TODAY’S HISTORY

1815: Napoleon Bonaparte escaped from exile on the island of Elba and began his return journey to France.

1935: Adolf Hitler secretly ordered the Luftwaffe to be reformed, in violation of the Treaty of Versailles.

1987: The Tower Commission released its report on the Iran-contra affair, rebuking President Ronald Reagan for not controlling his national security staff.

1993: A truck bomb exploded in the parking garage of the World

Trade Center in New York City, killing six people and injuring more than 1,000.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS:

Victor Hugo (18021885), author; Levi Strauss (18291902), tailor/inventor; William “Buffalo Bill” Cody (1846-1917), frontiersman/showman; Tex Avery (1908-1980), animator; Jackie Gleason (1916-1987), actor/comedian; Tony Randall (1920-2004), actor; Fats Domino (1928-2017), singersongwriter/pianist; Ariel Sharon (1928-2014), Israeli prime minister; Robert Novak (1931-2009), columnist; Johnny Cash (1932-2003), singer-songwriter; Michael Bolton (1953-), singer-songwriter; Erykah Badu (1971-), singersongwriter; Corinne Bailey Rae (1979-), singer-songwriter.

TODAY’S FACT: Levi Strauss, a Bavarian immigrant who went to San Francisco during the Gold Rush, made his first pair of “jeans” out of canvas.

TODAY’S QUOTE: “Being honest is my job. That’s what music is for me.” — Erykah Badu

TODAY’S NUMBER: 14 — age at which “Buffalo Bill”

Cody began riding for the Pony Express, after answering an advertisement for “skinny, expert riders willing to risk death daily.”