TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY IS THURSDAY, FEB. 9, the 40th day of 2023. There are 331 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 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. In 1825, the House of Representatives elected John Quincy Adams president after no candidate received a majority of electoral votes. In 1943, the World War II battle of Guadalcanal in the southwest Pacific ended with an Allied victory over Japanese forces. In 1950, in a speech in Wheeling, West Virginia, Republican Sen. Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin charged that the State Department was riddled with Communists. In 1963, the Boeing 727 went on its first-ever flight as it took off from Renton, Washington. In 1964, the Beatles made their first live American television appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” broadcast from New York on CBS. The G.I. Joe action figure was introduced at the American International Toy Fair.

In 1984, Soviet leader Yuri V. Andropov, 69, died 15 months after succeeding Leonid Brezhnev; he was followed by Konstantin U. Chernenko. In 1986, during its latest visit to the solar system, Halley’s Comet came closest to the sun (its next return will be in 2061). In 2002, Britain’s Princess Margaret, sister of Queen Elizabeth II, died in London at age 71. In 2009, New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez admitted to taking performance-enhancing drugs, telling ESPN he’d used banned substances while with the Texas Rangers for three years. In 2020, “Parasite,” from South Korea, won the best picture Oscar, becoming the first foreign-language film to take home the biggest honor in film. TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Nobel Prizewinning author J.M. Coetzee is 83. Singer-songwriter Carole King is 81. Actor Joe Pesci is 80. Author Alice Walker is 79. Actor Mia Farrow is 78. Actor Judith Light is 74. Country singer Travis Tritt is 60. Actorproducer Charlie Day is 47. Actor Tom Hiddleston is 42.