Make your Fourth of July holiday as festive as apple pie at the City of McKinney’s Red, White, and BOOM! celebration. Independence Day kicks off with free family activities, live entertainment and a spectacular fireworks show. Families can also explore the many dining and shopping options that historic downtown McKinney has to offer.

Perhaps there was no more audacious and daring operation of World War 2 than the Doolittle Raid over mainland Japan in 1942. Sherman native John A. Hilger was Doolittle's second in command. This is his story of that first American response to the land of the Rising Sun.

Bob Livingston has played with Jerry Jeff Walker and Michael Martin Murphey, but June 11, 2017 he brought his music and stories to Harmony House Concerts near Ravenna, Texas. photo by Rhea Bermel

This common green microalga called Botryococcus braunii is found everywhere in the world except in sea water. It has potential to be used as a biofuel. (Texas A&M AgriLife Research photo by Kathleen Phillips)

1911 – birth of Babe Didrikson Zaharias, American golfer and basketball player. Mildred Ella "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias (June 26, 1911 – September 27, 1956) was an American athlete who achieved a great deal of success in golf, basketball, baseball and track and field. She won two gold medals in track and field at the 1932 Summer Olympics, before turning to professional golf and winning 10 LPGA major championships. Zaharias broke the accepted models of femininity in her time, including the accepted models of female athleticism. Standing 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighing 115 lbs., Zaharias was physically strong and socially straightforward about her strength. Although a sports hero to many, she was also derided for her "manliness." Sportswriter Joe Williams of the New York World-Telegram remarked, "It would be much better if she and her ilk stayed at home, got themselves prettied up and waited for the phone to ring."