This Day in History

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<em class="date">Mar 7, 1876: Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone</h2> On this day in 1876, 29-year-old Alexander Graham Bell receives a patent for his revolutionary new invention--the telephone.<em class="date">Mar 7, 2002: Defense rests in Andrea Yates trial</h2> The defense rests in the trial of Andrea Yates, a 37-year-old Texas woman who confessed to killing her five young children by drowning them in a bathtub. Less than a week later, on March 13, Yates was convicted and sentenced to life in prison; however, her conviction was later reversed.<em class="date">Mar 7, 1988: Cyclone Bola hits New Zealand</h2>   Cyclone Bola hits New Zealand on this day in 1988. Although torrential rains caused significant flooding and landslides, only three deaths resulted from this powerful storm<em class="date">Mar 7, 1988: Writers Guild of America strike begins</h2> After rejecting what the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) said was a final offer, representatives of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) called a strike for all the unions members to begin at 9 a.m. Pacific Time on this day in 1988.<em class="date">Mar 7, 1885: Kansas quarantines Texas cattle</h2> The Kansas legislature passes a law barring Texas cattle from the state between March 1 and December 1, the latest action reflecting the love-hate relationship between Kansas and the cattle industry.<em class="date">Mar 7, 1987: Mike Tyson unifies titles</h2> On March 7, 1987, Mike Tyson defeats James Bonecrusher Smith to unify the WBA and WBC heavyweight titles. Already the youngest-ever heavyweight champion after winning the title at just 19 years old the year before, Tyson became the youngest undisputed heavyweight champion in boxing history.<em class="date">Mar 7, 1966: U.S. jets launch heaviest air raids of the war</h2> In the heaviest air raids since the bombing began in February 1965, U.S. Air Force and Navy planes fly an estimated 200 sorties against North Vietnam. The objectives of the raids included an oil storage area 60 miles southeast of Dien Bien Phu and a staging area 60 miles northwest of Vinh.<em class="date">Mar 7, 1938: Janet Guthrie, first female Indy 500 driver, born</h2> On this day in 1938, Janet Guthrie, the first woman to compete in the Indianapolis 500 and Daytona 500 races, is born in Iowa City, Iowa.history.com

 

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<em class="date">Mar 8, 1917: February Revolution begins</h2> In Russia, the February Revolution (known as such because of Russia's use of the Julian calendar) begins when riots and strikes over the scarcity of food erupt in Petrograd. One week later, centuries of czarist rule in Russia ended with the abdication of Nicholas II, and Russia took a dramatic step closer toward communist revolution.<em class="date">Mar 8, 1950: VW bus, icon of counterculture movement, goes into production</h2> Volkswagen, maker of the Beetle automobile, expands its product offerings to include a microbus, which goes into production on this day in 1950. Known officially as the Volkswagen Type 2 (the Beetle was the Type 1) or the Transporter, the bus was a favorite mode of transportation for hippies in the U.S. during the 1960s and became an icon of the American counterculture movement.<em class="date">Mar 8, 1982: United States accuses Soviets of using poison gas</h2>   The United States government issues a public statement accusing the Soviet Union of using poison gas and chemical weapons in its war against rebel forces in Afghanistan. The accusation was part of the continuing U.S. criticism of the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan.<em class="date">Mar 8, 1669: Mount Etna erupts</h2> On this day in 1669, Mount Etna, on the island of Sicily in modern-day Italy, begins rumbling. Multiple eruptions over the next few weeks killed more than 20,000 people and left thousands more homeless. Most of the victims could have saved themselves by fleeing, but stayed, in a vain attempt to save their city.<em class="date">Mar 8, 1957: Egypt opens the Suez Canal</h2> Following Israel's withdrawal from occupied Egyptian territory, the Suez Canal is reopened to international traffic. However, the canal was so littered with wreckage from the Suez Crisis that it took weeks of cleanup by Egyptian and United Nations workers before larger ships could navigate the waterway.<em class="date">Mar 8, 1993: MTVs highest rated series premieres</h2> On this day in 1993, the Music Television Network (MTV) airs the first episode of the animated series Beavis and Butthead, which will go on to become the networks highest-rated series up to that point.<em class="date">Mar 8, 1983: Reagan refers to U.S.S.R. as evil empire again</h2> Speaking to a convention of the National Association of Evangelicals in Florida on this day in 1983, President Ronald Reagan publicly refers to the Soviet Union as an evil empire for the second time in his career. He had first used the phrase in a 1982 speech at the British House of Commons. Some considered Reagan's use of the Star Wars film-inspired terminology to be brilliant democratic rhetoric. Others, including many within the international diplomatic community, denounced it as irresponsible bombast. <em class="date">Mar 8, 1971: Ali battles Frazier for heavyweight championship</h2>   On March 8, 1971, Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier meet for the Fight of the Century at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The bout marked Alis return to the marquee three-and-a-half years after boxing commissions revoked his license over his refusal to fight in the Vietnam War. It was also Alis first chance to win back the heavyweight championship, which had been stripped by the WBA (World Boxing Association).history.com

 

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Barbie makes her debut</h2>  On this day in 1959, the first Barbie doll goes on display at the American Toy Fair in New York City.Eleven inches tall, with a waterfall of blond hair, Barbie was the first mass-produced toy doll in the United States with adult features. The woman behind Barbie was Ruth Handler, who co-founded Mattel, Inc. with her husband in 1945. After seeing her young daughter ignore her baby dolls to play make-believe with paper dolls of adult women, Handler realized there was an important niche in the market for a toy that allowed little girls to imagine the future.<em class="date">Mar 9, 1985: First Adopt-a-Highway sign goes up</h2> On March 9, 1985, the first-ever Adopt-a-Highway sign is erected on Texas's Highway 69. The highway was adopted by the Tyler Civitan Club, which committed to picking up trash along a designated two-mile stretch of the road.<em class="date">Mar 9, 1997: Rapper Notorious B.I.G. is killed in Los Angeles</h2> Christopher Wallace, a.k.a Biggie Smalls, a.k.a. the Notorious B.I.G., is shot to death at a stoplight in Los Angeles. The murder was thought to be the culmination of an ongoing feud between rap music artists from the East and West coasts. Just six months earlier, rapper Tupac Shakur was killed when he was shot while in his car in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas. Ironically, Wallace's death came only weeks before his new album, titled Life After Death, was scheduled to be released.<em class="date">Mar 9, 1981: Japanese power plant leaks radioactive waste</h2> A nuclear accident at a Japan Atomic Power Company plant in Tsuruga, Japan, exposes 59 workers to radiation on this day in 1981. As seems all too common with nuclear-power accidents, the officials in charge failed to timely inform the public and nearby residents, endangering them needlessly. <em class="date">Mar 9, 1996: Comedian George Burns dies at age 100</h2>   On this day in 1996, the legendary cigar-chomping performer George Burns dies at his home in Beverly Hills, California, just weeks after celebrating his 100th birthday.history.com

 

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Rebellion in Tibet</h2>On this day in 1959, Tibetans band together in revolt, surrounding the summer palace of the Dalai Lama in defiance of Chinese occupation forces.<em class="date">Mar 10, 1927: Inventor who won suits against auto giants is born</h2> Robert Kearns, who patented a design for a type of windshield wiper and later won multi-million dollar judgments against Chrysler and Ford for using his concept without permission, is born on March 10, 1927, in Gary, Indiana. Kearns' invention, the intermittent windshield wiper, enabled wipers to move at timed intervals, rather than constantly swiping back and forth. Intermittent wipers aided drivers in light rain or mist and today are a standard feature of most cars. Kearns' real-life David versus Goliath story about taking on the auto giants was made into a movie titled Flash of Genius that opened in 2008 and starred Greg Kinnear.<em class="date">Mar 10, 1993: Dr. David Gunn is murdered by anti-abortion activist</h2>   Dr. David Gunn is shot and killed during an anti-abortion protest at the Pensacola Women's Medical Services clinic. Dr. Gunn performed abortions at several clinics in Florida and Alabama and was getting out of his car in the clinic's parking lot when Michael Griffin shouted, Don't kill any more babies! and shot the doctor three times in the back. Griffin immediately surrendered to a nearby police officer.<em class="date">Mar 10, 1906: Mine explosion kills 1,060 in France</h2> A devastating mine disaster kills over 1,000 workers in Courrieres, France, on this day in 1906. An underground fire sparked a massive explosion that virtually destroyed a vast maze of mines. <em class="date">Mar 10, 1876: Speech transmitted by telephone</h2> On this day, the first discernible speech is transmitted over a telephone system when inventor Alexander Graham Bell summons his assistant in another room by saying, Mr. Watson, come here; I want you. Bell had received a comprehensive telephone patent just three days before.<em class="date">Mar 10, 1969: Ray pleads guilty to King assassination</h2>   James Earl Ray pleads guilty to the assassination of African American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and is sentenced to 99 years in prison.<em class="date">Mar 10, 1997: The WB premieres its first hit show</h2> On this day in 1997, the fledgling Warner Brothers (WB) television network airs the inaugural episode of what will become its first bona-fide hit show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer.<em class="date">Mar 10, 1988: Disco sensation Andy Gibb dies at the age of 30</h2> With his knee-buckling good looks and his brothers' songwriting talents backing him up, 19-year-old Andy Gibb staged an unprecedented display of youthful pop mastery in the 12 months following his American debut in the spring of 1977. And his star may have risen even higher were it not for the prodigious cocaine habit that derailed his career and contributed to his premature death. With his heart greatly weakened from years of cocaine abuse, Andy Gibb succumbed to an inflammatory heart virus on this day in 1988. He was only 30 years old.<em class="date">Mar 10, 2006: Cuba plays in World Baseball Classic</h2> On March 10, 2006, the Cuban national baseball team plays Puerto Rico in the first round of the inaugural World Baseball Classic. While the Puerto Rican team was made up of major league All-Stars, the Cuban team was largely unknown to the world. Puerto Rico beat Cuba 12-2 that day, but the Cuban team would soon have its revenge.history.com

