Today is the 231st day of 2021 and the 61st day of summer.
TODAY’S HISTORY: In 1839, details of Louis Daguerre’s pioneering photographic process were first released in Paris.
In 1934, a German plebiscite voted to grant then-Chancellor Adolf Hitler the additional office of president.
In 1960, captured American U-2 spy plane pilot Francis Gary Powers was sentenced in Moscow to three years imprisonment and seven years of hard labor for espionage.
In 2010, Operation Iraqi Freedom officially ended as the last U.S. combat troops crossed the border into Kuwait.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Orville Wright (1871-1948), aviation pioneer; Coco Chanel (1883-1971), fashion designer; Ogden Nash (1902-1971), poet/author; Malcolm Forbes (1919-1990), publisher; Gene Roddenberry (1921-1991), Star Trek creator; Bill Shoemaker (1931-2003), jockey; Bill Clinton (1946- ), 42nd U.S. president; Mary Matalin (1953- ), political consultant; John Stamos (1963- ), actor; Kyra Sedgwick (1965- ), actress; Nate Dogg (1969-2011), rapper; Matthew Perry (1969- ), actor; Clay Walker (1969- ), singer-songwriter; Veronica Roth (1988- ), author.
TODAY’S FACT: Gene Roddenberry was the first television writer to get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
TODAY’S SPOR TS: In 1909, Austrian engineer Louis Schwitzer won the first race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, with an average speed of 57.4 mph. Two drivers, two mechan- ics and two spectators died in related accidents.
TODAY’S QUOTE: “Children aren’t happy with nothing to ignore, / And that’s what parents were created for.” — Ogden Nash
TODAY’S NUMBER: 11 — Triple Crown horse races won by thoroughbred jockey Bill Shoemaker. He never won all three jewels in the Triple Crown in the same year.
TODAY’S MOON: Between first quarter moon (Aug. 15) and full moon (Aug. 22).
