ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 52nd day of 2019 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 truth will set you free. But not until it is finished with you." -- David Foster Wallace, "Infinite Jest"

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

TODAY'S MOON: Between full moon (Feb. 19) and last quarter moon (Feb. 26).

ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 51st day of 2019 and the 62nd day of winter.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1792, President George Washington signed into law the Postal Service Act, establishing the U.S. Post Office Deptartment.

In 1962, astronaut John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth, making three orbits aboard the Mercury program's Friendship 7 spacecraft.

In 1986, the Soviet Union launched the core module of the Mir space station.

In 2003, a pyrotechnics display during a Great White concert set fire to the Station nightclub in West Warwick, Rhode Island, killing 100 people.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Ansel Adams (1902-1984), photographer; Robert Altman (1925-2006), filmmaker; Richard Matheson (1926-2013), author/screenwriter; Sidney Poitier (1927- ), actor; Nancy Wilson (1937-2018), singer/actress; Patty Hearst (1954- ), actress/socialite; Charles Barkley (1963- ), basketball player/broadcaster; Cindy Crawford (1966- ), fashion model; Kurt Cobain (1967-1994), musician; Lili Taylor (1967- ), actress; Trevor Noah (1984- ), comedian/TV host; Miles Teller (1987- ), actor; Rihanna (1988- ), singer-songwriter.

TODAY'S FACT: More NASA astronauts (31 men and women, as of 2019) have come from New York than any other state.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1998, 15-year-old Tara Lipinski became the youngest person in history to win a singles figure skating gold medal at the Winter Olympics held in Nagano, Japan.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "A great photograph is a full expression of what one feels about what is being photographed in the deepest sense, and is, thereby, a true expression of what one feels about life in its entirety." -- Robert Altman

TODAY'S NUMBER: 10,506 -- duration (in hours) of the longest single human spaceflight, by Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov from January 1994 to March 1995. Polyakov spent 437 days aboard the Mir space station.

TODAY'S MOON: Between full moon (Feb. 19) and last quarter moon (Feb. 26).

ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 50th day of 2019 and the 61st day of winter.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1807, former U.S. Vice President Aaron Burr was arrested for treason.

In 1878, Thomas Edison received a patent for the phonograph.

In 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, allowing the internment of Japanese-Americans.

In 1945, about 30,000 U.S. Marines landed on Iwo Jima.

In 1963, Betty Friedan's "The Feminine Mystique" was published, sparking a new wave of feminism in the United States.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543), astronomer; Lee Marvin (1924-1987), actor; John Frankenheimer (1930-2002), director; Smokey Robinson (1940- ), singer-songwriter; Amy Tan (1952- ), author; Jeff Daniels (1955- ), actor; Ray Winstone (1957- ), actor; Roger Goodell (1959- ), NFL commissioner; Seal (1963- ), singer-songwriter; Jonathan Lethem (1964- ), author; Benicio Del Toro (1967- ), actor; Jeff Kinney (1971- ), cartoonist/children's author; David Mazouz (2001- ), actor.

TODAY'S FACT: The hottest planet in the solar system is Venus, with an average surface temperature of 867 degrees F.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1995, Sterling Marlin became the third person to win back-to-back Daytona 500s in the race's history, a feat that has not been accomplished since.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "I learned to write fiction the way I learned to read fiction -- by skipping the parts that bored me." -- Jonathan Lethem

TODAY'S NUMBER: 33,000 -- number of Japanese-Americans who served in the U.S. military in World War II.

TODAY'S MOON: Full moon (Feb. 19).