ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC
Today is the 54th day of 2017 and the 65th day of winter.
TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1778, Baron von Steuben joined the U.S. encampment at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, to help train the Continental Army.� In 1942, a Japanese submarine fired artillery shells at coastal targets near Santa Barbara, California.
In 1945, American Marines raised the American flag on the island of Iwo Jima.
In 1954, the first mass vaccination of children against polio began in Pittsburgh.
In 1991, President George H.W. Bush announced the beginning of an allied ground offensive in Iraq.
TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963), author/activist; Tom Osborne (1937- ), football coach; Peter Fonda (1940- ), actor; Fred Biletnikoff (1943- ), football player; Michael Dell (1965- ), businessman; Kelly Macdonald (1976- ), actress; Josh Gad (1981- ), actor; Aziz Ansari (1983- ), actor/comedian; Emily Blunt (1983- ), actress; Skylar Grey (1986- ), singer-songwriter; Dakota Fanning (1994- ), actress; Andrew Wiggins (1995- ), basketball player.
TODAY'S FACT: Von Steuben Day is celebrated in mid-September with parades in many U.S. cities. Chicago's Von Steuben Day parade was featured in the 1986 film "Ferris Bueller's Day Off."
TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1968, Wilt Chamberlain became the first NBA player to score 25,000 career points.
TODAY'S QUOTE: "Herein lies the tragedy of the age: not that men are poor, -- all men know something of poverty; not that men are wicked, -- who is good? not that men are ignorant, -- what is Truth? Nay, but that men know so little of men." -- W.E.B. Du Bois, "The Souls of Black Folk"
TODAY'S NUMBER: 6,825 -- American soldiers who died taking Iwo Jima in 1945.
TODAY'S MOON: Between last quarter moon (Feb. 18) and new moon (Feb. 26).