Today is the 41st day of 2014 and the 52nd day of winter.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1840, Britain's Queen Victoria married Prince Albert.

In 1967, the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, establishing presidential succession, was ratified.

In 1996, the IBM supercomputer Deep Blue defeated reigning world champion Garry Kasparov for the first time in a game of chess.

In 2005, North Korea publicly acknowledged that it had acquired nuclear weapons.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Charles Lamb (1775-1834), author; William Allen White (1868-1944), author/journalist; Boris Pasternak (1890-1960), author; Jimmy Durante (1893-1980), singer/comedian; Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956), playwright; Robert Wagner (1930- ), actor; Mark Spitz (1950- ), swimmer; Greg Norman (1955- ), golfer; John Calipari (1959- ), basketball coach; George Stephanopoulos (1961- ), journalist; Laura Dern (1967- ), actress; Vince Gilligan (1967- ), TV writer/producer; Elizabeth Banks (1974- ), actress; Emma Roberts (1991- ), actress.

TODAY'S FACT: Playwright Arthur Miller died exactly 56 years after his "Death of a Salesman" opened in New York on this date in 1949.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1968, Peggy Fleming won the women's figure skating gold for the United States at the Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "Since others have to tolerate my weaknesses, it is only fair that I should tolerate theirs." -- William Allen White

TODAY'S NUMBER: 9 -- children Queen Victoria and Prince Albert had together. All married into royal houses in Europe.

TODAY'S MOON: Between first quarter moon (Feb. 6) and full moon (Feb. 14).

Today is the 40th day of 2014 and the 51st day of winter.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1861, Jefferson Davis was elected president of the Confederate States of America.

In 1950, during a speech in West Virginia, Sen. Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin claimed to have a list of more than 200 "known communists" serving in the State Department.

In 1964, the Beatles made their first appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show."

In 1968, the first U.S. combat troops were sent to South Vietnam.

In 1994, Nelson Mandela became president of South Africa.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: William Henry Harrison (1773-1841), ninth U.S. president; Ronald Colman (1891-1958), actor; Brendan Behan (1923-1964), playwright; Roger Mudd (1928- ), TV journalist; Carole King (1942- ), singer-songwriter; Joe Pesci (1943- ), actor; Alice Walker (1944- ), author; Mia Farrow (1945- ), actress; Charlie Day (1976- ), actor; Tom Hiddleston (1981- ), actor.

TODAY'S FACT: Some 45.3 percent of all U.S. television-owning households tuned in to see the Beatles' TV debut in America on "The Ed Sullivan Show." It was then the highest-rated TV telecast and is still the 26th-highest rated of all time.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1971, pitcher Leroy "Satchel" Paige became the first Negro League veteran to be nominated for the Baseball Hall of Fame.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "The only legitimate right to govern is an express grant of power from the governed." -- William Henry Harrison

TODAY'S NUMBER: 250 -- length (in feet) of Henry Ford's first automobile assembly line.

TODAY'S MOON: Between first quarter moon (Feb. 6) and full moon (Feb. 14).

Today is the 39th day of 2014 and the 50th day of winter.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1587, Mary, Queen of Scots, was executed on suspicion of plotting to murder her cousin Queen Elizabeth I.

In 1910, the Boy Scouts of America was incorporated.

In 1915, D.W. Griffith's "The Birth of a Nation" premiered in Los Angeles with the title "The Clansman."

In 1996, President Bill Clinton signed the Telecommunications Act of 1996 into law, leading to a drastic overhaul of U.S. media regulations.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: William Tecumseh Sherman (1820-1891), U.S. general; Jules Verne (1828-1905), author; Lana Turner (1921-1995), actress; Jack Lemmon (1925-2001), actor; James Dean (1931-1955), actor; Ted Koppel (1940- ), journalist; Nick Nolte (1941- ), actor; Mary Steenburgen (1953- ), actress; John Grisham (1955- ), author; Gary Coleman (1968-2010), actor; Mary McCormack (1969- ), actress; Seth Green (1974- ), actor/producer.

TODAY'S FACT: The first movie ever to be screened privately at the White House was "The Birth of a Nation," which Woodrow Wilson viewed in 1915.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1998, Finland beat Sweden 6-0 in the first women's Olympic ice hockey game.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "Science, my lad, is made up of mistakes, but they are mistakes which it is useful to make, because they lead little by little to the truth." -- Jules Verne, "A Journey to the Center of the Earth"

TODAY'S NUMBER: 2.78 million -- youth membership of the Boy Scouts of America in 2012.

TODAY'S MOON: Between first quarter moon (Feb. 6) and full moon (Feb. 14).