Today is the 77th day of 2014 and the 88th day of winter.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1850, the American Express Company was founded.

In 1852, Henry Wells, William G. Fargo and a group of investors founded Wells, Fargo and Co.

In 1965, Russian cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov made the first spacewalk.

In 1974, members of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) ended a five-month oil embargo against the United States, Europe and Japan.

In 1990, two men stole 13 pieces valued at $300 million from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Grover Cleveland (1837-1908), 22nd and 24th U.S. president; Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908), composer; Peter Graves (1926-2010), actor; George Plimpton (1927-2003), author/actor; John Updike (1932-2009), author/critic; Charley Pride (1938- ), singer-songwriter; Vanessa Williams (1963- ), actress/singer; Bonnie Blair (1964- ), Olympic speed-skater; Jerry Cantrell (1966- ), singer-songwriter; Queen Latifah (1970- ), actress/singer; Dane Cook (1972- ), comedian/actor; Adam Levine (1979- ), singer-songwriter/TV personality.

TODAY'S FACT: Among the 13 works stolen in Boston's Gardner Museum art theft in 1990 was "The Concert," a painting by Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer. It is considered the most valuable unrecovered stolen painting in the world, with an estimated value of $200 million.

TODAY'S SPORTS: Olympic speed-skater Bonnie Blair, born this day in 1964, is the most decorated female U.S. Winter Olympian, with five gold medals and one bronze.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "It is easy to love people in memory; the hard thing is to love them when they are there in front of you." -- John Updike, "My Father's Tears and Other Stories"

TODAY'S NUMBER: 3 -- number of NATO member countries that possess nuclear weapons: the United States, France and the United Kingdom.

TODAY'S MOON: Between full moon (March 16) and last quarter moon (March 23).

Today is the 76th day of 2014 and the 87th day of winter.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1861, Italy -- excluding Rome and Venice -- was unified as a nation under King Victor Emmanuel II.

In 1905, Franklin D. Roosevelt married distant cousin Eleanor Roosevelt.

In 1950, physics researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, announced the creation of californium, the radioactive 98th element.

In 1995, the FDA licensed Varivax, the first chicken pox vaccine.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Gottlieb Daimler (1834-1900), engineer/inventor; Paul Green (1894-1981), playwright; Bobby Jones (1902-1971), golfer; Bayard Rustin (1912-1987), civil rights activist; Nat King Cole (1919-1965), singer; Kurt Russell (1951- ), actor; Gary Sinise (1955- ), actor; Rob Lowe (1964- ), actor; Billy Corgan (1967- ), singer-songwriter; Mia Hamm (1972- ), soccer player.

TODAY'S FACT: Gottlieb Daimler is credited with building the first internal combustion motorcycle in 1885.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 2005, six Major League Baseball players, including All-Star sluggers Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire, appeared before a congressional hearing on steroid use.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "Golf is the closest game to the game we call life. You get bad breaks from good shots; you get good breaks from bad shots -- but you have to play the ball where it lies." -- Bobby Jones

TODAY'S NUMBER: 13 -- elements in the periodic table that were identified before the year A.D. 1.

TODAY'S MOON: Between full moon (March 16) and last quarter moon (March 23).

Today is the 75th day of 2014 and the 86th day of winter.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1945, U.S. military forces declared the island of Iwo Jima secure after 25 days of fighting.

In 1968, U.S. Army soldiers massacred more than 300 civilians in the My Lai village in South Vietnam.

In 1988, Lt. Col. Oliver North and Vice Adm. John Poindexter were indicted on charges of conspiracy during the Iran-Contra affair.

In 1998, mass trials began in Rwanda for roughly 125,000 suspected perpetrators of the country's 1994 genocide.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: James Madison (1751-1836), fourth U.S. president; Henny Youngman (1906-1998), comedian; Pat Nixon (1912-1993), former first lady; Jerry Lewis (1926- ), comedian; Daniel Patrick Moynihan (1927-2003), U.S. senator; Chuck Woolery (1941- ), game show host; Erik Estrada (1949- ), actor; Nancy Wilson (1954- ), singer-songwriter; Ozzie Newsome (1956- ), football player/executive; Gore Verbinski (1964- ), filmmaker; Lauren Graham (1967- ), actress; Blake Griffin (1989- ), basketball player.

TODAY'S FACT: World War I pitted three first cousins -- Great Britain's King George V, Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm II and Russia's Czar Nicholas II -- against one another.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1994, figure skater Tonya Harding pleaded guilty to hindering the investigation into the conspiracy to attack rival Olympic hopeful Nancy Kerrigan.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood." -- James Madison

TODAY'S NUMBER: 400 -- current inhabitants (all Japanese soldiers) of the island formerly known as Iwo Jima. Japan formally reverted to the island's prewar name, Iwo To, in June 2007, prompted by the release of the Clint Eastwood movies "Letters From Iwo Jima" and "Flags of Our Fathers" earlier that year.

TODAY'S MOON: Full moon (March 16).