ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 191st day of 2017 and the 21st day of summer.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1821, the United States took possession of Florida, which it had purchased from Spain.

In 1890, Wyoming was admitted as the 44th state.

In 1940, Nazi forces began an air attack on southern Britain that would last 114 days and become known as the Battle of Britain.

In 1962, AT&T (in conjunction with NASA) launched the first privately owned satellite, Telstar 1.

In 1991, Boris Yeltsin took office as the first popularly elected president in Russia's history.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: John Calvin (1509-1564), theologian/reformer; Nikola Tesla (1856-1943), physicist/engineer; Marcel Proust (1871-1922), author/critic; Carl Orff (1895-1982), composer; David Brinkley (1920-2003), TV journalist; Alice Munro (1931- ), author; Arthur Ashe (1943-1993), tennis player; Arlo Guthrie (1947- ), singer-songwriter; Urban Meyer (1964- ), football coach; Sofia Vergara (1972- ), actress; Adrian Grenier (1976- ), actor; Chiwetel Ejiofor (1977- ), actor; Jessica Simpson (1980- ), actress/singer.

TODAY'S FACT: The United Kingdom's Royal Air Force, which battled the German Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britain, counted 11 American pilots among its 2,900 members.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1999, the U.S. soccer team defeated China 5-4 to win the Women's World Cup in Pasadena, California.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "In his younger days a man dreams of possessing the heart of the woman whom he loves; later, the feeling that he possesses the heart of a woman may be enough to make him fall in love with her." -- Marcel Proust, "In Search of Lost Time"

TODAY'S NUMBER: 134 -- temperature (in degrees Fahrenheit) reached on this day in 1913 in Death Valley, California, the hottest peak temperature on U.S. record.

TODAY'S MOON: Between full moon (July 8) and last quarter moon (July 16).

ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 190th day of 2017 and the 20th day of summer.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1850, President Zachary Taylor died in office of a stomach-related illness at the age of 65.

In 1868, the 14th Amendment was ratified, guaranteeing full citizenship and equal protection to African-Americans.

In 1943, Allied forces launched an airborne and amphibious invasion of Sicily.

In 1981, the Nintendo video game "Donkey Kong" was released.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Ann Radcliffe (1764-1823), author; Matthew Lewis (1775-1818), author; Elias Howe (1819-1867), sewing machine inventor; Donald Rumsfeld (1932- ), former defense secretary; Brian Dennehy (1938- ), actor; Richard Roundtree (1942- ), actor; Dean Koontz (1945- ), author; Chris Cooper (1951- ), actor; John Tesh (1952- ), composer/musician; Lindsey Graham (1955- ), politician; Tom Hanks (1956- ), actor; Courtney Love (1964- ), singer-songwriter; Jack White (1975- ), musician/singer-songwriter.

TODAY'S FACT: In an effort to inspire efforts and encourage enlistment, General George Washington had the newly adopted Declaration of Independence read aloud to his troops in the Continental Army in New York City on this day in 1776.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1877, the inaugural Wimbledon tennis championship took place in London.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "There is something in the ardour and ingenuousness of youth, which is particularly pleasing to the contemplation of an old man, if his feelings have not been entirely corroded by the world." -- Ann Radcliffe, "The Mysteries of Udolpho"

TODAY'S NUMBER: 1,720 -- height (in feet) of the wave surge that hit Lituya Bay in the Gulf of Alaska on this day in 1958. The "megatsunami," the largest in recorded history, was caused by an 8.3-magnitude earthquake on the Fairweather Fault along the Alaskan coast.

TODAY'S MOON: Between full moon (July 8) and last quarter moon (July 16).

ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 189th day of 2017 and the 19th day of summer.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1889, The Wall Street Journal was published for the first time.

In 1932, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell to its lowest point of the Great Depression, at 41.22.

In 1947, news outlets reported a UFO crash near an army airfield in Roswell, New Mexico.

In 1994, Kim Jong-il began to assume leadership of North Korea upon the death of his father, Kim Il-sung.

In 2011, the space shuttle Atlantis began the last NASA space shuttle mission.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: John Pemberton (1831-1888), chemist/Coca-Cola inventor; John D. Rockefeller (1839-1937), entrepreneur; Hugo Boss (1885-1948), fashion designer; Nelson A. Rockefeller (1908-1979), New York governor/U.S. vice president; Jeffrey Tambor (1944- ), actor; Wolfgang Puck (1949- ), chef; Anjelica Huston (1951- ), actress; Kevin Bacon (1958- ), actor; Toby Keith (1961- ), singer-songwriter; Beck (1970- ), singer-songwriter; Jaden Smith (1998- ), actor.

TODAY'S FACT: Between 1855 and 1934, John D. Rockefeller donated $530.9 million to charitable causes.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1889, boxing's last bare-knuckle championship match was fought. John L. Sullivan defeated Jake Kilrain in a 75-round bout that lasted two hours and 16 minutes.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "The ability to deal with people is as purchasable a commodity as sugar or coffee, and I will pay more for that ability than for any other under the sun." – John D. Rockefeller

TODAY'S NUMBER: 61,723 -- women currently serving in active duty roles in the U.S. Air Force. The USAF accepted its first female recruits into the Women in the Air Force program on this day in 1948.

TODAY'S MOON: Full moon (July 8).