TODAY’S HISTORY

1850: The American Express Company was founded.

1965: Russian cosmonaut Alexei Leonov made the first spacewalk.

1974: Members of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) ended a fivemonth oil embargo against the United States, Europe and Japan.

1990: Two men stole 13 pieces of art valued at $300 million from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, the largest art theft in U.S. history.

TODAY’S

BIRTHDAYS: Grover Cleveland (18371908), 22nd and 24th U.S. president; Nikolai Rimsky-korsakov (1844-1908), composer; Peter Graves (1926-2010), actor; George Plimpton (1927-2003), author/actor; John Updike (1932-2009), author/critic; Charley Pride (19342020), singer-songwriter; Bonnie Blair (1964-), Olympic speed-skater; Queen Latifah (1970-), actress/singer; Dane Cook (1972-), comedian/actor; Adam Levine (1979-), singersongwriter/tv personality.

TODAY’S FACT: Among the 13 works stolen in Boston’s Gardner Museum art theft in 1990 was “The Concert,” a painting by Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer. It is considered the most valuable unrecovered stolen painting in the world, with an estimated value of $200 million.

TODAY’S SPORTS: In 1991, the NBA’S Philadelphia 76ers retired Wilt Chamberlain’s No. 13 jersey.

TODAY’S QUOTE: “Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right, or better.” — John Updike

TODAY’S NUMBER: 3 — number of NATO member countries that possess nuclear weapons: the United States, France and the United Kingdom.

TODAY’S MOON: Between new moon (March 13) and first quarter moon (March 21).