NEA DATEBOOK

TODAY’S HISTORY: In 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte escaped from exile on the island of Elba and began his return journey to France.

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

In 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 (1802-1885), author; Levi Strauss (1829-1902), inventor/businessman; 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), singer-songwriter/pianist; Robert Novak (19312009), columnist; Johnny Cash (1932-2003), singer-songwriter; Michael Bolton (1953- ), singer-songwriter; Erykah Badu (1971- ), singer-songwriter; Corinne Bailey Rae (1979- ), singer-songwriter.

TODAY’S FACT: In 1939, first lady Eleanor Roosevelt resigned from the Daughters of the American Revolution when it barred African American singer Marian Anderson from performing at Constitution Hall. Anderson performed at the Lincoln Memorial instead.

TODAY’S SPORTS: In 1935, an aging Babe Ruth was released by the New York Yankees and signed a contract to become a vice president, assistant manager and player with the Boston Braves.

TODAY’S QUOTE: “I’m a woman who has gone through many heartaches, enough to dedicate my whole life to trying to figure them out.” — 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.”

TODAY’S MOON: Between full moon (Feb. 24) and last quarter moon (March 3).