TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is Tuesday, July 31, the 212th day of 2018. There are 153 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On July 31, 1991, President George H.W. Bush and Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty in Moscow.

On this date:

In 1777, during the Revolutionary War, the Marquis de Lafayette, a 19-year-old French nobleman, was made a major-general in the American Continental Army.

In 1971, Apollo 15 crew members David Scott and James Irwin became the first astronauts to use a lunar rover on the surface of the moon.

Ten years ago: Scientists reported the Phoenix spacecraft had confirmed the presence of frozen water in Martian soil.

Five years ago: President Barack Obama’s national security team acknowledged for the first time that, when investigating one suspected terrorist,

it could read and store the phone records of millions of Americans.

One year ago: Retired Marine Gen. John Kelly was sworn in as White House chief of staff, replacing Reince Priebus. Hours later, White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci was let go, just 11 days after he was appointed to the job.

Today’s Birthdays: Actor Don Murray is 89. Jazz composer-musician Kenny Burrell is 87. Singer Gary Lewis is 73. Actor Lane Davies is 68. Actor Dirk Blocker is 61. Entrepreneur Mark Cuban is 60. Actor Wesley Snipes is 56. Country singer Chad Brock is 55Actor Robert Telfer is 41. Country singer-musician Zac Brown is 40. Actorproducer-writer B.J. Novak is 39. Actor Eric Lively is 37.

Thought for Today: “The trouble with the public is that there is too much of it.”—Don Marquis, American journalist, poet and dramatist (1878-1937).