ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 51st day of 2026 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 Department.

In 1962, astronaut John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth, making three orbits aboard Project Mercury'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 (1927-2022), 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; Trevor Noah (1984- ), comedian/TV personality; Miles Teller (1987- ), actor; Rihanna (1988- ), singer-songwriter/businesswoman; Olivia Rodrigo (2003- ), singer/actress.

TODAY'S FACT: More NASA astronauts (29 people, as of 2026) have come from California than from 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: "I think it's a certain gift when songwriters can go about their daily lives and extract little details that no one else would notice." -- Olivia Rodrigo

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 new moon (Feb. 17) and first quarter moon (Feb. 24).

ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 50th day of 2026 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; Nikola Jokic (1995- ), basketball player; Chappell Roan (1998- ), singer-songwriter; Millie Bobby Brown (2004- ), actress.

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

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1995, Sterling Marlin became the third person in the race's history to win back-to-back Daytona 500s.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "I write because I know that one day I will die, and thus I should experience as many deliberate observations, careful thoughts, wild ideas, and deep emotions as I can before that day occurs." -- Amy Tan

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

TODAY'S MOON: Between new moon (Feb. 17) and first quarter moon (Feb. 24).

ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 49th day of 2026 and the 60th day of winter.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1861, Jefferson Davis was inaugurated as president of the Confederate States of America in Montgomery, Alabama.

In 1885, Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" was published.

In 1930, astronomer Clyde W. Tombaugh discovered Planet X, the dwarf planet later renamed Pluto.

In 2001, FBI agent Robert Hanssen was arrested for spying for the Soviet Union and Russia.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933), artist/designer; Charles M. Schwab (1862-1939), businessman; Jack Palance (1919-2006), actor; Len Deighton (1929- ), author; Toni Morrison (1931-2019), author; Milos Forman (1932-2018), filmmaker; Yoko Ono (1933- ), singer/performance artist; John Hughes (1950-2009), filmmaker; John Travolta (1954- ), actor; Vanna White (1957- ), TV personality; Matt Dillon (1964- ), actor; Dr. Dre (1965- ), rapper/record producer; Ike Barinholtz (1977- ), actor/comedian; J-Hope (1994- ), singer-songwriter.

TODAY'S FACT: "Flora," a ballad opera performed in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1735, was the first opera of any kind to be produced in North America.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 2001, NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt Sr. was fatally injured in a three-car crash during the final lap of the Daytona 500.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "The ability of writers to imagine what is not the self, to familiarize the strange and mystify the familiar, is the test of their power." -- Toni Morrison

TODAY'S NUMBER: 5th -- place held by "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" on the American Library Association's list of books whose availability in schools and libraries was most frequently challenged in the 1990s. For the decade ending in 2019, it had dropped to 33rd place.

TODAY'S MOON: Between new moon (Feb. 17) and first quarter moon (Feb. 24).