 

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Paul McCartney knighted</h2>On this day in 1997, Paul McCartney, a former member of the most successful rock band in history, The Beatles, was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to music. The 54-year-old lad from Liverpool became Sir Paul in a centuries-old ceremony of pomp and solemnity at Buckingham Palace in central London. Fans waited outside in a scene reminiscent of Beatlemania of the 1960s. Crowds screamed as McCartney swept through the gates in his chauffeur-driven limousine and he answered with a thumbs-up.<em class="date">Mar 11, 2009: Toyota sells 1 millionth hybrid in U.S.</h2> The Toyota Motor Company announces on this day in 2009 that it has sold over 1 million gas-electric hybrid vehicles in the U.S. under its six Toyota and Lexus brands. The sales were led by the Prius, the world's first mass-market hybrid car, which was launched in Japan in October 1997 and introduced in America in July 2000.<em class="date">Mar 11, 1989: COPS makes TV debut</h2> On this day in 1989, COPS, a documentary-style television series that follows police officers and sheriff's deputies as they go about their jobs, debuts on Fox. COPS went on to become one of the longest-running shows in television history.<em class="date">Mar 11, 1888: Great Blizzard of '88 hits East Coast</h2> On this day in 1888, one of the worst blizzards in American history strikes the Northeast, killing more than 400 people and dumping as much as 55 inches of snow in some areas. New York City ground to a near halt in the face of massive snow drifts and powerful winds from the storm. At the time, approximately one in every four Americans lived in the area between Washington D.C. and Maine, the area affected by the Great Blizzard of 1888.<em class="date">Mar 11, 1818: Frankenstein published</h2> Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is published. The book, by 21-year-old Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, is frequently called the world's first science fiction novel. In Shelley's tale, a scientist animates a creature constructed from dismembered corpses. The gentle, intellectually gifted creature is enormous and physically hideous. Cruelly rejected by its creator, it wanders, seeking companionship and becoming increasingly brutal as it fails to find a mate.<em class="date">Mar 11, 1903: Lawrence Welk is born</h2> For the generation that grew up on the big bands of the 30s and 40s, The Lawrence Welk Show was a blessed island of calm in a world gone mad for rock and roll, and it aired like clockwork every Saturday night from 1955 to 1982.  But for the children and grandchildren watching along with them, it seemed more like the television show that time forgot. The man at this generational flash point was an accordion-playing, Alsatian-accented bandleader who kicked off each number with A vun and a two and ended with a cheery Wunnerful, wunnerful. Although he delighted the older crowd, youngsters were usually not so enamored. As polarizing in his own folksy way as Elvis Presley was in his, the inimitable Lawrence Welkcreator and King of Champagne Music was born in rural North Dakota on March 11, 1903.<em class="date">Mar 11, 1918: First cases reported in deadly influenza epidemic</h2> Just before breakfast on the morning of March 11, Private Albert Gitchell of the U.S. Army reports to the hospital at Fort Riley, Kansas, complaining of the cold-like symptoms of sore throat, fever and headache. By noon, over 100 of his fellow soldiers had reported similar symptoms, marking what are believed to be the first cases in the historic influenza epidemic of 1918. The flu would eventually kill 675,000 Americans and more than 20 million people (some believe the total may be closer to 40 million) around the world, proving to be a far deadlier force than even the First World War. <em class="date">Mar 11, 1901: Newspaper reports signing of so-called Chief Tokohama</h2> On this day in 1901, the Cincinnati Enquirer reports the signing of a mysterious player named Chief Tokohama to baseballs Baltimore Orioles by manager John McGraw. Chief Tokohama was later revealed to be Charlie Grant, an African-American second baseman. McGraw was attempting to draw upon the great untapped resource of African-American baseball talent in the face of baseballs unspoken rule banning black players from the major leagues.history.com

 

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<em class="date">Mar 12, 1933: FDR gives first fireside chat</h2> On this day in 1933, eight days after his inauguration, President Franklin D. Roosevelt gives his first national radio address or fireside chat, broadcast directly from the White House.<em class="date">Mar 12, 1969: London police conduct drug raid at home of George Harrison</h2> The London drug squad appears at house of George Harrison and Pattie Boyd with a warrant and drug-sniffing canines. Boyd immediately used the direct hotline to Beatles headquarters and George returned to find his home turned upside down. He is reported to have told the officers You needn't have turned the whole bloody place upside down. All you had to do was ask me and I would have shown you where I keep everything. <em class="date">Mar 12, 2003: Police recover Elizabeth Smart and arrest her abductors</h2>   On this day in 2003, 15-year-old Elizabeth Smart is finally found in Sandy, Utah, nine months after being abducted from her family s home. Her alleged kidnappers, Brian David Mitchell, a drifter who the Smarts had briefly employed at their house, and his wife, Wanda Barzee, were charged with the kidnapping, as well as burglary and sexual assault. In the middle of the night on June 5, 2002, Elizabeth Smart, then 14 years old, was taken at knifepoint from her bedroom in her parents house in the upscale Federal Heights neighborhood of Salt Lake City. Her captor slid into the house undetected after cutting open the screen of an open window. Elizabeth s younger sister, Mary Katherine, with whom she shared her bedroom, was the only witness to the kidnapping. Mary Katherine did not inform her parents until two hours after the incident, frightened that the man might return for her if she called out to alert them. She was initially unable to identify her sister s attacker. <em class="date">Mar 12, 1988: Hail causes stampede at soccer match in Nepal</h2> On this day in 1988, a sudden hail storm prompts fans at a soccer match in Katmandu, Nepal, to flee. The resulting stampede killed at least 70 people and injured hundreds more. <em class="date">Mar 12, 1888: The Blizzard of 1888</h2> The most severe winter storm ever to hit the New York City region reaches blizzard proportions, costing hundreds of lives and millions of dollars in property damage. Although the storm also struck New England, New York was the hardest hit, with the 36-hour blizzard dumping some 40 inches of snow on the city. For several weeks, the city was virtually isolated from the rest of the country by the massive snowdrifts. Messages north to Boston had to be relayed via England. Even Leather Man, a fixture of New York and Connecticut history who had walked a circuit of 365 miles every 34 days for three decades, was reportedly delayed four days by the Blizzard of 1888. Leather Man, who walked during the day and slept in caves at night, was known as such because his clothes were made out of large patches of thick leather. <em class="date">Mar 12, 1930: Gandhi leads civil disobedience</h2> On March 12, 1930, Indian independence leader Mohandas Gandhi begins a defiant march to the sea in protest of the British monopoly on salt, his boldest act of civil disobedience yet against British rule in India.<em class="date">Mar 12, 1993: Reno sworn in as attorney general</h2> Following her confirmation by the U.S. Senate, Janet Reno is sworn in as the first female attorney general of the United States.<em class="date">Mar 12, 2003: The Dixie Chicks backlash begins</h2> In response to the critical comments made about him by Dixie Chicks singer Natalie Maines in the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, President George W. Bush offered this response: The Dixie Chicks are free to speak their mind. They can say what they want to say. Of the backlash the Dixie Chicks were then facing within the world of country music, President Bush added: They shouldn't have their feelings hurt just because some people don't want to buy their records when they speak out. This music-related sideshow to the biggest international news story of the year began on March 12, 2003, when the British newspaper The Guardian published its review of a Dixie Chicks concert at the Shepherd's Bush Empire in London two nights earlier.<em class="date">Mar 12, 1903: New York Highlanders join American League</h2> On March 12, 1903, the New York Highlanders are given the go-ahead by team owners to join baseball's American League. The Highlanders had recently moved from Baltimore, where they were called the Orioles and had a winning tradition dating back to the 1890s. Called the Yankees by fans, the team officially changed its name to the New York Yankees in 1913, and went on to become the most dominant franchise in American sports.history.com

 

