ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 54th day of 2017 and the 65th day of winter.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1778, Baron von Steuben joined the U.S. encampment at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, to help train the Continental Army.� In 1942, a Japanese submarine fired artillery shells at coastal targets near Santa Barbara, California.

In 1945, American Marines raised the American flag on the island of Iwo Jima.

In 1954, the first mass vaccination of children against polio began in Pittsburgh.

In 1991, President George H.W. Bush announced the beginning of an allied ground offensive in Iraq.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963), author/activist; Tom Osborne (1937- ), football coach; Peter Fonda (1940- ), actor; Fred Biletnikoff (1943- ), football player; Michael Dell (1965- ), businessman; Kelly Macdonald (1976- ), actress; Josh Gad (1981- ), actor; Aziz Ansari (1983- ), actor/comedian; Emily Blunt (1983- ), actress; Skylar Grey (1986- ), singer-songwriter; Dakota Fanning (1994- ), actress; Andrew Wiggins (1995- ), basketball player.

TODAY'S FACT: Von Steuben Day is celebrated in mid-September with parades in many U.S. cities. Chicago's Von Steuben Day parade was featured in the 1986 film "Ferris Bueller's Day Off."

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1968, Wilt Chamberlain became the first NBA player to score 25,000 career points.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "Herein lies the tragedy of the age: not that men are poor, -- all men know something of poverty; not that men are wicked, -- who is good? not that men are ignorant, -- what is Truth? Nay, but that men know so little of men." -- W.E.B. Du Bois, "The Souls of Black Folk"

TODAY'S NUMBER: 6,825 -- American soldiers who died taking Iwo Jima in 1945.

TODAY'S MOON: Between last quarter moon (Feb. 18) and new moon (Feb. 26).

ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 53rd day of 2017 and the 64th day of winter.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1819, Spain signed the Adams-Onis Treaty, ceding Florida to the United States and redefining the boundary between U.S. and Spanish territories from Louisiana to the Pacific Ocean.

In 1935, new regulations outlawed aircraft flying over the White House.

In 1980, the U.S. Olympic hockey team upset the Soviet Union 4-3 in Lake Placid, New York, a victory popularly known as the "Miracle on Ice."

In 1993, the U.N. Security Council approved the creation of a war crimes tribunal to address atrocities committed during the former Yugoslavia's civil war.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: George Washington (1732-1799), soldier/first U.S. president; Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860), philosopher; Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950), poet; Don Pardo (1918-2014), radio and TV announcer; Edward "Ted" Kennedy (1932-2009), U.S. senator; Julius Erving (1950- ), basketball player; Kyle MacLachlan (1959- ), actor; Steve Irwin (1962-2006), TV personality; Drew Barrymore (1975- ), actress; Iliza Shlesinger (1983- ), actress/comedian; Rajon Rondo (1986- ), basketball player.

TODAY'S FACT: Like Mozart, Frederic Chopin (born on this day in 1810, according to his baptismal register) was considered a musical prodigy in childhood. By age 7 he had composed two simple marches.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1959, Lee Petty won the first Daytona 500.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "Memory works like the collection glass in the camera obscura: It gathers everything together and therewith produces a far more beautiful picture than was present originally." -- Arthur Schopenhauer

TODAY'S NUMBER: 1 -- Broadway performance (excluding 13 previews) for Arthur Bicknell's play, "Moose Murders," which opened and closed at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre on this day in 1983. The play is widely considered the most infamous flop in Broadway history.

TODAY'S MOON: Between last quarter moon (Feb. 18) and new moon (Feb. 26).

ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 52nd day of 2017 and the 63rd day of winter.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1842, John Greenough received the first U.S. patent for a sewing machine.

In 1848, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published "The Communist Manifesto."

In 1965, Malcolm X was assassinated by three members of the Nation of Islam at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City.

In 1972, Richard Nixon became the first U.S. president to visit China while in office.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Leo Delibes (1836-1891), composer; Anais Nin (1903-1977), author; John Rawls (1921-2002), philosopher; Sam Peckinpah (1925-1984), film director; Erma Bombeck (1927-1996), humorist; David Geffen (1943- ), record producer/filmmaker; Tyne Daly (1946- ), actress; Alan Rickman (1946-2016), actor; William Petersen (1953- ), actor; Kelsey Grammer (1955- ), actor; Mary Chapin Carpenter (1958- ), singer-songwriter; Chuck Palahniuk (1962- ), author; David Foster Wallace (1962-2008), author; Jennifer Love Hewitt (1979- ), actress; Jordan Peele (1979- ), actor; Ellen Page (1987- ), actress; Sophie Turner (1996- ), actress.

TODAY'S FACT: The first issue of The New Yorker was published on this day in 1925.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1948, race car driver Bill France and various members of the auto racing community formed the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR).

TODAY'S QUOTE: "The basis of insincerity is the idealized image we hold of ourselves and wish to impose on others." -- Anais Nin

TODAY'S NUMBER: 555 -- height (in feet) of the Washington Monument, dedicated on this day in 1885.

TODAY'S MOON: Between last quarter moon (Feb. 18) and new moon (Feb. 26).