TODAY IN HISTORY

Today (Wednesday, July 27) is the 209th day of 2016 and the 38th day of summer.

TODAY’S HISTORY: In 1789, Congress established the Department of Foreign Affairs, later renamed the State Department.

In 1953, a Korean War armistice was signed after three years of fighting.

In 1974, the House of Representatives voted to recommend the first article of impeachment against President Nixon.

In 1996, a bomb exploded in an Atlanta park during the Summer Olympics, killing one person.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953), writer/historian; Leo Durocher (1905-1991), baseball player/manager; Norman Lear (1922- ), TV producer/writer; Jerry Van Dyke (1931- ), actor; Bobbie Gentry (1944- ), singer-songwriter; Peggy Fleming (1948- ), figure skater; Bill Engvall (1957- ), actor/comedian; Triple H (1969- ), professional wrestler; Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (1970- ), actor; Maya Rudolph (1972- ), actress; Alex Rodriguez (1975- ), baseball player; Jonathan Rhys Meyers (1977- ), actor; Jordan Spieth (1993- ), golfer.

TODAY’S FACT: The Republic of Korea (South Korea) refused to sign the armistice agreement that ended the Korean War. It has never made a peace treaty with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea).

TODAY’S SPORTS: In 1986, 83 years after the Tour de France was established, American cyclist Greg LeMond became the first non-European to win the race.

TODAY’S QUOTE: “When friendship disappears then there is a space left open to that awful loneliness of the outside which is like the cold of space between the planets. It is an air in which men perish utterly. Absolute dereliction is the death of the soul.” -- Hilaire Belloc, “The Four Men: A Farrago”

TODAY’S NUMBER: 4 -- Major League Baseball teams (Dodgers, Giants, Cubs and Astros) managed by Leo Durocher on his way to a career total of 2,009 wins.

TODAY’S MOON: Between last quarter moon (July 26) and new moon (Aug. 2).