July 11th..

    • Today is Reading Guilt Day, a day to actually start reading an entire book you only read the Cliff Notes version of in college.

    • Today is National Blueberry Muffin Day.

    • Today  is Advice-to-the-Lovelorn Day,. In 1896, the first advice-to-the-lovelorn column was published in the New Orleans Picayune. Known as the Mother Confessor to Millions, Dorothy Dix's column ran in 300 newspapers for 55 years. Her real name was Elizabeth Meriwether Gilmer.

    • Today is Drummer Appreciation Day, a day to honor those who add so much to the rhythm of life.

    • Today is International Town Criers Day.

    • Today is World Population Day, a day to focus on population issues, sponsored by the United Nations.

    • Today is Independence Day in Mongolia.

On this date in . . .

1798: The U.S. Marine Corps was formally re-established by a congressional act that also created the U.S. Marine Band.

1914: Babe Ruth made his major-league debut with the Boston Red Sox at an annual rookie salary of $2,900. Six years later he signed with the Yankees for $125,000.

1933: All schoolteachers in Germany were ordered to read Adolph Hitler's Mein Kampf and to become thoroughly familiar with the Nazi creed.

1967: Singer Kenny Rogers formed the group The First Edition. Their biggest hit was "Just Dropped In to See What Condition My Condition Was In" in 1968, followed by "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town" in 1969.

1971: The U.S. Department of Agri­culture was allocated $19,520 to deter­mine if a woman's place was in the home.

1985: Nolan Ryan of the Houston Astros became the first pitcher in Major League Baseball to strike out 4,000 batters, fanning Danny Heep of the New York Mets.

1987: Comedian Ellen Degeneres starred on the first HBO "Women of the Night" TV special.

1988: South Korean police arrested 15,617 demonstrators in one day. They were concerned about security at the Olympic Games in Seoul.

1992: A Japanese rancher told Tokyo reporters he outfitted his cattle with pocket pagers. He said it took the cows about a week to learn that the beep means it=s time to eat. He just dials the beeper number and they come running.

1994: Shawn Eckardt was sentenced in Portland, Oregon, to 18 months in prison for his role in the attack on skater Nancy Kerrigan.

1996: Hung Chen-chih and Wang Mei-yun were married in Taipei, Taiwan, while sitting on ostriches. They had beat out 42 other couples for the honor by riding the ostriches for longer than two minutes.

1998: Air Force Lt. Michael Blassie, a casualty of the Vietnam War, was buried near his Missouri home, after the positive identification of his remains, which had been enshrined at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington, Virginia.

2000: Tim McCarthy delivered his daughter in the passenger seat of his 1986 Firebird, parked at the Mini-Mart. Tim and wife Melissa were headed for the hospital, but a healthy 7-pound 10 ounce Melissa Marie couldn't wait. Tim said he was really glad he had watched the doctor deliver the couple's first child and "sort of remembered" what to do.

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