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<em class="date">Mar 13, 1942: U.S. Army launches K-9 Corps</h2> On this day in 1942, the Quartermaster Corps (QMC) of the United States Army begins training dogs for the newly established War Dog Program, or K-9 Corps. <em class="date">Mar 13, 1969: The Love Bug opens in theaters</h2> On this day in 1969, The Love Bug, a Walt Disney movie about the adventures of a Volkswagen Beetle named Herbie, opens in theaters across the United States. The film, which was based on a 1961 book called Car, Boy, Girl by Gordon Buford, centered around down-on-his-luck auto racer Jim (played by Dean Jones) who goes on a winning streak after teaming up with Herbie. Other characters in the film include the evil Peter Thorndyke (David Tomlinson), Jim's rival on the racetrack; Tennessee Steinmetz (Buddy Hackett), Jim's friend who makes art from used auto parts and Jim's girlfriend Carole (Michele Lee). The Love Bug was a box-office success and spawned the cinematic spinoffs Herbie Rides Again (1974), Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo (1977), Herbie Goes Bananas (1980) and Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005), starring Lindsay Lohan.<em class="date">Mar 13, 1989: Black magic, voodoo, and murder occurs at Rancho Santa Elena</h2> Cult leader Adolpho de Jesus Constanzo sacrifices another human victim at his remote Mexican desert compound Rancho Santa Elena. When the victim didn't beg for mercy before dying, Constanzo sent his people out to find another subject for torture and death. When they abducted American college student Mark Kilroy outside a bar in Matamoros, Mexico, Constanzo inadvertently set in motion the downfall of his bizarre cult.<em class="date">Mar 13, 1992: Quake rocks Turkey</h2> A 6.8-magnitude earthquake near Erzincan, Turkey, and an unusually powerful aftershock two days later kill at least 500 people and leave 50,000 people homeless<em class="date">Mar 13, 1781: William Hershel discovers Uranus</h2> The German-born English astronomer William Hershel discovers Uranus, the seventh planet from the sun. Herschel's discovery of a new planet was the first to be made in modern times, and also the first to be made by use of a telescope, which allowed Herschel to distinguish Uranus as a planet, not a star, as previous astronomers believed.<em class="date">Mar 13, 1868: Impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson begins</h2> For the first time in U.S. history, the impeachment trial of an American president gets underway in the U.S. Senate. President Andrew Johnson, reviled by the Republican-dominated Congress for his views on Reconstruction, stood accused of having violated the controversial Tenure of Office Act, passed by Congress over his veto in 1867.<em class="date">Mar 13, 1996: Tragedy at Dunblane</h2> At Dunblane, a 13th-century village on the edge of the Scottish Highlands, 43-year-old Thomas Hamilton bursts into the gymnasium of the Dunblane Primary School with four guns and opens fire on a kindergarten class. Sixteen children and their teacher, Gwenne Mayor, were fatally shot before Hamilton turned the gun on himself. Twelve other children in the class, along with one other adult, were injured.<em class="date">Mar 13, 2005: Disney names Robert Iger as new chief executive</h2> On this day in 2005, the board of directors of the Walt Disney Company officially announces that Robert Iger, Disneys president and chief operating officer, will succeed Michael Eisner as the companys chief executive officer (CEO).<em class="date">Mar 13, 1965: Eric Clapton leaves the Yardbirds</h2> In and of itself, one man leaving one band in the middle of the 1960s might warrant little more than a historical footnote. But what makes the departure of Eric Clapton from the Yardbirds on March 13, 1965, more significant is the long and complicated game of musical chairs it set off within the world of British blues rock. When Clapton walked out on the Yardbirds, he did more than just change the course of his own career. He also set in motion a chain of events that would see not just one, but two more guitar giants pass through the Yardbirds on their way toward significant futures of their own. And through the various groups they would later form, influence, join and quit, these three guitar heroesEric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Pagewould shape more than a decade's worth of rock and roll.<em class="date">Mar 13, 1979: Johan Santana born</h2> On this day in 1979, power pitcher Johan Santana is born in Tovar Merida, Venezuela. He went on to become the dominant left-handed pitcher in baseball from 2003 to 2006 and won the coveted Cy Young Award as the American Leagues top pitcher following the 2004 season and again in a unanimous vote in 2006. This made him both the first and the second Venezuelan player to win the Cy Young.history.com

 

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<em class="date">Mar 14, 1879: Albert Einstein born</h2> On March 14, 1879, Albert Einstein is born, the son of a Jewish electrical engineer in Ulm, Germany. Einstein's theories of special and general relativity drastically altered man's view of the universe, and his work in particle and energy theory helped make possible quantum mechanics and, ultimately, the atomic bomb.<em class="date">Mar 14, 1922: Mack Truck founder killed in car crash</h2> John Jack Mack, who co-founded what would become one of North America's largest makers of heavy-duty trucks, is killed when his car collides with a trolley in Pennsylvania on March 14, 1922.<em class="date">Mar 14, 1990: Gorbachev elected president of the Soviet Union</h2> The Congress of People's Deputies elects General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev as the new president of the Soviet Union. While the election was a victory for Gorbachev, it also revealed serious weaknesses in his power base that would eventually lead to the collapse of his presidency in December 1991.<em class="date">Mar 14, 1950: The FBI debuts 10 Most Wanted</h2> On this day in 1950, the Federal Bureau of Investigation institutes the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list in an effort to publicize particularly dangerous fugitives. The creation of the program arose out of wire service news story in 1949 about the toughest guys the FBI wanted to capture. The story drew so much public attention that the Ten Most Wanted list was given the okay by J. Edgar Hoover the following year. As of 2010, more than 460 of the criminals included on the list have been apprehended or located, 152 as a result of tips from the public. The Criminal Investigative Division (CID) of the FBI asks all fifty-six field offices to submit candidates for inclusion on the list. The CID in association with the Office of Public and Congressional Affairs then proposes finalists for approval of by the FBI's Deputy Director. The criteria for selection is simple, the criminal must have a lengthy record and current pending charges that make him or her particularly dangerous. And the the FBI must believe that the publicity attendant to placement on the list will assist in the apprehension of the fugitive.<em class="date">Mar 14, 1980: Boxing team among casualties in Polish Air crash</h2>   A Polish Airlines flight, on a Soviet-built Ilyushin 62 jet, crashes while attempting to land in Warsaw, killing all 87 people on board, including 22 members of the United States boxing team, on this day in 1980. <em class="date">Mar 14, 1964: Jack Ruby sentenced to death</h2>   Jack Ruby, the Dallas nightclub owner who killed Lee Harvey Oswald--the accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy--is found guilty of the murder with malice of Oswald and sentenced to die in the electric chair. It was the first courtroom verdict to be televised in U.S. history.<em class="date">Mar 14, 1958: The Recording Industry Association of America awards first Gold Record to Perry Como for Catch A Falling Star </h2> For as long as most people have been buying popular music on records, tapes and compact disks, the records, tapes and disks they've bought have carried labels like Certified Gold! and Double Platinum!! Those labels have been in use since the early days of the rock-and-roll era, when a young trade organization called the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) created and trademarked its precious-metals-based scale for measuring music sales. On March 14, 1958, the RIAA awarded its first official Gold Record to Perry Como for his smash-hit single Catch A Falling Star. <em class="date">Mar 14, 1967: JFK's body moved to permanent gravesite</h2> On this day in history, the body of President John F. Kennedy is moved to a spot just a few feet away from its original interment site at Arlington National Cemetery. The slain president had been assassinated more than three years earlier, on November 22, 1963. <em class="date">Mar 14, 1997: President Clinton expresses desire to return to golf course</h2> On this day in 1997, President Bill Clinton undergoes surgery to repair the quadriceps tendon of his right knee at the Bethesda Naval Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland. Clinton, an avid golfer, had injured his knee at 1:20 that morning when he slipped down some stairs at Australian professional golfer Greg Normans house. Clintons surgeon later reported that Clintons primary concern after the surgery was when he would again be able to swing a golf club. Upon his return to the links, Clinton continued to improve his game, and once remarked that he was the only president to trim his handicapwhich stood at 15 at the end of his tenure--while in office.history.com

 

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<em class="date">Mar 15, 1965: Johnson calls for equal voting rights</h2> On this day in 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson addressed a joint session of Congress to urge the passage of legislation guaranteeing voting rights for all.Using the phrase we shall overcome, borrowed from African-American leaders struggling for equal rights, Johnson declared that every American citizen must have an equal right to vote. Johnson reminded the nation that the Fifteenth Amendment, which was passed after the Civil War, gave all citizens the right to vote regardless of race or color. But states had defied the Constitution and erected barriers. Discrimination had taken the form of literacy, knowledge or character tests administered solely to African-Americans to keep them from registering to vote.<em class="date">Mar 15, 1968: Construction begins on America's highest vehicle tunnel</h2> On this day in 1968, construction starts on the north tunnel of the Eisenhower/Johnson Memorial Tunnel on Interstate 70 in Colorado, some 60 miles west of Denver. Located at an altitude of more than 11,000 feet, the project was an engineering marvel and became the world's highest vehicular tunnel when it was completed in 1979. Four months after opening, one million vehicles had passed through the tunnel; today, some 10 million vehicles drive through it each year.<em class="date">Mar 15, 0045: The ides of March: Julius Caesar is murdered</h2> Julius Caesar, the  dictator for life  of the Roman Empire, is murdered by his own senators at a meeting in a hall next to Pompey's Theatre. The conspiracy against Caesar encompassed as many as sixty noblemen, including Caesar's own protege, Marcus Brutus.<em class="date">Mar 15, 1941: Blizzard unexpectedly hits North Dakota and Minnesota</h2> A fast-moving and severe blizzard hits North Dakota and Minnesota, killing 151 people, on this day in 1941. Weather forecasting and reporting made important advances following this disaster that would have prevented the loss of life that occurred due to the sudden storm. <em class="date">Mar 15, 1820: Maine enters the Union</h2> As part of the Missouri Compromise between the North and the South, Maine is admitted into the Union as the 23rd state. Administered as a province of Massachusetts since 1647, the entrance of Maine as a free state was agreed to by Southern senators in exchange for the entrance of Missouri as a slave state.<em class="date">Mar 15, 1972: Francis Ford Coppolas The Godfather opens</h2> On this day in 1972, The Godfather--a three-hour epic chronicling the lives of the Corleones, an Italian-American crime family led by the powerful Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando)--is released in theaters.<em class="date">Mar 15, 1959: Frankie Avalon's Venus hits #1</h2> The business minds behind American Idol are not the first to try their hand at manufacturing pop stars. In fact, the process of corporate idol-making is nearly as old as rock and roll itself. The first man-made idols were launched in the late 1950s from Philadelphia, where a handful of enterprising businessmen applied a little creativity and a lot of cold, hard cash to the task of capitalizing on the rock-and-roll phenomenon. The Philadelphia teen idol machine hit full stride on March 15, 1959, when local boy Frankie Avalon hit #1 on the pop charts with his hit song, Venus. <em class="date">[video=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wqj81tu1caU]Mar 15, 1970: Bobby Orr scores 100 points in one season</h2> On March 15, 1970, Boston Bruin Bobby Orr becomes the first defenseman in NHL history to score 100 points in a season, after scoring four goals in one game against the Detroit Red Wings. Orr would finish the 1969-70 season with 120 points, a record for a defensive player that cemented his status as the best offensive defenseman in NHL history.history.com[/video]

