Today in history

Today is Wednesday, July 4, the 185th day of 2018 and the 14th day of summer.

Today’s Highlights in History:

In 1776, the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence. In 1826, founding fathers John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died on the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. In 1960, the modern version of the American flag (with 50 stars) debuted at a ceremony in Philadelphia. In 1997, NASA’s Pathfinder space probe

landed on Mars. In 2012, the discovery of Higgs bosonlike particles through experiments at the Large Hadron Collider was announced at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN).

Today’s fact: Renowned advice columnists Eppie Lederer and Pauline Phillips, known as Ann Landers and Abigail Van Buren (“Dear Abby”) respectively, were twin sisters, born on this day in 1918.

Today’s sports: In 1939, New York Yankee slugger Lou Gehrig, who was suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, announced his retirement at Yankee Stadium, delivering the famous line, “Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth.”

Today’s number: 1,000 – approximate number of “Gorilla Sign Language” signs in the working vocabulary of Koko, a female lowland gorilla born on this day in 1971.

Today’s moon: Between full moon (June 27) and last quarter moon (July 6).