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Andrews McMeel Almanac for August 19, 2014

Andrews McMeel Almanac by by the Editors at Andrews McMeel Syndication
by the Editors at Andrews McMeel Syndication
Andrews McMeel Almanac | August 19th, 2014

Today is the 231st day of 2014 and the 60th day of summer.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1839, details of Louis Daguerre's pioneering photographic process were first released in Paris.

In 1934, a German plebiscite voted to grant then-Chancellor Adolf Hitler the additional office of president.

In 1960, captured American U-2 spy plane pilot Francis Gary Powers was sentenced in Moscow to three years imprisonment and seven years of hard labor for espionage.

In 2010, Operation Iraqi Freedom officially ended as the last U.S. combat troops crossed the border into Kuwait.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Orville Wright (1871-1948), aviation pioneer; Coco Chanel (1883-1971), fashion designer; Ogden Nash (1902-1971), poet/author; Malcolm Forbes (1919-1990), publisher; Gene Roddenberry (1921-1991), Star Trek creator; Bill Shoemaker (1931-2003), jockey; Bill Clinton (1946- ), 42nd U.S. president; Mary Matalin (1953- ), political consultant; John Stamos (1963- ), actor; Kyra Sedgwick (1965- ), actress; Kirk Herbstreit (1969- ), sportscaster; Matthew Perry (1969- ), actor; Clay Walker (1969- ), singer-songwriter.

TODAY'S FACT: President Bill Clinton was born William Jefferson Blythe III, after his biological father, who died in an automobile accident a few months before Clinton was born. The future president legally changed his surname to Clinton (his stepfather's surname) as a teenager.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1909, Austrian engineer Louis Schwitzer won the first race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, with an average speed of 57.4 mph. Two drivers, two mechanics and two spectators died in related accidents.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "The door of a bigoted mind opens outwards so that the only result of the pressure of facts upon it is to close it more snugly." -- Ogden Nash

TODAY'S NUMBER: 11 -- Triple Crown horse races won by thoroughbred jockey Bill Shoemaker. He never won all three jewels in the Triple Crown in the same year.

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

oddities

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).

oddities

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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