 

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<em class="date">Mar 16, 1802: U.S. Military Academy established</h2> The United States Military Academy--the first military school in the United States--is founded by Congress for the purpose of educating and training young men in the theory and practice of military science. Located at West Point, New York, the U.S. Military Academy is often simply known as West Point.<em class="date">Mar 16, 2003: Craven edges out Busch in closest NASCAR finish</h2> On this day in 2003, race car driver Ricky Craven wins the Darlington 500, crossing the finish line .002 seconds ahead of Kurt Busch for the closest recorded finish in National Association for Stock Car Racing (NASCAR) history. In May 2009, more than 5,000 racing fans voted Craven's victory the most memorable moment in the history of South Carolina's challenging Darlington Raceway, nicknamed The Track Too Tough to Tame. <em class="date">Mar 16, 1988: Reagan orders troops into Honduras</h2>   As part of his continuing effort to put pressure on the leftist Sandinista government in Nicaragua, President Ronald Reagan orders over 3,000 U.S. troops to Honduras, claiming that Nicaraguan soldiers had crossed its borders. As with so many of the other actions taken against Nicaragua during the Reagan years, the result was only more confusion and criticism.<em class="date">Mar 16, 1978: Supertanker wrecks off French coast</h2> One of the world's worst supertanker disasters takes places when the Amoco Cadiz wrecks off the coast of Portsall, France, on this day in 1978. Although the 68 million gallons of oil that spilled from the Cadiz has since been exceeded by other spills, this remains the largest shipwreck in history.<em class="date">Mar 16, 1926: First liquid-fueled rocket</h2> The first man to give hope to dreams of space travel is American Robert H. Goddard, who successfully launches the world's first liquid-fueled rocket at Auburn, Massachusetts, on March 16, 1926. The rocket traveled for 2.5 seconds at a speed of about 60 mph, reaching an altitude of 41 feet and landing 184 feet away. The rocket was 10 feet tall, constructed out of thin pipes, and was fueled by liquid oxygen and gasoline.<em class="date">Mar 16, 1985: Terry Anderson kidnapped</h2> In Beirut, Lebanon, Islamic militants kidnap American journalist Terry Anderson and take him to the southern suburbs of the war-torn city, where other Western hostages are being held in scattered dungeons under ruined buildings. Before his abduction, Anderson covered the Lebanese Civil War for The Associated Press (AP) and also served as the AP's Beirut bureau chief.<em class="date">Mar 16, 2005: Robert Blake acquitted of wifes murder</h2> On this day in 2005, after a three-month-long criminal trial in Los Angeles Superior Court, a jury acquits Robert Blake, star of the 1970s television detective show Baretta, of the murder of his 44-year-old wife, Bonny Lee Bakley.<em class="date">Mar 16, 1850: The Scarlet Letter is published</h2> Nathaniel Hawthorne's story of adultery and betrayal in colonial America, The Scarlet Letter, is published.<em class="date">Mar 16, 1970: Motown soul singer Tammi Terrell dies</h2> Over a span of just 12 months beginning in April 1967, the duo of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell enjoyed a string of four straight hits with some of the greatest love songs ever recorded at Motown Records. Sadly, only the first two of those four hits were released while Tammi Terrell was still well enough to perform them. In October 1967, just six months after the release of the now-classic Ain't No Mountain High Enough, Terrell collapsed onstage during a live performance at Virginia's Hampton-Sydney College. Two-and-a-half years later, on March 16, 1970, Tammi Terrell died of complications from the malignant brain tumor that caused her 1967 collapse.<em class="date">Mar 16, 1953: Baseball owners give Veeck cold shoulder</h2> On March 16, 1953, baseballs owners refuse to allow Bill Veeck to move his struggling St. Louis Browns to Baltimore, which forces Veeck to sell the team. Veeck was the clown prince among baseball owners, prone to boneheaded stunts as well as inspired pranks, all aimed at bringing people to the ballpark and making a baseball game as entertaining as possible.history.com

 

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<em class="date"><em class="date-loc">St. Patrick's Day is celebrated on March 17, his religious feast day and the anniversary of his death in the fifth century. The Irish have observed this day as a religious holiday for over a thousand years. On St. Patrick's Day, which falls during the Christian season of Lent, Irish families would traditionally attend church in the morning and celebrate in the afternoon. Lenten prohibitions against the consumption of meat were waived and people would dance, drink and feaston the traditional meal of Irish bacon and cabbage. Mar 17, 0461: Saint Patrick dies</h2> On this day in 461 A.D., Saint Patrick, Christian missionary, bishop and apostle of Ireland, dies at Saul, Downpatrick, Ireland.<em class="date">Mar 17, 1906: Earthquakes kill more than 1,200 in Taiwan</h2> A powerful earthquake and a full day of aftershocks rock Taiwan on this day in 1906, killing over 1,200 people. This terrifying day of tremors destroyed several towns and caused millions of dollars in damages.<em class="date">Mar 17, 1762: First St. Patrick's Day parade</h2> In New York City, the first parade honoring the Catholic feast day of St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, is held by Irish soldiers serving in the British army.Saint Patrick, who was born in the late 4th century, was one of the most successful Christian missionaries in history. Born in Britain to a Christian family of Roman citizenship, he was taken prisoner at the age of 16 by a group of Irish raiders who attacked his family's estate. They transported him to Ireland, and he spent six years in captivity before escaping back to Britain. Believing he had been called by God to Christianize Ireland, he joined the Catholic Church and studied for 15 years before being consecrated as the church's second missionary to Ireland. Patrick began his mission to Ireland in 432, and by his death in 461, the island was almost entirely Christian.<em class="date">Mar 17, 1901: Van Gogh paintings shown</h2> On March 17, 1901, paintings by the late Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh are shown at the Bernheim-Jeune gallery in Paris. The 71 paintings, which captured their subjects in bold brushstrokes and expressive colors, caused a sensation across the art world. Eleven years before, while living in Auvers-sur-Oise outside Paris, van Gogh had committed suicide without any notion that his work was destined to win acclaim beyond his wildest dreams. In his lifetime, he had sold only one painting. One of his paintings--the Yasuda Sunflowers--sold for just under $40 million at a Christie's auction in 1987.<em class="date">Mar 17, 1958: The Champs' Tequila is the #1 song on the U.S. pop charts</h2> Written on the spot and recorded as an afterthought near the end of a session at Gold Star Studios in Los Angeles, the song Tequila hit #1 on the Billboard pop chart on March 17, 1958. It was the Champs' one, and only, pop hit. Half a century later, this accidental, one-word classic still sounds as fresh and irresistible as it did to the long-forgotten Cleveland disk jockey who rescued it from the cutout bin of history.[video=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tG6P2rBU-ho]<em class="date">Mar 17, 1905: Franklin Roosevelt marries Eleanor Roosevelt</h2> Future president Franklin Delano Roosevelt weds his fifth cousin once removed, Eleanor Roosevelt, in New York on this day in 1905. <em class="date">Mar 17, 1902: Bobby Jones is born</h2> On March 17, 1902, Robert Tyre Jones, Jr. is born in Atlanta, Georgia. Jones, the first great American golfer, was a hero of the so-called Golden Age of Sports in America along with baseball player Babe Ruth, boxer Jack Dempsey, tennis player Bill Tilden and football player Red Grange.history.com[/video]

 

