SATURDAY, JULY 15, 2023 Today is the 196th day of 2023 and the 25th day of summer.

TODAY’S HISTORY: In 1799, French Lieutenant Pierre-Francois Bouchard found the Rosetta Stone in Rosetta, Egypt.

In 1903, Ford Motor Co. took its first order, a Model A automobile for a dentist in Chicago, Illinois.

In 1971, President Richard Nixon announced his intent to visit China in search of a “normalization of relations.”

In 2002, “American Taliban” John Walker Lindh pleaded guilty to having fought as a soldier with the Taliban in Afghanistan.

In 2006, the social media platform Twitter was launched.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Rembrandt van Rijn (16061669), painter; Clement Clarke Moore (1779-1863), author/poet; St. Frances Xavier Cabrini (1850-1917), founder of charitable religious order; Clive Cussler (1931-2020), author; Vivian Malone Jones (1942-2005), civil rights activist; Linda Ronstadt (1946- ), singersongwriter; Arianna Huffington (1950- ), internet publisher; Jesse Ventura (1951), wrestler/former governor; Forest Whitaker (1961- ), actor; Adam Savage (1967), designer/TV personality; Damian Lillard (1990- ), basketball player.

TODAY’S FACT: The Nintendo Entertainment System debuted in Japan on this day in 1983.

TODAY’S SPORTS: In 2007, the Philadelphia Phillies baseball team became the first professional sports franchise to record its 10,000th loss.

TODAY’S QUOTE: “It doesn’t matter if you’re a model maker, a potter, a dancer, a programmer, a writer, a political activist, a teacher, a musician, a milliner, whatever. It’s all the same. Making is making, and none of it is failure.” Adam Savage, “Every Tool’s a Hammer” TODAY’S NUMBER: $850 price of the first automobile sold by Ford Motor Co.

TODAY’S MOON: Between last quarter moon (July 9) and new moon (July 17).

SUNDAY, JULY 16, 2023 Today is the 197th day of 2023 and the 26th day of summer.

TODAY’S HISTORY: In 1790, the District of Columbia was established as the permanent capital of the United States.

In 1945, the United States successfully detonated a test nuclear weapon near Alamogordo, New Mexico, an event now considered to mark the beginning of the Atomic Age.

In 1951, J.D. Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye” was published.

In 1979, Saddam Hussein became the president of Iraq.

In 1999, John F. Kennedy Jr., along with his wife and sister-in-law, died in a private plane crash near Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Roald Amundsen (18721928), explorer; Kathleen Norris (1880-1966), author; Orville Redenbacher (19071995), farmer/businessman; Barbara Stanwyck (19071990), actress; Ginger Rogers (1911-1995), dancer/actress; Jimmy Johnson (1943- ), football coach/broadcaster; Tony Kushner (1956- ), playwright; Michael Flatley (1958- ), dancer; Miguel Indurain (1964- ), cyclist; Will Ferrell (1967- ), actor; Barry Sanders (1968- ), football player; Adam Scott (1980- ), golfer; Carli Lloyd (1982- ), soccer player.

TODAY’S FACT: The world’s first parking meter, installed on this day in 1935 in Oklahoma City, charged 5 cents per hour.

TODAY’S SPORTS: In 1941, New York Yankees slugger Joe DiMaggio hit safely in his 56th consecutive game, setting a Major League Baseball record that still stands.

TODAY’S QUOTE: “Just the knowledge that a good book is waiting one at the end of a long day makes that day happier.” -- Kathleen Norris TODAY’S NUMBER: 2 -- cities in which the U.S. Senate met formally before settling permanently in Washington, D.C., in 1800. The Senate convened in New York City from 1789 to 1790 and in Philadelphia from 1790 to 1800.

TODAY’S MOON: Between last quarter moon (July 9) and new moon (July 17).

MONDAY, JULY 17, 2023 Today is the 198th day of 2023 and the 27th day of summer.

TODAY’S HISTORY: In 1918, abdicated Czar Nicholas II and his family were executed by Bolsheviks at Yekaterinburg, Russia.

In 1945, President Harry S. Truman, Soviet Premier Josef Stalin and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill met at the Potsdam Conference in Germany. In 1955, Disneyland opened in Anaheim, California.

In 1975, a U.S. Apollo spacecraft docked with a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft, and astronauts from the two countries held the first international meeting in space.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Erle Stanley Gardner (1889--1970), author/lawyer; James Cagney (1899-1986), actor; Art Linkletter (1912-2010), TV personality; Phyllis Diller (1917-2012), comedian/ actress; John Cooper (19232000), automobile designer; Vince Guaraldi (1928-1976), composer; Diahann Carroll (1935-2019), actress; Donald Sutherland (1935- ), actor; David Hasselhoff (1952- ), actor; Dawn Upshaw (1960), opera singer; Luke Bryan (1976- ), singer-songwriter; Brett Goldstein (1980- ), actor/writer.

TODAY’S FACT: Disneyland’s opening day, intended as an exclusive event with limited invitations, was a disaster. Counterfeit passes and thousands of uninvited guests led to backed-up traffic, overcrowding, malfunctioning rides and depleted concessions.

TODAY’S SPORTS: In 2005, Tiger Woods won the British Open, becoming only the second golfer (after Jack Nicklaus) to win each major championship more than once.

TODAY’S QUOTE: “If you don’t have wrinkles, you haven’t laughed enough.” Phyllis Diller TODAY’S NUMBER: 20 -- U.S. Air Force B-2 Spirit stealth bombers in service. The first flight of the aircraft was completed at Edwards Air Force Base in California on this day in 1989.

TODAY’S MOON: New moon (July 17).