World Almanac

Today is the 181st day of 2021 and the 11th day of summer.

TODAY’S HISTORY: In 1934, the “Night of the Long Knives,” a series of murders ordered by Adolf Hitler to eliminate his political rivals, began in Germany.

In 1936, Margaret Mitchell’s “Gone With the Wind” was published.

In 1966, the National Organization for Women was formed.

In 1982, the proposed Equal Rights Amendment, designed to guarantee equal rights for women, failed when its ratifi- cation deadline passed.

In 2007, an SUV loaded with propane canisters was driven into the terminal entrance and caught fire in a terror- ist attack at Glasgow airport in Scotland.

TODAY’S BIR THDAYS: Czeslaw Milosz (1911-2004), poet/essayist; Lena Horne (1917-2010), singer; Paul Berg (1926- ), biochemist; Robert Ballard (1942- ), oceanograph- er; David Alan Grier (1956- ), actor; Vincent D’Onofrio (1959- ), actor; Mike Tyson (1966- ), boxer; Monica Potter (1971- ), actress; Matisyahu (1979- ), rapper; Lizzy Caplan (1982- ), actress; Michael Phelps (1985- ), Olympic swimmer.

TODAY’S FACT: In 1953, the first Chevrolet Corvette was produced at the General Motors plant in Flint, Michigan.

TODAY’S SPORTS: In 1994, Tonya Harding was stripped of the national figure skating championship title and banned for life from the sport for planning an attack that injured rival skater Nancy Kerrigan.

TODAY’S QUOTE: “Almost a quarter of our planet is a sin- gle mountain range, and we didn’t enter it until after Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin went to the moon. So we went to the moon, played golf up there, before we went to the largest feature on our own planet.” — Robert Ballard

TODAY’S NUMBER: 999 — telephone number of the world’s oldest emergency call service, which was introduced in London on this day in 1937.

TODAY’S MOON: Between full moon (June 24) and last quarter moon (July 1).