Today is the 54th day of 2016 and the 64th 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: "The worker must work for the glory of his handiwork, not simply for pay; the thinker must think for truth, not for fame." -- 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 full moon (Feb. 22) and last quarter moon (March 1).

Today is the 53rd day of 2016 and the 63rd 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: " We forfeit three-fourths of ourselves in order to be like other people." -- 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: Full moon (Feb. 22).

Today is the 52nd day of 2016 and the 62nd 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 1925, the first issue of The New Yorker was published.

In 1965, Malcolm X was assassinated 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; Ellen Page (1987- ), actress.

TODAY'S FACT: Chemnitz, East Germany, changed its name to Karl-Marx-Stadt in 1953. After East and West Germany reunited in 1990, the name was changed back following a referendum.

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 Racing (NASCAR).

TODAY'S QUOTE: " To withhold from living is to die ... the more you give of yourself to life the more life nourishes you." -- Anais Nin

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

TODAY'S MOON: Between first quarter moon (Feb. 15) and full moon (Feb. 22).