Today is the 79th day of 2016 and the 89th day of winter.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1918, the U.S. Congress established time zones and approved daylight saving time.

In 1931, the Nevada state legislature voted to legalize gambling.

In 1953, the 25th Academy Awards were featured in the first Oscars telecast.

In 2003, President George W. Bush announced the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: David Livingstone (1813-1873), physician/explorer; Wyatt Earp (1848-1929), lawman/gunfighter; William Jennings Bryan (1860-1925), politician; Earl Warren (1891-1974), chief justice of the United States; Philip Roth (1933- ), author; Glenn Close (1947- ), actress; Harvey Weinstein (1952- ), film producer; Bruce Willis (1955- ), actor; Andy Reid (1958- ), football coach; Clayton Kershaw (1988- ), baseball player.

TODAY'S FACT: The Best Actress category of the 85th Academy Awards (held on Feb. 24, 2013) featured both the oldest and the youngest female nominees for a lead acting Oscar. Emmanuelle Riva ("Amour") was age 86 and Quvenzhane Wallis ("Beasts of the Southern Wild") was age 9.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1995, NBA superstar Michael Jordan scored 19 points against the Indiana Pacers in his first game back with the Chicago Bulls after almost two years of retirement.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "Turned the wrong way around, the relentless unforeseen was what we schoolchildren studied in 'History,' harmless history, where everything unexpected in its own time is chronicled on the page as inevitable. The terror of the unforeseen is what the science of history hides, turning a disaster into an epic." -- Philip Roth

TODAY'S NUMBER: $6.3 billion -- total gaming revenue for the Las Vegas Strip in 2015.

TODAY'S MOON: Between first quarter moon (March 15) and full moon (March 23).

Today is the 78th day of 2016 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; Bonnie Blair (1964- ), Olympic speed-skater; 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: In 1991, the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers retired Wilt Chamberlain's No. 13 jersey.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "Writing criticism is to writing fiction and poetry as hugging the shore is to sailing in the open sea." -- John Updike

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 first quarter moon (March 15) and full moon (March 23).

Today is the 77th day of 2016 and the 87th day of winter.

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 1958, the United States launched the first solar-powered satellite, the Vanguard 1.

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; Hozier (1990- ), singer-songwriter; John Boyega (1992- ), actor.

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: "To be afraid is to behave as if the truth were not true." -- Bayard Rustin

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

TODAY'S MOON: Between first quarter moon (March 15) and full moon (March 23).