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<em class="date">Mar 18, 1852: Wells and Fargo start shipping and banking company</h2> On this day in 1852, in New York City, Henry Wells and William G. Fargo join with several other investors to launch their namesake business.<em class="date">Mar 18, 1766: Parliament repeals the Stamp Act</h2> After four months of widespread protest in America, the British Parliament repeals the Stamp Act, a taxation measure enacted to raise revenues for a standing British army in America.<em class="date">Mar 18, 1933: Studebaker goes bankrupt</h2> On this day in 1933, American automaker Studebaker, then heavily in debt, goes into receivership. The company's president, Albert Erskine, resigned and later that year committed suicide. Studebaker eventually rebounded from its financial troubles, only to close its doors for the final time in 1966.<em class="date">Mar 18, 1999: Three women are murdered at Yosemite</h2> On this day in 1999, the bodies of Carole Sund and Silvina Pelosso are found in a charred rental car in a remote wooded area of Long Barn, Califonia. The women, along with Sund's daughter Juli, had been missing since February when they were last seen alive at the Cedar Lodge near Yosemite National Park. Juli Sund's body was found thirty miles away a week after the car was found.<em class="date">Mar 18, 1937: Natural gas explosion kills schoolchildren in Texas</h2> Nearly 300 students in Texas are killed by an explosion of natural gas at their school on this day in 1937.<em class="date">Mar 18, 1925: The Tri-State Tornado</h2> The worst tornado in U.S. history passes through eastern Missouri, southern Illinois, and southern Indiana, killing 695 people, injuring some 13,000 people, and causing $17 million in property damage. Known as the Tri-State Tornado, the deadly twister began its northeast track in Ellington, Missouri, but southern Illinois was the hardest hit. More than 500 of the total 695 people who perished were killed in southern Illinois, including 234 in Murphrysboro and 127 in West Frankfort.<em class="date">Mar 18, 1932: John Updike is born</h2> On this day in 1932, Pulitzer Prize-winning author John Updike is born in the small town of Shillington, Pennsylvania. The only child of a math teacher father and aspiring writer mother, Updike developed an early love for reading and drawing and won a scholarship to Harvard. He became editor of the famous Harvard Lampoon and married as an undergraduate.<em class="date">Mar 18, 1911: Irving Berlin copyrights the biggest pop song of the early 20th century</h2> A century ago, even before the phonograph had become a common household item, there was already a burgeoning music industry in the United States based not on the sale of recorded musical performances, but on the sale of sheet music. It was in the medium of printed paper, and not grooved lacquer or vinyl discs, that songs gained popularity in the first two decades of the 20th century, and no song gained greater popularity in that era than Irving Berlin's Alexander's Ragtime Band. Copyrighted on March 18, 1911, Alexander's Ragtime Band was the multimillion-selling smash hit that helped turn American popular music into a major international phenomenon, both culturally and economically.<em class="date">Mar 18, 1837: Grover Cleveland is born in Caldwell, New Jersey</h2> On this day in 1837, Grover Cleveland, the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms in the office, is born. Cleveland served as the 22nd president from 1885 to 1889 and as the 24th president from 1893 to 1897. <em class="date">Mar 18, 2002: Spectator death forces new rules for NHL games</h2> On this day in 2002, 13-year-old Brittanie Cecil dies, two days after being struck in the head by a puck at a Columbus Blue Jackets ice hockey game. Cecils death forced the National Hockey League to take new precautions regarding fan safety.history.com

 

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<em class="date">Mar 19, 2003:War in Iraq begins</h2> On this day in 2003, the United States, along with coalition forces primarily from the United Kingdom, initiates war on Iraq. Just after explosions began to rock Baghdad, Iraq's capital, U.S. President George W. Bush announced in a televised address, At this hour, American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people and to defend the world from grave danger. President Bush and his advisors built much of their case for war on the idea that Iraq, under dictator Saddam Hussein, possessed or was in the process of building weapons of mass destruction.<em class="date">Mar 19, 2005:Maverick auto exec John DeLorean dies</h2> On this day in 2005, John DeLorean, an innovative auto industry executive and founder of the DeLorean Motor Company, dies at the age of 80 in New Jersey. In the early 1980s, the DeLorean Motor Company produced just one model, the DMC-12, a sleek sports car with gull-wing doors that opened upward, before going bankrupt. John DeLorean was charged with drug trafficking in an effort to raise funds for his struggling company. Approximately 9,000 DMC-12s in total were produced. The car later became a collector's item and received a big publicity boost when it was featured as a time-travel machine in the Back to the Future movies starring Michael J. Fox.<em class="date">Mar 19, 1999:Bodies found in Yosemite serial killer case</h2> On this day in 1999, law enforcement officials discover the charred bodies of forty-two-year-old Carol Sund and sixteen-year-old Silvina Pelosso in the trunk of their burned-out rental car, a day after the vehicle was located in a remote area several hours from Yosemite National Park. Cary Stayner, a handyman at the lodge where the women were last seen a month before, later confessed to their murders as well as those of two other women.<em class="date">Mar 19, 1971eruvian town wiped out</h2> On this day in 1971, an earthquake sets off a series of calamitiesa landslide, flood and avalanche--that results in the destruction of the town of Chungar, Peru, and the death of 600 of its inhabitants.<em class="date">Mar 19, 1931:Nevada legalizes gambling</h2> In an attempt to lift the state out of the hard times of the Great Depression, the Nevada state legislature votes to legalize gambling.<cite></cite> </h3><em class="date">Mar 19, 1953:First Academy Awards telecast on NBC</h2> On this night in 1953, for the first time, audiences are able to sit in their living rooms and watch as the movie worlds most prestigious honors, the Academy Awards, are given out at the RKO Pantages Theatre in Hollywood, California.<em class="date">Mar 19, 1957:Elvis Presley puts a down payment on Graceland</h2> In the spring of 1957, Elvis Presley was completing his second Hollywood movie, Loving You, and his first movie soundtrack album. He had two studio albums and 48 singles already under his belt and two years of nearly nonstop live appearances behind him. If his life had taken a different path, the spring of 1957 might have seen Elvis Presley filling out law school applications or interviewing for his first job as college graduation approached. But the hardworking son of Gladys and Vernon Presley was already his family's primary breadwinner in the spring of 1957, and already looking, at the tender age of 22, to purchase them a new home for the second time. He found that home on the outskirts of Memphisa southern Colonial mansion on a 13.8-acre wooded estate. With a $1,000 cash deposit against a sale price of $102,500, Elvis Presley agreed to purchase the home called Graceland on March 19, 1957.<a href="http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0PDoTD_rYRNxREAYXWjzbkF/SIG=12k8pnhoc/EXP=1300569727/**http%3A//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/41/Graceland.jpg" target="_top">

</a><em class="date">Mar 19, 1966:Texas Western defeats Kentucky in NCAA finals</h2> On March 19, 1966, Texas Western College defeats the University of Kentucky in the NCAA mens college basketball final at Cole Field House in College Park, Maryland. This marked the first time an all-black starting five had won the NCAA championship.history.com

 

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<em class="date">Mar 20, 1965:LBJ sends federal troops to Alabama</h2> On this day in 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson notifies Alabama's Governor George Wallace that he will use federal authority to call up the Alabama National Guard in order to supervise a planned civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery.<em class="date">Mar 20, 1928:Auto pioneer James Packard dies</h2> James Packard, co-founder of the Packard Motor Company, a pioneering American automaker, dies at the age of 64 on this day in 1928. During Packard's heyday in the 1930s, its vehicles were driven by movie stars and business titans.<em class="date">Mar 20, 1995:Tokyo subways are attacked with sarin gas</h2> Several packages of deadly sarin gas are set off in the Tokyo subway system killing twelve people and injuring over 5,000. Sarin gas was invented by the Nazis and is one of the most lethal nerve gases known to man. Tokyo police quickly learned who had planted the chemical weapons and began tracking the terrorists down. Thousands of checkpoints were set up across the nation in the massive dragnet.<em class="date">Mar 20, 1345:Black Death is created, allegedly</h2> According to scholars at the University of Paris, the Black Death is created on this day in 1345, from what they call a triple conjunction of Saturn, Jupiter and Mars in the 40th degree of Aquarius, occurring on the 20th of March 1345 . The Black Death, also known as the Plague, swept across Europe, the Middle East and Asia during the 14th century, leaving an estimated 25 million dead in its wake.<em class="date">Mar 20, 1854:Republican Party founded</h2> In Ripon, Wisconsin, former members of the Whig Party meet to establish a new party to oppose the spread of slavery into the western territories. The Whig Party, which was formed in 1834 to oppose the tyranny of President Andrew Jackson, had shown itself incapable of coping with the national crisis over slavery.<em class="date">Mar 20, 1948:20th annual Academy Awards celebrated</h2> Hollywoods elite braved freezing temperatures and strong winds to attend the 20th annual Academy Awards ceremony, which took place on this day in 1948 at the Shrine Civic Auditorium in Los Angeles, California.<em class="date">Mar 20, 1982:Joan Jett tops the pop charts with I Love Rock 'n' Roll </h2> With her smoldering looks and guitar hooks, Joan Jett had rock-star charisma to rival any man's. Jett burst onto the scene as a solo artist with I Love Rock 'n' Roll, the three-chord anthem that topped the Billboard pop chart on March 20, 1982.<em class="date">[video=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SOJxNOP37I]Mar 20, 1934:Babe Didrikson goes to the mound for Philly</h2> On March 20, 1934, Mildrid Babe Didrikson pitches one inning of exhibition baseball for the Philadelphia Athletics in a game against the Brooklyn Dodgers. She started the first inning, and allowed just one walk and no hits. Though Didrickson was not the first woman to play baseball with major league ballplayers, she had attained national-hero status with an unprecedented performance at the 1932 Olympics.history.com[/video]

 

