Good morning. It's August 16th — let's begin where we always do: on this very date in history.
📅 On This Day — August 16
🍿 (It's also National Roller Coaster Day.)
1960 — Air Force Captain Joseph Kittinger rode a balloon to 102,800 feet and jumped, free-falling from the edge of space in Project Excelsior — a record that stood for 52 years.
1977 — Elvis Presley died at Graceland at just 42, and the world lost the King of Rock and Roll on a quiet Memphis afternoon.
1987 — Thousands gathered at sacred sites worldwide for the Harmonic Convergence, the first synchronized global peace meditation, timed to a rare planetary alignment.
1996 — More than 50,000 fans at Yankee Stadium set a record for the largest group dance, all doing the Macarena at once — the craze at its peak.
2009 — U2 opened the UK leg of their 360° Tour by breaking the Wembley Stadium attendance record, with 88,000 under that giant "Claw" stage.
Now, let's set the dial back to 2011…
⏪ REWIND: 2011 Barack Obama is president, a first-class stamp is 44 cents, gas is about $3.60 a gallon — and after 30 years, an era has just ended.
📰 The Headlines For the first time in three decades, there's no Space Shuttle. Atlantis glided home on July 21, closing out the program that built the International Space Station — and Americans are asking what comes next for human spaceflight.
🎬 At the Movies Filling theaters this week: The Help — the Jackson, Mississippi drama that became the summer's word-of-mouth hit, with Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, and Emma Stone.
🎵 On the Charts At #1, as it has been all summer, is "Party Rock Anthem" by LMFAO — the "everyday I'm shufflin'" anthem that owned 2011.
🏆 In Sports Golf has a new star: two days ago at the PGA Championship, 25-year-old Keegan Bradley won in a playoff over Jason Dufner — in the very first major he'd ever played.
🏰 The Disney Vault Back on the big screen: Winnie the Pooh — Disney's hand-drawn, gentle return to the Hundred Acre Wood, a warm throwback in a summer of noisy blockbusters.
— a couple of quick things before you go —
👟 Step Challenge: the Summer 2026 Step Challenge is rolling — grab the free Pacer app and walk with us: Join the challenge (already have Pacer? Club code E42727228). Every step counts.
💡 Health Snap: a lazy Sunday is a great day to stretch — even five minutes loosens up everything a week at the desk tightened. More easy wellness reading is at ourfreehealthreport.com.
🎉 Born on an August 16th — or know someone who was?
Forward this to them right now — there's no better "this is the day you were born" gift than a little time travel.
🎂 In good company: August 16 babies include Madonna (1958), Angela Bassett (1958), Oscar winner Timothy Hutton (1960), Steve Carell (1962), and director Taika Waititi (1975).
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