TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1935, Adolf Hitler secretly commissioned a new German air force, the Luftwaffe. In 1987, the Tower Commission released its report on the Iran-Contra affair, criticizing President Ronald Reagan. In 1993, a terrorist bomb went off in the parking garage of the World Trade Center in New York City, killing six.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: Victor Hugo (1802-1885), writer; Levi Strauss (1829-1902), tailor/inventor; Buffalo Bill Cody (1845-1917), frontiersman/showman; Jackie Gleason (1916-1987), comedian; Fats Domino (1928- ), musician, is 80; Johnny Cash (1932-2003), musician; Michael Bolton (1954- ), singer, is 54.

TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1978, golfer Nancy Lopez won the first LPGA tournament of her career--the Bent Tree Classic in Sarasota, Florida.

TODAY'S QUOTE: "A man is not idle because he is absorbed in thought. There is a visible labor and there is an invisible labor. To meditate is to labor; to think is to act." - Victor Hugo

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 NUMBER: 48 - age at which Johnny Cash was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, making him the youngest living inductee.

TODAY'S MOON: Between full moon (February 20) and last quarter (February 28).