TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is Shrove (preceding Ash Wednesday) Tuesday, Feb. 9, the 40th day of 2016. There are 326 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History

On Feb. 9, 1943, the World War II battle of Guadalcanal in the southwest Pacific ended with an Allied victory over Japanese forces.

On this date

1773 — The ninth president of the United States, William Henry Harrison, was born in Charles City County, Virginia.

1825 — The House of Representatives elected John Quincy Adams president after no candidate received a majority of electoral votes.

1861 — Jefferson Davis was elected provisional president of the Confederate States of America at a congress held in Montgomery, Alabama.

1870 — The U.S. Weather Bureau was established.

1942 — The U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff held its first formal meeting to coordinate military strategy during World War II. Daylight-saving “War Time” went into effect in the United States, with clocks turned one hour forward.

1950 — In a speech in Wheeling, West Virginia, Sen. Joseph McCarthy, R-Wis., charged the State Department was riddled with Communists.

1964 — The Beatles made their first live American television appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” broadcast from New York by CBS.

1971 — A magnitude 6.6 earthquake in California’s San Fernando Valley claimed 65 lives. The crew of Apollo 14 returned to Earth after man’s third landing on the moon.

1984 — Soviet leader Yuri V. Andropov, 69, died 15 months after succeeding Leonid Brezhnev; he was followed by Konstantin U. Chernenko.

1986 — During its latest visit to the solar system, Halley’s Comet came closest to the sun (its next return will be in 2061).

2001 — A U.S. Navy submarine, the USS Greeneville, collided with a Japanese fishing boat, the Ehime Maru, while surfacing off the Hawaiian coast, killing nine men and boys aboard the boat.

2002 — Britain’s Princess Margaret, sister of Queen Elizabeth II, died in London at age 71.

One year ago

President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, meeting at the White House, rallied behind efforts to reach a longshot diplomatic resolution in Ukraine.

More than 2 feet of fresh snow piled up in parts of New England, breaking records set during the Blizzard of 1978.

Today’s Birthdays

Television journalist Roger Mudd is 88. Actress Janet Suzman is 77. Nobel Prize-winning author J.M. Coetzee is 76. Actress-politician Sheila James Kuehl (TV: “The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis”) is 75. Singer-songwriter Carole King is 74. Actor Joe Pesci is 73. Singer Barbara Lewis is 73. Author Alice Walker is 72. Actress Mia Farrow is 71. Former Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., is 70. Singer Joe Ely is 69. Actress Judith Light is 67. Rhythm-and-blues musician Dennis “DT” Thomas (Kool & the Gang) is 65. Actor Charles Shaughnessy is 61. Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe is 59. Jazz musician Steve Wilson is 55. Country singer Travis Tritt is 53. Actress Julie Warner is 51. Country singer Danni Leigh is 46. Actress Sharon Case is 45. Actor Jason George is 44. Actress Amber Valletta is 42. Actor-producer Charlie Day is 40.

Thought for today ‘You can fall in love at first sight with a place as with a person.’

Alec Waugh English author (1898-1981)