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<em class="date">Mar 21, 1871:Stanley begins search for Livingstone</h2> On this day in 1871, journalist Henry Morton Stanley begins his famous search through Africa for the missing British explorer Dr. David Livingstone.<em class="date">Mar 21, 1960:Formula One champ Ayrton Senna born</h2> Ayrton Senna da Silva, the three-time Formula One (F1) world champion, is born on this day in 1960, in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Senna's celebrated career was cut short in 1994 when he died at the age of 34 following a crash at a Grand Prix race in Italy. At the time of his death, he was considered by many to be the world's best F1 driver.<em class="date">Mar 21, 1778:Massacre at Hancock's Bridge</h2> On March 21, 1778, just three days after British Loyalists and Hessian mercenary forces assault the local New Jersey militia at Quinton's Bridge, three miles from Salem, New Jersey, the same contingent surprises the colonial militia at Hancock's Bridge, five miles from Salem. During the battle, the Loyalists not only kill several members of the Salem militia, but also two known Loyalists.<em class="date">Mar 21, 1980:Carter tells U.S. athletes of Olympic boycott</h2> President Jimmy Carter informs a group of U.S. athletes that, in response to the December 1979 Soviet incursion into Afghanistan, the United States will boycott the 1980 Olympics in Moscow. It marked the first and only time that the United States has boycotted the Olympics.<em class="date">Mar 21, 1963:Alcatraz closes its doors</h2> Alcatraz Prison in San Francisco Bay closes down and transfers its last prisoners. At it's peak period of use in 1950s, The Rock, or America's Devil Island housed over 200 inmates at the maximum-security facility. Alcatraz remains an icon of American prisons for its harsh conditions and record for being inescapable.<em class="date">Mar 21, 1932:Series of tornadoes hits Southeast U.S.</h2> A storm system arising in the Gulf of Mexico spawns a devastating series of tornadoes that kills more than 350 people across the Southeast over two days. Thousands were seriously injured and many were left homeless by this deadly rash of twisters.<em class="date">Mar 21, 1960:Massacre in Sharpeville</h2> In the black township of Sharpeville, near Johannesburg, South Africa, Afrikaner police open fire on a group of unarmed black South African demonstrators, killing 69 people and wounding 180 in a hail of submachine-gun fire. The demonstrators were protesting against the South African government's restriction of nonwhite travel. In the aftermath of the Sharpeville massacre, protests broke out in Cape Town, and more than 10,000 people were arrested before government troops restored order.<em class="date">Mar 21, 1952:The Moondog Coronation Ball is history's first rock concert</h2> Breathless promotion on the local radio station. Tickets selling out in a single day. Thousands of teenagers, hours before show time, lining up outside the biggest venue in town. The scene outside the Cleveland Arena on a chilly Friday night in March more than 50 years ago would look quite familiar to anyone who has ever attended a major rock concert. But no one on this particular night had ever even heard of a rock concert. This, after all, was the night of an event now recognized as history's first major rock-and-roll show: the Moondog Coronation Ball, held in Cleveland on March 21, 1952.<em class="date">Mar 21, 1943:Another plot to kill Hitler foiled</h2> <a href="http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/cripps-and-gandhi-meet?catId=14"></a>  On this day, the second military conspiracy plan to assassinate Hitler in a week fails to come off.history.com

 

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<em class="date">Mar 22, 1765:Stamp Act imposed on American colonies</h2> In an effort to raise funds to pay off debts and defend the vast new American territories won from the French in the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), the British government passes the Stamp Act on this day in 1765. The legislation levied a direct tax on all materials printed for commercial and legal use in the colonies, from newspapers and pamphlets to playing cards and dice.<em class="date">Mar 22, 1983:The origins of the Hummer</h2> On this day in 1983, the Pentagon awards a production contract worth more than $1 billion to AM General Corporation to develop 55,000 High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles (HMMWV). Nicknamed the Humvee and designed to transport troops and cargo, the wide, rugged vehicles entered the spotlight when they were used by the American military during the 1989 invasion of Panama and the Persian Gulf War in the early 1990s.<em class="date">Mar 22, 1947:Truman orders loyalty checks of federal employees</h2> In response to public fears and Congressional investigations into communism in the United States, President Harry S. Truman issues an executive decree establishing a sweeping loyalty investigation of federal employees.<em class="date">Mar 22, 1984:Teachers are indicted at the McMartin Preschool</h2> Seven teachers at the McMartin Preschool in Manhattan Beach, California are indicted by the Los Angeles County grand jury after hearing testimony from 18 children. Included among the charged are Peggy McMartin Buckey, the head of the school and her son Ray Buckey. Seven years and millions of dollars later, the case against the teachers came to a close with no reputable evidence of wrongdoing and no convictions.<em class="date">Mar 22, 1859:Earthquake destroys landmarks in Quito, Ecuador</h2> Quito, Ecuador, the site of many powerful earthquakes through the years, suffers one of its worst when a tremor kills 5,000 people and destroys some of the most famous buildings in South America, on this day in 1859.<em class="date">Mar 22, 1972:Equal Rights Amendment passed by Congress</h2> <a href="http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/mussolini-founds-the-fascist-party?catId=6"></a>  On March 22, 1972, the Equal Rights Amendment is passed by the U.S. Senate and sent to the states for ratification.<em class="date">Mar 22, 1908:Louis L'Amour born</h2> Louis L'Amour, the prolific author of scores of bestselling western novels, is born in Jamestown, North Dakota.<em class="date">Mar 22, 1933:FDR legalizes sale of beer and wine</h2> On this day in 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Beer and Wine Revenue Act. This law levies a federal tax on all alcoholic beverages to raise revenue for the federal government and gives individual states the option to further regulate the sale and distribution of beer and wine.<em class="date">Mar 22, 1894:First Stanley Cup championship played</h2> On this day in 1894, the first championship series for Lord Stanleys Cup is played in Montreal, Canada. The Stanley Cup has since become one of the most cherished and recognized trophies in sport.history.com

 

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<em class="date">Mar 23, 1839:OK enters national vernacular</h2> On this day in 1839, the initials O.K. are first published in The Boston Morning Post. Meant as an abbreviation for oll correct, a popular slang misspelling of all correct at the time, OK steadily made its way into the everyday speech of Americans<em class="date">Mar 23, 1913:Tornadoes devastate Nebraska</h2> A horrible month for weather-related disasters in the United States culminates with a devastating tornado ripping through Nebraska, near Omaha, on this day in 1913. It was the worst of five twisters that struck that day in Nebraska and Iowa, killing 115 people in total.<em class="date">Mar 23, 1919:Mussolini founds the Fascist party</h2> Benito Mussolini, an Italian World War I veteran and publisher of Socialist newspapers, breaks with the Italian Socialists and establishes the nationalist Fasci di Combattimento, named after the Italian peasant revolutionaries, or Fighting Bands, from the 19th century. Commonly known as the Fascist Party, Mussolini's new right-wing organization advocated Italian nationalism, had black shirts for uniforms, and launched a program of terrorism and intimidation against its leftist opponents.<em class="date">Mar 23, 1983:Artificial-heart patient dies</h2> On March 23, 1983, Barney Clark dies 112 days after becoming the world's first recipient of a permanent artificial heart. The 61-year-old dentist spent the last four months of his life in a hospital bed at the University of Utah Medical Center in Salt Lake City, attached to a 350-pound console that pumped air in and out of the aluminum-and-plastic implant through a system of hoses.<em class="date">Mar 23, 1994:Leading Mexican presidential candidate assassinated</h2> Luis Donaldo Colosio, Mexico's ruling party's presidential candidate, is gunned down during a campaign rally in the northern border town of Tijuana.<em class="date">Mar 23, 1998:James Cameron's Titanic wins 11 Academy Awards</h2> By the time James Cameron took the stage to accept his Academy Award for Best Director on the night of March 23, 1998, the Oscar dominance of his blockbuster film Titanic was all but assured. Titanic tied the record for most Oscar nominations with 14joining 1950's All About Eveand by night's end would tie with Ben Hur (1959) for most wins by sweeping 11 categories, including the coveted Best Picture.<em class="date">Mar 23, 1994:Wayne Gretzky scores number 802</h2> On March 23, 1994, Wayne Gretzky scores his 802nd goal, breaking his childhood idol Gordie Howes National Hockey League record for most goals scored in a career. Gretzky, known to hockey fans as The Great One, broke a total of 61 offensive records in his NHL career, including many previously held by Mr. Hockey Gordie Howe.history.com

 

