ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 236th day of 2025 and the 66th day of summer.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1814, British forces invaded Washington, D.C., and set fire to the White House.

In 1949, President Harry Truman formally announced that the North Atlantic Treaty was in effect.

In 1981, Mark David Chapman was sentenced in New York for the murder of John Lennon.

In 2006, the International Astronomical Union announced a new definition for "planet," which reclassified Pluto as a "dwarf planet."

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986), author; Vince McMahon (1945- ), wrestling promoter; Paulo Coelho (1947- ), author; Mike Shanahan (1952- ), football coach; Mike Huckabee (1955- ), politician/TV personality; Stephen Fry (1957- ), actor/comedian; Cal Ripken Jr. (1960- ), baseball player; Jared Harris (1961- ), actor; Marlee Matlin (1965- ), actress; Reggie Miller (1965- ), basketball player; Ava DuVernay (1972- ), filmmaker; Dave Chappelle (1973- ), actor/comedian; Rupert Grint (1988- ), actor.

TODAY'S FACT: In 1891, Thomas Edison filed a patent for his Kinetograph motion picture camera and the Kinetoscope viewer.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1989, baseball commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti banned Pete Rose from the sport for gambling on Major League Baseball games.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "The best art is realized when you can share the experience of making of it and not just the presentation of it, so that the audience is part of the creation and not just part of the consumption. Then it becomes much more full-bodied and robust." -- Ava DuVernay

TODAY'S NUMBER: 5 -- dwarf planets in our solar system currently recognized by the International Astronomical Union: Pluto, Ceres, Eris, Haumea and Makemake.

TODAY'S MOON: Between new moon (Aug. 22) and first quarter moon (Aug. 30).

ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 235th day of 2025 and the 65th 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 German and Soviet troops fought for control of the city.

In 1966, the Lunar Orbiter 1 spacecraft took 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 (1978-2020), 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 island's teams went on to win nine more titles in the next 12 years.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "What separates great players from all-time great players is their ability to self-assess, diagnose weaknesses, and turn those flaws into strengths." -- Kobe Bryant, "The Mamba Mentality: How I Play"

TODAY'S NUMBER: 229 –- total photographic images (42 high resolution and 187 medium resolution) taken by the Lunar Orbiter 1 spacecraft during its 1966 mission.

TODAY'S MOON: Between new moon (Aug. 22) and first quarter moon (Aug. 30).

ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 234th day of 2025 and the 64th 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, among other protocols, established protections for those wounded and sick in active warfare, was signed by 12 European nations.

In 1996, President Bill Clinton signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act -- a major welfare reform bill -- 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; John Lee Hooker (1917-2001), singer-songwriter/guitarist; Ray Bradbury (1920-2012), author; Valerie Harper (1939-2019), actress; Bill Parcells (1941- ), football coach; David Chase (1945- ), screenwriter/producer; Tori Amos (1963- ), singer-songwriter; Kristen Wiig (1973- ), actress/comedian; James Corden (1978- ), TV personality; Dua Lipa (1995- ), singer-songwriter.

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: "But you can't make people listen. They have to come round in their own time, wondering what happened and why the world blew up around them. " -- Ray Bradbury, "Fahrenheit 451"

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

TODAY'S MOON: New moon (Aug. 22).