UNIVERSAL UCLICK ALMANAC

Today is the 68th day of 2013 and the 79th day of winter.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1847, the first large-scale amphibious assault in U.S. history was launched in the Mexican seaport of Veracruz.

In 1959, Mattel introduced the Barbie doll at the American International Toy Fair in New York City.

In 2004, a Virginia court sentenced the Washington, D.C.-area "Beltway Sniper" John Allen Muhammad to death.

In 2011, the space shuttle Discovery completed its 39th and final flight.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Samuel Barber (1910-1981), composer; Mickey Spillane (1918-2006), author; Walter Kohn (1923- ), physicist/Nobel Prize winner; Yuri Gagarin (1934-1968), cosmonaut/first person in space; Raul Julia (1940-1994), actor; Bobby Fischer (1943-2008), chess grandmaster; Charles Gibson (1943- ), TV journalist; Juliette Binoche (1964- ), actress; Brittany Snow (1986- ), actress; Bow Wow (1987- ), actor/rapper.

TODAY'S FACT: Mattel Inc. reports that 90 percent of American girls between ages 3 and 10 own at least one Barbie doll.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1995, league owners unanimously approved the addition of major league baseball expansion franchises in Tampa Bay, Fla., and Arizona.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "Hemingway hated me. I sold 200 million books, and he didn't. Of course, most of mine sold for 25 cents, but still ... you look at all this stuff with a grain of salt." -- Mickey Spillane

TODAY'S NUMBER: 148,221,675 -- miles flown by the space shuttle Discovery during its 26 years of operation, the equivalent of 300 round trips to the moon.

TODAY'S MOON: Between last quarter moon (March 4) and new moon (March 11).

UNIVERSAL UCLICK ALMANAC

Today is the 67th day of 2013 and the 78th day of winter.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1917, the so-called February Revolution in Russia began with food riots and strikes in Petrograd (St. Petersburg).

In 1948, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that religious education in public schools was unconstitutional.

In 1983, President Ronald Reagan referred to the Soviet Union as an "evil empire" during a speech in Orlando, Fla.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (1841-1935), Supreme Court justice/author; Cyd Charisse (1922-2008), actress/dancer; Lynn Redgrave (1943-2010), actress; Aidan Quinn (1959- ), actor; Freddie Prinze Jr. (1976- ), actor; James Van Der Beek (1977- ), actor.

TODAY'S FACT: Around 3 million Americans (roughly 1 percent of the U.S. population in 2010) have Russian ancestry.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1936, the first stock car race was held in Daytona Beach, Fla.

TODAY'S QUOTE: " The young man knows the rules, but the old man knows the exceptions." -- Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

TODAY'S NUMBER: 3.8 million -- American children who attended a religious private school in the 2009-10 school year.

TODAY'S MOON: Between last quarter moon (March 4) and new moon (March 11).

UNIVERSAL UCLICK ALMANAC

Today is the 66th day of 2013 and the 77th day of winter.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell received the patent for the telephone.

In 1936, Adolf Hitler ordered German troops to reoccupy the Rhineland, defying the Treaty of Versailles.

In 1965, state troopers forcefully broke up 600 civil rights protesters on "Bloody Sunday" in Selma, Ala.

In 2009, the Kepler space observatory, designed by NASA to discover Earthlike planets, was launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: John Herschel (1792-1871), mathematician/astronomer; Luther Burbank (1849-1926), naturalist; Maurice Ravel (1875-1937), composer; Willard Scott (1934- ), TV personality; Bryan Cranston (1956- ), actor; Ivan Lendl (1960- ), tennis player; Peter Sarsgaard (1971- ), actor; Rachel Weisz (1970- ), actress; Jenna Fischer (1974- ), actress; Laura Prepon (1980- ), actress.

TODAY'S FACT: Astronomers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics used data from the Kepler space observatory to estimate that at least 17 billion Earth-sized exoplanets exist in the Milky Way galaxy.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1987, Mike Tyson defeated James "Bonecrusher" Smith to unify the World Boxing Association and World Boxing Council titles, becoming the youngest undisputed heavyweight champion in history.

TODAY'S QUOTE: " Flowers always make people better, happier and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine to the soul." -- Luther Burbank

TODAY'S NUMBER: 70,490 -- estimated number of Americans who were 100 years or older in 2010.

TODAY'S MOON: Between last quarter moon (March 4) and new moon (March 11).