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<em class="date">Mar 24, 1989:Exxon Valdez runs aground</h2> The worst oil spill in U.S. territory begins when the supertanker Exxon Valdez, owned and operated by the Exxon Corporation, runs aground on a reef in Prince William Sound in southern Alaska. An estimated 11 million gallons of oil eventually spilled into the water. Attempts to contain the massive spill were unsuccessful, and wind and currents spread the oil more than 100 miles from its source, eventually polluting more than 700 miles of coastline. Hundreds of thousands of birds and animals were adversely affected by the environmental disaster. <em class="date">Mar 24, 2007:Ferrari's around-the-world relay stops in L.A.</h2> On this day in 2007, an around-the-world relay celebrating Italian sports car maker Ferrari's 60th anniversary passes through Los Angeles, California. The relay began earlier that year, on January 28, in Abu Dhabi and continued on through 50 countries including Saudi Arabia, China, Japan, Australia, Mexico, America, Canada and Russia, before ending on June 23, 2007 at Ferrari headquarters in Maranello, Italy. Thousands of Ferrari owners and their cars participated at various points of the relay, serving as symbolic bearers of a relay baton featuring 60 badges representing key innovations in the luxury automaker's history. <em class="date">Mar 24, 1998:A school shooting in Jonesboro, Arkansas, kills five</h2> Mitchell Johnson, 13, and Andrew Golden, 11, shoot their classmates and teachers in Jonesboro, Arkansas. Golden, the younger of the two boys, asked to be excused from his class, pulled a fire alarm and then ran to join Johnson in a wooded area 100 yards away from the school's gym. As the students streamed out of the building, Johnson and Golden opened fire and killed four students and a teacher. Ten other children were wounded. <em class="date">Mar 24, 1603:Queen Elizabeth I dies</h2> After 44 years of rule, Queen Elizabeth I of England dies, and King James VI of Scotland ascends to the throne, uniting England and Scotland under a single British monarch. <em class="date">Mar 24, 2002:Halle Berry, Denzel Washington triumph at Oscars</h2> <a href="http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/icelandic-pop-singer-bjork-makes-splash-at-the-oscars?catId=12"></a>  On this day in 2002, the 74th annual Academy Awards ceremony is held at its brand new venue, the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles. Completed the previous November, the $94 million Kodak Theatre would be the first permanent home for the Academy Awards ceremony. <em class="date">Mar 24, 1955:Cat on a Hot Tin Roof opens</h2> Tennessee Williams' play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof opens in New York, two days before his 44th birthday. The play would win Williams his second Pulitzer Prize. <em class="date">Mar 24, 1958:Elvis Presley is inducted into the U.S. Army</h2> When Elvis Presley turned 18 on January 8, 1953, he fulfilled his patriotic duty and legal obligation to register his name with the Selective Service System, thereby making himself eligible for the draft. The Korean War was still underway at the time, but as a student in good standing at L.C. Humes High School in Memphis, Elvis received a student deferment that kept him from facing conscription during that conflict's final months. Elvis would receive another deferment four years later when his draft number finally came up, but this time for a very different reason: to complete the filming of his third Hollywood movie, King Creole. With that obligation fulfilled, Uncle Sam would wait no longer. On March 24, 1958, Elvis Presley was finally inducted, starting his day as the King of Rock and Roll, but ending it as a lowly buck private in the United States Army. <cite> Elvis in Army uniform </cite></h3><em class="date">Mar 24, 1976eyton Manning born</h2> On March 24, 1976, Peyton Manning is born in New Orleans, Louisiana, to Archie and Olivia Manning. Archie had been a star quarterback for the University of Mississippi (1968-1970) and the New Orleans Saints (1971-1981). history.com

 

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You missed a biggie today - not to dismiss Peyton Manning, but Harry Houdini was born on this day in 1874"
"
... and for the record, I was at the game when Gretzky scored #802

 

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Thank you PSP. You are absolutley right, Harry Houdini was born on this day. Today is Harry Houdini, the legendary magician and escape artist's, 137th birthday. He was born on March 24, 1874 and died on October 31, 1926 at the aged 52. He was born Budapest, Austria-Hungary with the given name of Erik Weisz and died in Detroit, Michigan.He made his fame in America for his magical acts, most notably the art of escaping impossible situations. But like many successful Americans, he then joined the movie business and starred, directed and produced films.Some of his notable escape acts include:Mirror handcuff challengeMilk Can EscapeChinese Water Torture CellSuspended straitjacket escapeOverboard box escapeBuried Alive stunt I find what he did still amazing today as I know many others do as well.                                                                                                 Pam

 

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<em class="date">Mar 25, 1911:Triangle Shirtwaist Fire in New York City</h2> In one of the darkest moments of America's industrial history, the Triangle Shirtwaist Company factory in New York City burns down, killing 145 workers, on this day in 1911. The tragedy led to the development of a series of laws and regulations that better protected the safety of factory workers. <em class="date">Mar 25, 1982:Star driver Danica Patrick born</h2> On this day in 1982, Danica Patrick, the first woman to win an IndyCar Series race, America's top level of open-wheel racing, is born in Beloit, Wisconsin. <em class="date">Mar 25, 1946:Soviets announce withdrawal from Iran</h2> In conclusion to an extremely tense situation of the early Cold War, the Soviet Union announces that its troops in Iran will be withdrawn within six weeks. The Iranian crisis was one of the first tests of power between the United States and the Soviet Union in the postwar world. <em class="date">Mar 25, 1994:Last U.S. troops depart Somalia</h2> At the end of a largely unsuccessful 15-month mission, the last U.S. troops depart Somalia, leaving 20,000 U.N. troops behind to keep the peace and facilitate nation building in the divided country. <em class="date">Mar 25, 1983:The Motown family stages a bittersweet reunion performance</h2> Technically, the 25th anniversary of Motown Records should have been celebrated nine months later, in January 1984, but that was only one of several details glossed over in staging the landmark television special Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever. Filmed before a rapturous live audience on March 25, 1983, the Motown 25 special is perhaps best remembered for Michael Jackson's performance of Billie Jean, which brought the house down and introduced much of the world to the moonwalk. There were other great performances that night, too, but there were also moments that revealed cracks in the joyous-reunion image that Motown chief Berry Gordy sought to portray. <em class="date">Mar 25, 1958:Sugar Ray defeats Basilio for middleweight title</h2> On March 25, 1958, Sugar Ray Robinson defeats Carmen Basilio to regain the middleweight championship. It was the fifth and final title of his career. Robinson is considered by many to be the greatest prizefighter in history. No less an authority than heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali has said, My idol will always be Sugar Ray Robinson, who was, and remains, one of the best pound-for-pound fighters to have ever lived in this century.  <em class="date">Mar 25, 1967:Martin Luther King leads march against the war</h2> The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., leads a march of 5,000 antiwar demonstrators in Chicago. In an address to the demonstrators, King declared that the Vietnam War was a blasphemy against all that America stands for. King first began speaking out against American involvement in Vietnam in the summer of 1965. In addition to his moral objections to the war, he argued that the war diverted money and attention from domestic programs to aid the black poor. He was strongly criticized by other prominent civil rights leaders for attempting to link civil rights and the antiwar movement. history.com

 

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<em class="date">Mar 26, 1979:Israel-Egyptian peace agreement signed</h2> In a ceremony at the White House, Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin sign a historic peace agreement, ending three decades of hostilities between Egypt and Israel and establishing diplomatic and commercial ties. <em class="date">Mar 26, 2008:Ford sells Jaguar and Land Rover to India's Tata</h2> On this day in 2008, the Ford Motor Company announces the sale of its Jaguar and Land Rover divisions to the Tata Group, one of India's oldest and largest business conglomerates, for some $2.3 billion--less than half of what Ford originally paid for the brands. The sale came at a time when Ford, along with much of the rest of the auto industry, was experiencing a sales slump as a result of the global economic crisis. For Tata, which earlier that year had unveiled the Nano, the world's cheapest car, the purchase of the venerable British-based luxury brands was referred to by some observers as a mass to class acquisition. <em class="date">Mar 26, 1987:Torture chamber uncovered in Philadelphia</h2> Responding to a 911 call, police raid the Philadelphia home of Gary Heidnik and find an appalling crime scene. In the basement of Heidnik's dilapidated house is a veritable torture chamber where three naked women were found chained to a sewer pipe. A fourth woman, Josefina Rivera, had escaped and called police. <em class="date">Mar 26, 1872eadly earthquake hits California</h2> An earthquake felt from Mexico to Oregon rocks the Owens Valley in California on this day in 1872, killing 30 people. <em class="date">Mar 26, 1953:Salk announces polio vaccine</h2> On March 26, 1953, American medical researcher Dr. Jonas Salk announces on a national radio show that he has successfully tested a vaccine against poliomyelitis, the virus that causes the crippling disease of polio. In 1952--an epidemic year for polio--there were 58,000 new cases reported in the United States, and more than 3,000 died from the disease. For promising eventually to eradicate the disease, which is known as infant paralysis because it mainly affects children, Dr. Salk was celebrated as the great doctor-benefactor of his time. <em class="date">Mar 26, 1997:Heaven's Gate cult members found dead</h2> Following an anonymous tip, police enter a mansion in Rancho Santa Fe, an exclusive suburb of San Diego, California, and discover 39 victims of a mass suicide. The deceased--21 women and 18 men of varying ages--were all found lying peaceably in matching dark clothes and Nike sneakers and had no noticeable signs of blood or trauma. It was later revealed that the men and women were members of the Heaven's Gate religious cult, whose leaders preached that suicide would allow them to leave their bodily containers and enter an alien spacecraft hidden behind the Hale-Bopp comet. <em class="date">Mar 26, 1920:F. Scott Fitzgerald's first novel published</h2> This Side of Paradise is published, immediately launching 23-year-old F. Scott Fitzgerald to fame and fortune. <em class="date">Mar 26, 1955: Black music gets whitewashed, as Georgia Gibbs hits the pop charts with The Wallflower (Dance With Me, Henry) </h2> For its time, the mid-1950s, the lyrical phrase You got to roll with me, Henry was considered risqué just as the very label rock and roll was understood to have a sexual connotation. The line comes from an Etta James record originally called Roll With Me Henry and later renamed The Wallflower. Already a smash hit on the Billboard Rhythm and Blues chart, it went on to become a pop hit in the spring of 1955, but not for Etta James. Re-recorded with toned-down lyrics by the white pop singer Georgia Gibbs, Dance With Me Henry (Wallflower) entered the pop charts on March 26, 1955, setting off a dubious trend known as whitewashing.  <em class="date">Mar 26, 1979:Michigan State defeats Indiana State in NCAA championship</h2> <a href="http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/march-madness-is-born?catId=10"></a>  On March 26, 1979, Earvin Magic Johnson leads the Michigan State Spartans to a 75- 64 victory over Larry Birds Indiana State Sycamores in the NCAA mens basketball championship game. The most watched college finale of its time, the game established Magic vs. Bird as a rivalry for the ages, and would catapult both players to NBA superstardom. <em class="date">Mar 26, 1969:Antiwar demonstration in Washington</h2> A group called Women Strike for Peace demonstrate in Washington, D.C., in the first large antiwar demonstration since President Richard Nixon's inauguration in January. The antiwar movement had initially given Nixon a chance to make good on his campaign promises to end the war in Vietnam. However, it became increasingly clear that Nixon had no quick solution. As the fighting dragged on, antiwar sentiment against the president and his handling of the war mounted steadily during his term in office. history.com

