ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 55th day of 2024 and the 66th day of winter.

TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1836, Colonel William Travis issued a call for help on behalf of the Texian troops defending the Alamo in San Antonio.

In 1868, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to impeach President Andrew Johnson.

In 2008, Fidel Castro's brother Raul Castro was officially named president by Cuba's parliament.

In 2022, Russia began a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Wilhelm Grimm (1786-1859), author; Winslow Homer (1836-1910), artist; George A. Moore (1852-1933), poet/dramatist; Honus Wagner (1874-1955), baseball player; Abe Vigoda (1921-2016), actor; Phil Knight (1938- ), business magnate; Joe Lieberman (1942- ), U.S. senator; Edward James Olmos (1947- ), actor; Steve Jobs (1955-2011), computer pioneer; Paula Zahn (1956- ), TV journalist; Mitch Hedberg (1968-2005), comedian; Floyd Mayweather Jr. (1977- ), boxer; Daniel Kaluuya (1989- ), actor; O'Shea Jackson Jr. (1991- ), actor/rapper.

TODAY'S FACT: The best actress category of the 85th Academy Awards (held on Feb. 24, 2013) featured both the oldest and the youngest female nominees for a lead acting Oscar. Emmanuelle Riva ("Amour") was age 86, and Quvenzhane Wallis ("Beasts of the Southern Wild") was age 9.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1980, the U.S. Olympic hockey team defeated Finland 4-2 to win the gold medal at the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "Everybody sets out to do something, and everybody does something, but no one does what he sets out to do." -- George A. Moore

TODAY'S NUMBER: $500 -- investment by Phil Knight, which was matched by his business partner and former track coach, Bill Bowerman, to start Blue Ribbon Sports, the progenitor to Nike, in 1964.

TODAY'S MOON: Full moon (Feb. 24).

ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 54th day of 2024 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), sociologist/activist; Victor Fleming (1889-1949), filmmaker; Tom Osborne (1937- ), football coach; Peter Fonda (1940-2019), 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.

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: "There is but one coward on earth, and that is the coward that dare not know." -- W.E.B. Du Bois, "Dusk of Dawn: An Essay Toward an Autobiography of a Race Concept"

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

TODAY'S MOON: Between first quarter moon (Feb. 16) and full moon (Feb. 24).

ANDREWS MCMEEL ALMANAC

Today is the 53rd day of 2024 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 flight 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; Edward "Ted" Kennedy (1932-2009), U.S. senator; Julius "Dr. J" Erving (1950- ), basketball player; Kyle MacLachlan (1959- ), actor; Steve Irwin (1962-2006), zookeeper/TV personality; Drew Barrymore (1975- ), actress/talk show host; 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: "Where you used to be, there is a hole in the world, which I find myself constantly walking around in the daytime, and falling in at night." -- Edna St. Vincent Millay

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 first quarter moon (Feb. 16) and full moon (Feb. 24).