Today is the 44th day of 2014 and the 55th day of winter.
TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1866, Jesse James held up his first bank.
In 1945, Allied aircraft began bombing the German city of Dresden.
In 1960, France successfully detonated its first atomic bomb.
In 2000, the last of Charles Schulz's original "Peanuts" comic strips ran in Sunday papers, one day after the cartoonist's death.
TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Grant Wood (1891-1942), artist; Tennessee Ernie Ford (1919-1991), singer/actor; Chuck Yeager (1923- ), aviator; Kim Novak (1933- ), actress; Stockard Channing (1944- ), actress; Jerry Springer (1944- ), TV personality; Peter Gabriel (1950- ), singer-songwriter; Henry Rollins (1961- ), singer-songwriter; Robbie Williams (1974- ), singer-songwriter; Randy Moss (1977- ), football player; Mena Suvari (1979- ), actress.
TODAY'S FACT: The central event of author Kurt Vonnegut's celebrated novel "Slaughterhouse-Five" is the Allied bombing of the city of Dresden during World War II. Estimates of civilian casualties from the bombings range from 35,000 to 135,000.
TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1920, the Negro National League was established at a YMCA in Kansas City, Mo., becoming the first black professional baseball league.
TODAY'S QUOTE: "You don't concentrate on risks. You concentrate on results. No risk is too great to prevent the necessary job from getting done." -- Chuck Yeager
TODAY'S NUMBER: 300 -- estimated number of nuclear weapons in France's stockpile as of August 2013.
TODAY'S MOON: Between first quarter moon (Feb. 6) and full moon (Feb. 14).