ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 237th day of 2018 and the 66th 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 (1921-2017), 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 -- 41 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: "The best break anybody ever gets is in bein' alive in the first place. An' you don't unnerstan' what a perfect deal it is until you realizes that you ain't gone be stuck with it forever, either." -- Walt Kelly, "Pogo"

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 first quarter moon (Aug. 18) and full moon (Aug. 26).

ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 235th day of 2018 and the 64th day of summer.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1305, Scottish leader William Wallace was executed in London.

In 1939, Germany's Adolf Hitler and the Soviet Union's Joseph Stalin signed a nonaggression pact.

In 1942, the Battle of Stalingrad began as Nazi and Soviet troops fought for control of the city.

In 1966, the Lunar Orbiter 1 spacecraft transmitted the first photo of Earth from orbit around the moon.

In 1999, the first cases of West Nile virus in the Western Hemisphere were reported in New York City.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: William Ernest Henley (1849-1903), poet; Edgar Lee Masters (1868-1950), author; Ernie Bushmiller (1905-1982), cartoonist; Gene Kelly (1912-1996), actor/dancer; Vera Miles (1929- ), actress; Barbara Eden (1931- ), actress; Shelley Long (1949- ), actress; Rick Springfield (1949- ), singer/musician; Jay Mohr (1970- ), actor/comedian; River Phoenix (1970-1993), actor; Ray Park (1974- ), actor/stuntman; Kobe Bryant (1978- ), basketball player; Jeremy Lin (1988- ), basketball player.

TODAY'S FACT: In 1973, an attempted bank robbery led to a hostage situation in Stockholm, Sweden. The behavior of the victims gave rise to the term “Stockholm syndrome” to describe the condition in which hostages develop sympathetic feelings toward their captors.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1969, Taiwan won its first Little League World Series. The nation went on to win nine more titles in the next 12 years.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "The tongue may be an unruly member -- / But silence poisons the soul." -- Edgar Lee Masters, "Dorcas Gustine"

TODAY'S NUMBER: 22 -- listings with the surname Hitler in the New York City phone book prior to World War II. None were listed there when the war ended.

TODAY'S MOON: Between first quarter moon (Aug. 18) and full moon (Aug. 26).

ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 234th day of 2018 and the 63rd day of summer.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1851, the American yacht America won the first America's Cup.

In 1864, the first Geneva Convention, which established protections for those wounded in active warfare, was signed by 12 European nations.

In 1902, the Cadillac Automobile Co. was founded.

In 1996, President Bill Clinton signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act welfare reform into law.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Claude Debussy (1862-1918), composer; George Herriman (1880-1944), cartoonist; Dorothy Parker (1893-1967), author; Leni Riefenstahl (1902-2003), film director/actress; Ray Bradbury (1920-2012), author; Norman Schwarzkopf (1934-2012), general; Valerie Harper (1939- ), actress; Bill Parcells (1941- ), football coach; David Chase (1945- ), screenwriter/producer; Tori Amos (1963- ), singer-songwriter; Layne Staley (1967-2002), singer-songwriter; Kristen Wiig (1973- ), actress/comedian; James Corden (1978- ), TV personality.

TODAY'S FACT: The Comics Journal named George Herriman's "Krazy Kat" the best American comic strip of the 20th century in 1999.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1989, Texas Rangers pitcher Nolan Ryan struck out Rickey Henderson of the Oakland A's, becoming the first major league pitcher to reach 5,000 strikeouts.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "I'm seventeen and I'm crazy. My uncle says the two always go together. When people ask your age, he said, always say seventeen and insane." -- Ray Bradbury, "Fahrenheit 451"

TODAY'S NUMBER: 30 -- Major League Baseball record number of runs scored by the Texas Rangers in a 30-3 victory over the Baltimore Orioles on this day in 2007.

TODAY'S MOON: Between first quarter moon (Aug. 18) and full moon (Aug. 26).