Today is Tuesday, Feb. 9, the 40th day of 2021. There are 325 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Feb. 9, 1825, the House of Representatives elected John Quincy Adams president after no candidate received a majority of electoral votes.

On this date:

In 1870, the U.S. Weather Bureau was established.

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, Sen. Joseph McCarthy, R-Wis., charged the State Department was riddled with Communists.

In 1960, Adolph Coors Co. chairman Adolph Coors III, 44, was shot to death in suburban Denver during a botched kidnapping attempt. (The man who killed him, Joseph Corbett, Jr., served 19 years in prison.)

In 1964, the Beatles made their first live American television appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” broadcast from New York on CBS.

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 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.

Today’s Birthdays: Retired television journalist Roger Mudd is 93. Singer-songwriter Carole King is 79. Actor Joe Pesci is 78. Actor Mia Farrow is 76. R&B musician Dennis “DT” Thomas (Kool & the Gang) is 70. Country singer Travis Tritt is 58. Actor Michael B. Jordan is 34.