ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 256th day of 2017 and the 86th day of summer.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1788, Congress chose New York City as the temporary federal capital.

In 1971, state police and National Guard soldiers stormed Attica Correctional Facility in New York, bringing a four-day riot to an end.

In 1993, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO chairman Yasser Arafat signed the Oslo Accords.

In 2001, civilian air traffic resumed in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

In 2007, the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Milton Hershey (1857-1945), Hershey Co. founder; John Pershing (1860-1948), U.S. Army general; Sherwood Anderson (1876-1941), author; Claudette Colbert (1903-1996), actress; Roald Dahl (1916-1990), author; Mel Torme (1925-1999), singer/actor; Judith Martin (1938- ), "Miss Manners" columnist; Jean Smart (1951- ), actress; Anne Geddes (1956- ), photographer; Michael Johnson (1967- ), Olympic sprinter; Tyler Perry (1969- ), actor/filmmaker; Fiona Apple (1977- ), singer; Niall Horan (1993- ), singer.

TODAY'S FACT: In 1948, Margaret Chase Smith was elected Senator from Maine, becoming the first woman to serve in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1970, Gary Muhrcke won the first New York City Marathon with a time of 2:31:38.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "'The matter with human beans,' the BFG went on, 'is that they is absolutely refusing to believe in anything unless they is actually seeing it right in front of their own schnozzles.'" -- Roald Dahl, "The BFG"

TODAY'S NUMBER: 70 million -- Hershey's Kisses produced daily by the Hershey Co.

TODAY'S MOON: Between last quarter moon (Sept. 12) and new moon (Sept. 19).

ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 255th day of 2017 and the 85th day of summer.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1940, four teenagers discovered prehistoric paintings, estimated to be 15,000 to 17,000 years old, in a cave in Lascaux, France.

In 1953, Sen. John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts married Jaqueline Lee Bouvier in Newport, Rhode Island.

In 1992, Dr. Mae Carol Jemison, science mission specialist aboard the space shuttle Endeavour, became the first African-American woman in space.

In 2011, the National September 11 Memorial opened to the public in New York City.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: H.L. Mencken (1880-1956), journalist/critic; Jesse Owens (1913-1980), Olympic athlete; Ian Holm (1931- ), actor; George Jones (1931-2013), singer-songwriter; Barry White (1944-2003), singer-songwriter; Joe Pantoliano (1951- ), actor; Ben Folds (1966- ), singer-songwriter/musician; Louis C.K. (1967- ), actor/comedian; Paul Walker (1973-2013), actor; Yao Ming (1980- ), basketball player; Jennifer Hudson (1981- ), actress/singer; Andrew Luck (1989- ), football player.

TODAY'S FACT: The long-running Western series "Bonanza" premiered on NBC on this day in 1959.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1984, Dwight "Doc" Gooden of the New York Mets threw his 246th strikeout, breaking the rookie record for strikeouts in a single season. He finished the season with 276, a record that still stands.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "The truth, indeed, is something that mankind, for some mysterious reason, instinctively dislikes. Every man who tries to tell it is unpopular, and even when, by the sheer strength of his case, he prevails, he is put down as a scoundrel." -- H.L. Mencken

TODAY'S NUMBER: 76 -- bronze plates on the walls of the memorial pools at the September 11 Memorial and Museum, inscribed with 2,983 names: the 2,977 victims of the 9/11 terror attacks and the six victims of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

TODAY'S MOON: Last quarter moon (Sept. 12).

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).