Today is the 66th day of 2014 and the 77th day of winter.
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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 1985, the charity song "We Are the World" was released worldwide, with sales to benefit African famine relief.
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), botanist; Maurice Ravel (1875-1937), composer; Willard Scott (1934- ), TV personality; Bryan Cranston (1956- ), actor; Ivan Lendl (1960- ), tennis player; Rachel Weisz (1970- ), actress; Peter Sarsgaard (1971- ), actor; 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: " I did my work slowly, drop by drop. I tore it out of me by pieces." -- Maurice Ravel
TODAY'S NUMBER: 53,364 -- number of Americans who were 100 years or older in 2010, according to census data.
TODAY'S MOON: Between new moon (March 1) and first quarter moon (March 8).