TODAY’S HISTORY

1861: Virginia became the eighth state to secede from the Union.

1941: Yugoslavia surrendered to Nazi Germany.

1961: A group of Cia-trained Cuban exiles launched an unsuccessful invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs.

1964: The Ford Mustang debuted at the World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows, New York.

1970: The crippled Apollo 13 spacecraft landed safely in the Pacific Ocean.

2014: NASA’S Kepler space observatory announced the first discovery of an Earthsize planet in the habitable zone of another star, about 490 light-years from Earth.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: J.P. Morgan (1837-1913), financier/ banker; Senor Wences (1896-1999), ventriloquist; Thornton Wilder, (1897-1975), playwright/novelist; William Holden (1918-1981), actor; Roddy Piper (1954-2015), wrestler; Nick Hornby (1957-), author/screenwriter; Sean Bean (1959-), actor; Boomer Esiason (1961-), football player/sportscaster; Maynard James Kennan (1964-), singer-songwriter; Redman (1970-), rapper/actor; Jennifer Garner (1972-), actress; Rooney Mara (1985-), actress.

TODAY’S FACT: In February 2017, NASA announced the discovery of seven Earth-size planets — three of which are located in the habitable zone — around a single star 40 lightyears away in the constellation Aquarius.

TODAY’S SPORTS: In 1951, 19-year-old Mickey Mantle made his major league debut with the New York Yankees.

TODAY’S QUOTE: “Being employed is like being loved: You know that somebody’s thinking about you the whole time.” — Thornton Wilder, “The Matchmaker”

TODAY’S NUMBER: 11,747 — immigrants processed at the Ellis Island immigration center on this day in 1907, the most ever in a single day.