oddities

Andrews McMeel Almanac for August 20, 2015

Andrews McMeel Almanac by by the Editors at Andrews McMeel Syndication
by the Editors at Andrews McMeel Syndication
Andrews McMeel Almanac | August 20th, 2015

Today is the 232nd day of 2015 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 new moon (Aug. 14) and first quarter moon (Aug. 22).

oddities

Andrews McMeel Almanac for August 19, 2015

Andrews McMeel Almanac by by the Editors at Andrews McMeel Syndication
by the Editors at Andrews McMeel Syndication
Andrews McMeel Almanac | August 19th, 2015

Today is the 231st day of 2015 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 new moon (Aug. 14) and first quarter moon (Aug. 22).

oddities

Andrews McMeel Almanac for August 18, 2015

Andrews McMeel Almanac by by the Editors at Andrews McMeel Syndication
by the Editors at Andrews McMeel Syndication
Andrews McMeel Almanac | August 18th, 2015

Today is the 230th day of 2015 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 new moon (Aug. 14) and first quarter moon (Aug. 22).

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