SUNDAY, AUGUST 1, 2021

Today is the 213th day of 2021 and the 43rd day of summer.

TODAY’S HISTORY: In 1834, Britain abolished slavery in all of its colonies.

In 1876, Colorado was admitted as the 38th U.S. state.

In 1957, the United States and Canada announced the formation of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD).

In 1966, ex-Marine Charles Whitman opened fire from a tower at the University of Texas at Austin, killing 14 people and wounding 32.

In 2007, an interstate highway bridge in Minneapolis collapsed over the Mississippi River, killing 13 and injuring 145.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: William Clark (1770-1838), explorer; Francis Scott Key (1779-1843), poet/lawyer; Herman Melville (1819- 1891), author; Dom DeLuise (1933-2009), actor/ comedian; Yves Saint Laurent (1936-2008), fashion designer; Jerry Garcia (1942-1995), singer-songwriter; Coolio (1963- ), rapper; Sam Mendes (1965- ), film director; Jason Momoa (1979- ), actor; Max Carver (1988- ), actor; Madison Bumgarner (1989- ), baseball player.

TODAY’S FACT: “Video Killed the Radio Star” by the Buggles was the first music video aired on MTV when the network launched on this day in 1981.

TODAY’S SPORTS: In 1936, the Olympic Games opened in Berlin before a crowd of 100,000 spectators.

TODAY’S QUOTE: “We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects.” -- Herman Melville

TODAY’S NUMBER: 14,130 -- final elevation (in feet) of Colorado’s Mount Evans Scenic Byway, the highest paved road in North America.

TODAY’S MOON: Between last quarter moon (July 31) new moon (Aug. 8).

MONDAY, AUGUST 2, 2021

Today is the 214th day of 2021 and the 44th day of summer.

TODAY’S HISTORY: In 1790, the first official census of the United States was conducted.

In 1923, President Warren Harding died in San Francisco. Vice President Calvin Coolidge was sworn in as president before dawn the next day.

In 1934, Adolf Hitler united the chancellorship and presidency of Germany under the new title of Fuhrer.

In 1939, Albert Einstein wrote a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, requesting that the U.S. research the possibility of atomic weapons.

In 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait.

In 2018, Apple Inc. became the world’s first trillion-dollar company.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Frederic Auguste Bartholdi (1834-1904), sculptor; Jack Warner (1892-1978), film executive; Myrna Loy (1905- 1993), actress; Shimon Peres (1923-2016), Israeli prime minister; James Baldwin (1924-1987), writer; Carroll O’Connor (1924- 2001), actor; Lamar Hunt (1932-2006), sports executive; Peter O’Toole (1932- 2013), actor; Wes Craven (1939-2015), filmmaker; Mary-Louise Parker (1964- ), actress; Kevin Smith (1970- ), filmmaker; Sam Worthington (1976- ), actor.

TODAY’S FACT: The familiar enlarged copy of the Declaration of Independence bearing the signatures of 56 congressional delegates was signed on this day in 1776.

TODAY’S SPORTS: The “Black Sox,” eight former Chicago White Sox baseball players charged with defrauding the public in a conspiracy to throw the 1919 World Series, were acquitted on this day in 1921.

TODAY’S QUOTE: “Love takes off the masks we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.” -- James Baldwin

TODAY’S NUMBER: 3,929,214 -- population of the United States as recorded in the 1790 census.

TODAY’S MOON: Between last quarter moon (July 31) and new moon (Aug. 8).