ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 69th day of 2020 and the 80th day of winter.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1847, the first large-scale amphibious assault in U.S. history was launched in the Mexican seaport of Veracruz.

In 1945, 334 B-29 bombers began Operation Meetinghouse, a firebombing campaign of the city of Tokyo that was the deadliest air raid of World War II.

In 1959, Mattel introduced the Barbie doll at the American International Toy Fair in New York City.

In 2004, a Virginia court sentenced the Washington, D.C.-area "Beltway Sniper" John Allen Muhammad to death.

In 2011, the space shuttle Discovery completed its 39th and final flight.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Samuel Barber (1910-1981), composer; Mickey Spillane (1918-2006), author; Walter Kohn (1923-2016), physicist/Nobel Prize winner; Yuri Gagarin (1934-1968), cosmonaut/first person in space; Raul Julia (1940-1994), actor; Bobby Fischer (1943-2008), chess grandmaster; Charles Gibson (1943- ), TV journalist; Juliette Binoche (1964- ), actress; Oscar Isaac (1979- ), actor; Clint Dempsey (1983- ), soccer player; Brittany Snow (1986- ), actress; Bow Wow (1987- ), actor/rapper.

TODAY'S FACT: The United States' domestic toy market was estimated at $27 billion in 2019.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1995, league owners unanimously approved the addition of major league baseball expansion franchises in Phoenix and Tampa, Florida.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "Nobody reads a mystery to get to the middle. They read it to get to the end. If it's a letdown, they won't buy any more. The first page sells that book. The last page sells your next book." -- Mickey Spillane

TODAY'S NUMBER: 148,221,675 -- miles flown by the space shuttle Discovery during its 26 years of operation, the equivalent of 300 round trips to the moon.

TODAY'S MOON: Full moon (March 9).

ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 68th day of 2020 and the 79th day of winter.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1782, Pennsylvania militiamen massacred 96 Christian Native Americans at the Moravian missionary village of Gnadenhutten, Ohio.

In 1917, the so-called February Revolution in Russia began with food riots and strikes in Petrograd (St. Petersburg).

In 1948, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that religious education in public schools was unconstitutional.

In 1983, President Ronald Reagan referred to the Soviet Union as an "evil empire" during a speech in Orlando, Florida.

In 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (1841-1935), Supreme Court justice/author; Kenneth Grahame (1859-1932), author; Alan Hale Jr. (1921-1990), actor; Cyd Charisse (1922-2008), actress/dancer; Lynn Redgrave (1943-2010), actress; Micky Dolenz (1945- ), singer/musician; Lester Holt (1959- ), journalist; Aidan Quinn (1959- ), actor; Kenny Smith (1965- ), basketball player/sportscaster; Freddie Prinze Jr. (1976- ), actor; James Van Der Beek (1977- ), actor.

TODAY'S FACT: Around 3 million Americans (roughly 1 percent of the U.S. population in the 2010 census) have Russian ancestry.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1936, the first stock car race was held in Daytona Beach, Florida.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "Here today, up and off to somewhere else tomorrow! Travel, change, interest, excitement! The whole world before you, and a horizon that's always changing!" -- Kenneth Grahame, "The Wind in the Willows"

TODAY'S NUMBER: 56.6 million -- estimated number of American children enrolled in kindergarten through 12th grade public schools in the 2019-2020 school year.

TODAY'S MOON: Between first quarter moon (March 2) and full moon (March 9).

ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 67th day of 2020 and the 78th day of winter.

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, Alabama.

In 1985, the 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, Florida.

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; Wanda Sykes (1964- ), actress/comedian; 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, 20-year-old 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: "It is well for people who think, to change their minds occasionally in order to keep them clean." -- Luther Burbank

TODAY'S NUMBER: 86,248 -- number of Americans who were 100 years or older in 2017, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

TODAY'S MOON: Between first quarter moon (March 2) and full moon (March 9).