014

Andrews McMeel Almanac by by the Editors at Andrews McMeel Syndication
by the Editors at Andrews McMeel Syndication
Andrews McMeel Almanac | August 16th, 2014

Today is the 228th day of 2014 and the 57th day of summer.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1861, President Abraham Lincoln prohibited Union states from trading with states that had seceded.

In 1896, gold was discovered near the Klondike River in Canada's Yukon Territory, sparking a gold rush.

In 1977, Elvis Presley died at age 42.

In 2007, U.S. citizen Jose Padilla was convicted of conspiracy in a "dirty bomb" terrorism case and sentenced to more than 17 years in prison.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: T.E. Lawrence (of Arabia) (1888-1935), soldier/archaeologist/writer; George Meany (1894-1980), union leader; Charles Bukowski (1920-1994), poet/writer; Ann Blyth (1928- ), actress; Eydie Gorme (1928-2013), singer/actress; Frank Gifford (1930- ), sportscaster/football player; Kathie Lee Gifford (1953- ), actress/TV personality; James Cameron (1954- ), film director; Angela Bassett (1958- ), actress; Madonna (1958- ), singer/actress; Steve Carell (1962- ), actor/comedian.

TODAY'S FACT: An 18-year-old Elvis Presley paid a private recording studio $4 in 1953 to record "My Happiness" and "That's When Your Heartache Begins" on a two-sided record as a belated birthday gift to his mother.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1954, the first issue of Sports Illustrated was published.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "An intellectual is a man who says a simple thing in a difficult way; an artist is a man who says a difficult thing in a simple way." -- Charles Bukowski, "Notes of a Dirty Old Man"

TODAY'S NUMBER: 102,800 -- height (in feet) from which Joseph Kittinger jumped during a record-setting U.S. Air Force experiment on this day in 1960. Though his height and speed records were broken during the Red Bull Stratos project in 2012, Kittinger's 4 minutes, 36 seconds of free fall remains unsurpassed.

TODAY'S MOON: Between full moon (Aug. 10) and last quarter moon (Aug. 17).

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