ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC
Today is the 254th day of 2017 and the 84th day of summer.
TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1857, Mormon guerrillas and Paiute Indians massacred 120 pioneers in Mountain Meadows, Utah.
In 2001, hijacked planes crashed into New York City's World Trade Center, the Pentagon in Virginia and a Pennsylvania field in terrorist attacks that claimed nearly 3,000 lives.
In 2007, Russia announced that it had successfully tested the world's most powerful nonnuclear bomb, a thermobaric weapon nicknamed the "father of all bombs."
In 2012, a heavily armed militia attacked the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi, Libya, killing four Americans.
TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: O. Henry (1862-1910), short-story writer; D.H. Lawrence (1885-1930), author; Paul "Bear" Bryant (1913-1983), football coach; Tom Landry (1924-2000), football coach; Brian De Palma (1940- ), film director; Virginia Madsen (1961- ), actress; Moby (1965- ), singer-songwriter; Harry Connick Jr. (1967- ), actor/singer-songwriter; Ludacris (1977- ), rapper/actor; Ed Reed (1978- ), football player; Aroldis Chapman (1988- ), baseball player.
TODAY'S FACT: John Tyler was the first vice president to assume the presidency because of a sitting president's death. During the term he served, after William Henry Harrison's month-long presidency, Tyler was often referred to slightingly as "His Accidency" or "Acting President."
TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1985, Pete Rose broke Ty Cobb's record with his 4,192nd career hit.
TODAY'S QUOTE: "You can't appreciate home till you've left it, money till it's spent, your wife till she's joined a woman's club, nor Old Glory till you see it hanging on a broomstick on the shanty of a consul in a foreign town." -- O. Henry, "Roads of Destiny"
TODAY'S NUMBER: 4,256 -- total career hits for Pete Rose, which remains the Major League Baseball record.
TODAY'S MOON: Between full moon (Sept. 6) and last quarter moon (Sept. 12).