Today is the 241st day of 2016 and the 70th day of summer.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1867, the United States took possession of Midway Atoll.

In 1955, 14-year-old African-American Emmett Till was murdered for flirting with a white woman in Money, Mississippi.

In 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. made his "I have a dream" speech during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom event in Washington, D.C.

In 1968, protesters fought with police at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

In 1996, Prince Charles and Princess Diana formally divorced.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), author; Bruno Bettelheim (1903-1990), psychologist; Jack Kirby (1917-1994), writer/illustrator; Donald O'Connor (1925-2003), actor/performer; Ben Gazzara (1930-2012), actor; Lou Piniella (1943- ), baseball player/manager; Luis Guzman (1956- ), actor; David Fincher (1962- ), film director; Shania Twain (1965- ), singer-songwriter; Jack Black (1969- ), actor; LeAnn Rimes (1982- ), singer-songwriter; Armie Hammer (1986- ), actor.

TODAY'S FACT: The first issue of Scientific American was published on this day in 1845.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1977, Brazilian soccer superstar Pele played in his last competitive game, leading his New York Cosmos team to a win over the Seattle Sounders 2-1 for the National American Soccer League championship.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "Who is the happiest of men? He who values the merits of others, / And in their pleasure takes joy, even as though 'twere his own." -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

TODAY'S NUMBER: $1.9 billion -- combined worldwide box office gross (as of mid-August 2016) of films featuring Captain America, one of the dozens of well-known comic book characters co-created by writer/artist Jack Kirby.

TODAY'S MOON: Between last quarter moon (Aug. 24) and new moon (Sept. 1).

Today is the 240th day of 2016 and the 69th day of summer.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1859, the first successful oil well in the United States was drilled by Edwin L. Drake near Titusville, Pennsylvania.

In 1928, the Kellogg-Briand Pact, which outlawed war and provided guidelines to peaceful conflict resolution, was signed by 15 nations in Paris.

In 1979, British war hero Lord Louis Mountbatten and three others were killed in a boat explosion for which the Irish Republican Army claimed responsibility.

In 1999, the final crew left Russia's Mir space station.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831), philosopher; Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945), novelist; Man Ray (1890-1976), artist/filmmaker; Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973), 36th U.S. president; Ira Levin (1929-2007), author; Alice Coltrane (1937-2007), jazz musician; Paul Reubens (1952- ), actor; Cesar Millan (1969- ), dog trainer; Chandra Wilson (1969- ), actress; Sarah Chalke (1976- ), actress; Aaron Paul (1979- ), actor.

TODAY'S FACT: The Valles Marineris canyon system on Mars, also known as the Mars Grand Canyon, stretches for 2,500 miles and is up to four miles deep.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1982, Oakland Athletics outfielder Rickey Henderson stole his 119th base of the year, setting a new single-season record. He went on to steal three more bases by the end of the game and finished the season with 130 stolen bases, a record that still stands.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "The heart is everywhere, and each part of the organism is only the specialized force of the heart itself." -- Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

TODAY'S NUMBER: 43,129,566 -- votes cast for Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1964 presidential election. Johnson won 61.1 percent of the popular vote over his opponent, Republican Sen. Barry Goldwater of Arizona, in the most lopsided win since James Monroe's re-election in 1820.

TODAY'S MOON: Between last quarter moon (Aug. 24) and new moon (Sept. 1).

Today is the 239th day of 2016 and the 68th day of summer.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1768, British explorer James Cook set sail from England on his first expedition to the southern Pacific Ocean.

In 1920, the 19th Amendment was formally adopted, granting women the right to vote.

In 1957, the Soviet Union announced it had successfully developed and tested an intercontinental ballistic missile.

In 1968, thousands of antiwar protesters flooded the streets of Chicago as the four-day Democratic National Convention began.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Lee de Forest (1873-1961), inventor; Albert Sabin (1906-1993), microbiologist; Mother Teresa (1910-1997), missionary; Ben Bradlee (1921-2014), journalist; Irving Levine (1922-2009), journalist; Will Shortz (1952- ), crossword editor; Branford Marsalis (1960- ), musician; Melissa McCarthy (1970- ), actress; Macaulay Culkin (1980- ), actor; Chris Pine (1980- ), actor; John Mulaney (1982- ), actor/comedian; David Price (1985- ), baseball player; James Harden (1989- ), basketball player.

TODAY'S FACT: Lee de Forest invented the Audion tube, which amplified weak electronic signals and made broadcast radio possible.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1939, announcer Red Barber called the first Major League Baseball game to be broadcast on television.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other." -- Mother Teresa

TODAY'S NUMBER: 1,550 -- strategic nuclear warheads the United States and Russia are permitted to have deployed according to the terms of the New START treaty signed in 2010.

TODAY'S MOON: Between last quarter moon (Aug. 24) and new moon (Sept. 1).