ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 239th day of 2017 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: "Art is the stored honey of the human soul, gathered on wings of misery and travail." -- Theodore Dreiser

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 new moon (Aug. 21) and first quarter moon (Aug. 29).

ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 238th day of 2017 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: "I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples." -- 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 new moon (Aug. 21) and first quarter moon (Aug. 29).

ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 237th day of 2017 and the 67th day of summer.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed legislation establishing the National Park Service.

In 1944, Allied troops liberated Paris after four years of German occupation.

In 1950, President Harry Truman ordered the Army to take control of U.S. railroads in order to prevent strikes.

In 1967, American Nazi Party leader George Lincoln Rockwell was shot dead by a former aide in Arlington, Virginia.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Allan Pinkerton (1819-1884), detective; Walt Kelly (1913-1973), cartoonist; Van Johnson (1916-2008), actor; Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990), conductor/composer; Monty Hall (1921- ), TV personality; Althea Gibson (1927-2003), tennis player; Sean Connery (1930- ), actor; Regis Philbin (1931- ), TV personality; Tom Skerritt (1933- ), actor; Elvis Costello (1954- ), singer-songwriter/musician; Tim Burton (1958- ), filmmaker; Rachael Ray (1968- ), TV personality; Alexander Skarsgard (1976- ), actor; Blake Lively (1987- ), actress.

TODAY'S FACT: The Voyager 2 spacecraft, which made its closest approaches to Saturn and Neptune on this day in 1981 and 1989, respectively, continues to receive and transmit data -- 38 years since its launch in August 1977.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1985, 20-year-old pitching phenom Dwight Gooden of the New York Mets became the youngest 20-game winner in major league history.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "People told me I couldn't kill Nicholson, so I cast him in two roles and killed him off twice." -- Tim Burton, who directed Jack Nicholson in 1989's "Batman"

TODAY'S NUMBER: 39 -- miles swum (on a zigzagging course) by Capt. Matthew Webb as he became the first person in recorded history to cross the English Channel unassisted, on this day in 1875.

TODAY'S MOON: Between new moon (Aug. 21) and first quarter moon (Aug. 29).