Today is the 248th day of 2015 and the 77th day of summer.
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TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1774, the First Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia.
In 1836, Sam Houston was elected the first president of the Republic of Texas.
In 1957, Jack Kerouac's "On the Road," a defining novel of the postwar generation, was published by Viking Press.
In 1975, President Gerald Ford survived an attempt on his life when Secret Service agents tackled would-be assassin Lynette Fromme.
In 1986, Pan Am Flight 73 was hijacked at the Jinnah International Airport in Karachi, Pakistan.
TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Jack Daniel (1846-1911), distiller; Jesse James (1847-1882), legendary outlaw; Arthur Nielsen (1897-1980), market researcher; Darryl Zanuck (1902-1979), film producer; John Cage (1912-1992), composer; Bob Newhart (1929- ), comedian/actor; Raquel Welch (1940- ), actress/model; Werner Herzog (1942- ), filmmaker; Freddie Mercury (1946-1991), singer-songwriter; Cathy Guisewite (1950- ), cartoonist; Michael Keaton (1951- ), actor; Rose McGowan (1973-), actress.
TODAY'S FACT: Jack Kerouac typed the manuscript of "On the Road" on a 120-foot-long scroll of paper.
TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1960, boxer Muhammad Ali (then known as Cassius Clay) won the gold medal in light heavyweight boxing at the Olympic Games in Rome.
TODAY'S QUOTE: "What I'm proposing, to myself and other people, is what I often call the tourist attitude - that you act as though you've never been there before. So that you're not supposed to know anything about it. If you really get down to brass tacks, we have never been anywhere before." -- John Cage
TODAY'S NUMBER: 12 -- colonies represented at the First Continental Congress in 1774. Georgia declined to send delegates.
TODAY'S MOON: Last quarter moon (Sept. 5).