Today is the 233rd day of 2014 and the 62nd day of summer.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1858, senatorial candidates Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas held the first of their seven debates.

In 1863, pro-Confederate guerillas led by William Quantrill raided the pro-Union town of Lawrence, Kansas, killing more than 150 men and boys.

In 1911, an employee stole the "Mona Lisa" from the Louvre in Paris. It was recovered two years later.

In 1959, Hawaii was admitted as the 50th U.S. state.

In 1991, a coup by Communist hard-liners in the Soviet Union collapsed on the third day.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: William "Count" Basie (1904-1984), musician; Wilt Chamberlain (1936-1999), basketball player; Kenny Rogers (1938- ), singer-songwriter; Peter Weir (1944- ), film director; Joe Strummer (1952-2002), musician; Kim Cattrall (1956- ), actress; Carrie-Anne Moss (1967- ), actress; Sergey Brin (1973- ), Google co-founder; Kelis (1979- ), singer; Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (1981- ), entrepreneurs; Usain Bolt (1986- ), Olympic sprinter; Hayden Panettiere (1989- ), actress.

TODAY'S FACT: Pew Research Center projects that the population of Russia will shrink considerably in the coming decades, from about 142.5 million in 2014 to 129.9 million in 2050.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1903, Tom Fetch and M.C. Krarup set a record for America's fastest transcontinental automobile trip, completing the journey from San Francisco to New York City in 61 days.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "If you play a tune and a person don't tap their feet, don't play the tune." -- William "Count" Basie

TODAY'S NUMBER: 6 million -- people who view Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" at the Louvre in Paris annually.

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

Today is the 232nd day of 2014 and the 61st day of summer.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1940, exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky was assassinated in Mexico.

In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, allocating nearly $1 billion in an unprecedented anti-poverty measure.

In 1977, NASA launched the unmanned space probe Voyager 2 to relay data and photographs of the outer solar system and interstellar space.

In 1998, the United States attacked suspected terrorist bases in Sudan in retaliation for U.S. embassy bombings earlier in the month.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Benjamin Harrison (1833-1901), 23rd U.S. president; H.P. Lovecraft (1890-1937), author; Eero Saarinen (1910-1961), architect; Don King (1931- ), boxing promoter; Isaac Hayes (1942-2008), singer-songwriter; Connie Chung (1946- ), journalist; Robert Plant (1948- ), singer-songwriter; Al Roker (1954- ), TV personality; Joan Allen (1956- ), actress; David O. Russell (1958- ), filmmaker; Amy Adams (1974- ), actress; Andrew Garfield (1983- ), actor; Demi Lovato (1992- ), actress.

TODAY'S FACT: Before entering politics, President Lyndon Johnson taught public speaking and debate at a high school in Houston.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1938, Lou Gehrig of the New York Yankees hit the 23rd grand slam of his career, setting a record that stood for 75 years, until it was broken by Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez in 2013.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of the infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far." -- H.P. Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu"

TODAY'S NUMBER: 28,000 -- miles traveled by the first telegram sent around the world, on this day in 1911. The message reached its origination point, the dispatch room on the 17th floor of the New York Times Building, in 16.5 minutes.

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

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).