ALMANAC

Today is Sunday, July 29, the 210th day of 2018. There are 155 days left in the year.

Highlight in history

On July 29, 1921, Adolf Hitler became the leader (“fuehrer”) of the National Socialist German Workers Party.

On this date

In 1890, artist Vincent van Gogh, 37, died of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound in Auverssur-Oise, France.

In 1914,

transcontinental telephone service in the U.S. became operational with the first test conversation between New York and San Francisco.

In 1958, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, creating NASA.

In 1967, an accidental rocket launch on the deck of the supercarrier USS Forrestal in the Gulf of Tonkin resulted in a fire and explosions that killed 134 servicemen. (Among the survivors was future Arizona Sen. John McCain, a Navy lieutenant commander.)

In 1974, singer Cass Elliot died in a London hotel room at age 32.

In 1975, President Gerald R. Ford became the first U.S. president to visit the site of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz in Poland.

In 1981, Britain’s Prince Charles married Lady Diana Spencer in a glittering ceremony at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. (The couple divorced in 1996.)

Today’s birthdays

Former Sen. Elizabeth H. Dole is 82. Documentary maker Ken Burns is 65. Rock singer-musician Geddy Lee (Rush) is 65. Country singer Martina McBride is 52. Actor Wil Wheaton is 46. Rhythmand-blues singer Wanya Morris (Boyz II Men) is

45. Actor Stephen Dorff is

45. Actress Rachel Miner is 38. Actress Allison Mack is 36.