Today’s Highlights

Today in history:

On Feb. 9, 1964, the Beatles made their first live American television appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” broadcast from New York on CBS. The quartet played five songs, including “She Loves You” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” to a crowd of screaming teenagers in person and more than 70 million viewers across the country.

Also on this date:

1825: The House of Representatives elected John Quincy Adams president after no candidate received a majority of electoral votes.

1950: In a speech to the Women’s Republican Club in Wheeling, West Virginia, Republican Sen. Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin charged that the State Department was riddled with Communists.

1971: A magnitude 6.6 earthquake in California’s San Fernando Valley claimed 65 lives.

1984: Soviet leader Yuri Andropov, 69, died 15 months after succeeding Leonid Brezhnev; he was followed by Konstantin Chernenko (chehr-NYEN’-koh), who would only be in power for 13 months before his own death in office.

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.

Today’s birthdays

Artist Gerhard Richter is 93. Singer-songwriter Carole King is 83. Actor Joe Pesci is 82. Actor Mia Farrow is 80. Actor Judith Light is 76. Country singer Travis Tritt is 62.