ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 135th day of 2017 and the 57th day of spring.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1918, the United States launched its first regular airmail service.

In 1970, President Richard Nixon appointed Anna Mae Hays and Elizabeth P. Hoisington the first female U.S. Army generals.

In 1972, Alabama Gov. George Wallace was shot and left permanently paralyzed below the waist while campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination in Maryland.

In 1988, Soviet troops began withdrawing from Afghanistan.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: L. Frank Baum (1856-1919), author; Pierre Curie (1859-1906), physicist; Richard J. Daley (1902-1976), politician; Jasper Johns (1930- ), artist; Madeleine Albright (1937- ), former secretary of state; Roger Ailes (1940- ), news executive; Brian Eno (1948- ), singer-songwriter/musician; Chazz Palminteri (1952- ), actor; George Brett (1953- ), baseball player; Dan Patrick (1956- ), sportscaster; Emmitt Smith (1969- ), football player; Ray Lewis (1975- ), football player; Andy Murray (1987- ), tennis player.

TODAY'S FACT: Former U.S. presidents and their spouses enjoy lifetime mail "franking" privileges, meaning their mail can be sent without postage, provided it is nonpolitical.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 2004, Smarty Jones won the Preakness Stakes thoroughbred horse race by a record margin of 11 1/2 lengths.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "The world's a stage, they say; but the show ain't always amusing, by a long chalk, and sometimes I wish I didn't have a reserved seat." -- L. Frank Baum (writing as Edith van Dyne), "Aunt Jane's Nieces"

TODAY'S NUMBER: 36,899 -- McDonald's restaurants worldwide in 2016. The first McDonald's restaurant opened in San Bernardino, California, on this day in 1940.

TODAY'S MOON: Between full moon (May 10) and last quarter moon (May 18).

ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 134th day of 2017 and the 56th day of spring.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1607, the Virginia Company of London established a colony at Jamestown, Virginia.

In 1804, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark left St. Louis and set out on their historic expedition to explore the land acquired in the Louisiana Purchase.

In 1940, the Netherlands surrendered to Nazi Germany.

In 1948, the State of Israel was proclaimed during a ceremony in Tel Aviv.

In 1973, Skylab, the first American space station, was launched into orbit.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Otto Klemperer (1885-1973), conductor/composer; Bobby Darin (1936-1973), singer-songwriter/actor; George Lucas (1944- ), filmmaker; Robert Zemeckis (1951- ), filmmaker; David Byrne (1952- ), singer-songwriter/musician; Tim Roth (1961- ), actor; Cate Blanchett (1969- ), actress; Sofia Coppola (1971- ), filmmaker; Amber Tamblyn (1983- ), actress; Mark Zuckerberg (1984- ), programmer/entrepreneur; Clay Matthews III (1986- ), football player; Rob Gronkowski (1989- ), football player.

TODAY'S FACT: The United States paid a total of $15 million for the entire Louisiana Purchase -- a little more than $18 per square mile.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1913, Washington Senators pitcher Walter Johnson ended his scoreless pitching streak at 55 and 2/3 innings, setting a record that stood for 55 years.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "I can be a real pessimist. You know that when you win an Oscar and you walk offstage and your first thought is, 'Oh God, I've peaked.'" -- Cate Blanchett

TODAY'S NUMBER: 108 -- Virginia Company members who set out from London to establish Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in what would become the United States.

TODAY'S MOON: Between full moon (May 10) and last quarter moon (May 18).

ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 133rd day of 2017 and the 55th day of spring.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1940, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill gave his "blood, toil, tears and sweat" speech to the British House of Commons as Germany's conquest of France began.

In 1943, the German Afrika Korps surrendered to Allied forces in North Africa.

In 1981, Pope John Paul II was shot and critically injured by would-be assassin Mehmet Ali Agca in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican.

In 1985, two blocks of Philadelphia were destroyed by fire after police dropped an incendiary device on the headquarters of MOVE, a black liberation group.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Pope Pius IX (1792-1878); Joe Louis (1914-1981), boxer; Bea Arthur (1922-2009), actress; Harvey Keitel (1939- ), actor; Ritchie Valens (1941-1959), singer-songwriter; Stevie Wonder (1950- ), singer-songwriter/pianist; Stephen Colbert (1964- ), TV personality; Darius Rucker (1966- ), singer-songwriter; Barry Zito (1978- ), baseball player; Lena Dunham (1986- ), actress; Robert Pattinson (1986- ), actor.

TODAY'S FACT: Mehmet Ali Agca returned to the Vatican on Dec. 27, 2014, to lay flowers at the tomb of Pope John Paul II, the man he had attempted to assassinate 33 years earlier. His request to meet Pope Francis was denied.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1995, Alison Hargreaves of Great Britain became the first woman to scale Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen or the help of Sherpas.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "I believe in pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps. I believe it is possible -- I saw this guy do it once in Cirque du Soleil. It was magical." -- Stephen Colbert

TODAY'S NUMBER: 150,402 -- total salary (in pounds) of the British prime minister in 2017 (around $192,830). The salary of the president of the United States is $400,000.

TODAY'S MOON: Between full moon (May 10) and last quarter moon (May 18).