 

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<em class="date">Mar 27, 1998:FDA approves Viagra</h2> On this day in 1998, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves use of the drug Viagra, an oral medication that treats impotence. <em class="date">Mar 27, 1952:Toyota founder dies</h2> Kiichiro Toyoda, founder of the Toyota Motor Corporation, which in 2008 surpassed America's General Motors as the world's largest automaker, dies at the age of 57 in Japan on this day 1952. <em class="date">Mar 27, 1905:Fingerprint evidence is used to solve a British murder case</h2> The neighbors of Thomas and Ann Farrow, shopkeepers in South London, discover their badly bludgeoned bodies in their home. Thomas was already dead, but Ann was still breathing. She died four days later without ever having regained consciousness. The brutal crime was solved using the newly developed fingerprinting technique. Only three years earlier, the first English court had admitted fingerprint evidence in a petty theft case. The Farrow case was the first time that the cutting-edge technology was used in a high-profile murder case. <em class="date">Mar 27, 1977:Jumbo jets collide at Canary Islands airport</h2> On this day in 1977, two 747 jumbo jets crash into each other on the runway at an airport in the Canary Islands, killing 582 passengers and crew members. <em class="date">Mar 27, 1964:Earthquake rocks Alaska</h2> The strongest earthquake in American history, measuring 8.4 on the Richter scale, slams southern Alaska, creating a deadly tsunami. Some 125 people were killed and thousands injured. <em class="date">Mar 27, 1973:Marlon Brando declines Best Actor Oscar</h2> On this day in 1973, the actor Marlon Brando declines the Academy Award for Best Actor for his career-reviving performance in The Godfather. The Native American actress Sacheen Littlefeather attended the ceremony in Brandos place, stating that the actor very regretfully could not accept the award, as he was protesting Hollywoods portrayal of Native Americans in film. <em class="date">Mar 27, 1979attie Boyd and Eric Clapton are married</h2> In early decades of the 20th century, the Viennese beauty Alma Mahler inspired groundbreaking works by a quartet of husbands and lovers drawn from nearly every creative discipline: music (Gustav Mahler); literature (Franz Werfel); art (Oskar Kokoschka); and architecture (Walter Gropius). It is possible that no pop-cultural muse will ever equal such a record, but if anyone came close in the modern era, it was the English beauty Pattie Boyd, whose participation in various affairs and marriages among the British rock royalty of the 60s and 70s inspired three famous popular songs, including Layla, by second husband Eric Clapton, whom Pattie Boyd married on March 27, 1979. <em class="date">Mar 27, 1939:March Madness is born</h2> The University of Oregon defeats The Ohio State University 4633 on this day in 1939 to win the first-ever NCAA mens basketball tournament. The Final Four, as the tournament became known, has grown exponentially in size and popularity since 1939. By 2005, college basketball had become the most popular sporting event among gamblers, after the Super Bowl. The majority of that betting takes place at tournament time, when Las Vegas, the internet and office pools around the country see action from sports enthusiasts and once-a-year gamblers alike. <em class="date">Mar 27, 1923oet Louis Simpson born</h2> On this day in 1923, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Louis Simpson is born in Jamaica, West Indies. <em class="date">Mar 27, 1829:Jackson appoints John Eaton as secretary of war and starts scandal</h2> On this day in 1829, President Andrew Jackson defies Washington society matrons and appoints scandal-plagued John Eaton as his secretary of war.Earlier that year, Eaton had married a former tavern maid with a supposedly lurid past. Margaret Peggy Eaton had been raised in a boardinghouse frequented by Washington politicians and became an astute observer of politics, as well as an accomplished musician and dancer. She charmed many of the boardinghouse's tenants, including then-Senator Andrew Jackson and his friend John Eaton, and was suspected of having many illicit affairs before her first marriage. She was 23 and the wife of a Navy sailor when she first met Jackson and Eaton. Eaton enjoyed Margaret's wit and intelligence and escorted her to social functions when her husband was at sea. history.com

 

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<em class="date">Mar 28, 1979:Nuclear accident at Three Mile Island</h2> At 4 a.m. on March 28, 1979, the worst accident in the history of the U.S. nuclear power industry begins when a pressure valve in the Unit-2 reactor at Three Mile Island fails to close. Cooling water, contaminated with radiation, drained from the open valve into adjoining buildings, and the core began to dangerously overheat. <em class="date">Mar 28, 1941:Land cleared for Ford's Willow Run plant</h2> On this day in 1941, workers start clearing trees from hundreds of acres of land near Ypsilanti, Michigan, some 30 miles west of Detroit, in preparation for the construction of the Ford Motor Company's Willow Run plant, which will use Henry Ford's mass-production technology to build B-24 bomber planes for World War II. During the war, Detroit was dubbed the Arsenal of Democracy, as American automakers reconfigured their factories to produce a variety of military vehicles and ammunition for the Allies. <em class="date">Mar 28, 1814:Funeral held for the man behind the guillotine</h2> The funeral of Guillotin, the inventor and namesake of the infamous execution device, takes place outside of Paris, France. Guillotin had what he felt were the purest motives for inventing the guillotine and was deeply distressed at how his reputation had become besmirched in the aftermath. Guillotin had bestowed the deadly contraption on the French as a philanthropic gesture for the systematic criminal justice reform that was taking place in 1789. The machine was intended to show the intellectual and social progress of the Revolution; by killing aristocrats and journeymen the same way, equality in death was ensured.  <em class="date">Mar 28, 2006uke lacrosse team suspended following sexual assault allegations</h2> Duke University officials suspend the mens lacrosse team for two games following allegations that team members sexually assaulted a stripper hired to perform at a party. Three players were later charged with rape. The case became a national scandal, impacted by issues of race, politics and class. In April 2007, all charges against the young men were dropped due to lack of credible evidence and the district attorney was eventually disbarred for his mishandling of the case. <em class="date">Mar 28, 1969:Eisenhower dies</h2> Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th president of the United States and one of the most highly regarded American generals of World War II, dies in Washington, D.C., at the age of 78. <em class="date">Mar 28, 1958:W.C. Handythe Father of the Blues dies</h2> With all their differences, my forebears had one thing in common: if they had any musical talent, it remained buried. So wrote William Christopher Handy in his autobiography in discussing the absence of music in his home life as a child. Born in northern Alabama in 1873, Handy was raised in a middle-class African-American family that intended for him a career in the church. To them and to his teachers, W.C. Handy wrote, Becoming a musician would be like selling my soul to the devil. It was a risk that the young Handy decided to take. He was internationally famous by the time he wrote his 1941 memoir, Father of the Blues, although Stepfather might have been a more accurate label for the role he played in bringing Blues into the musical mainstream. The significance of his role is not to be underestimated, however. W.C. Handy, one of the most important figures in 20th-century American popular music history, died in New York City on March 28, 1958.  <em class="date">Mar 28, 1984:Baltimore Colts move to Indianapolis</h2> On this day in 1984, Bob Irsay (1923-1997), owner of the once-mighty Baltimore Colts, moves the team to Indianapolis. Without any sort of public announcement, Irsay hired movers to pack up the teams offices in Owings Mills, Maryland, in the middle of the night, while the city of Baltimore slept. <em class="date">Mar 28, 1915:First American citizen killed during WWI</h2> <a href="http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/swedish-prime-minister-resigns-over-wwi-policy?catId=16"></a>  On March 28, 1915, the first American citizen is killed in the eight-month-old European conflict that would become known as the First World War.  

 

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<em class="date">Mar 29, 1973:U.S. withdraws from Vietnam</h2> Two months after the signing of the Vietnam peace agreement, the last U.S. combat troops leave South Vietnam as Hanoi frees the remaining American prisoners of war held in North Vietnam. America's direct eight-year intervention in the Vietnam War was at an end. In Saigon, some 7,000 U.S. Department of Defense civilian employees remained behind to aid South Vietnam in conducting what looked to be a fierce and ongoing war with communist North Vietnam. <em class="date">Mar 29, 2009:White House ousts GM chief</h2> On March 29, 2009, Rick Wagoner, the chairman and chief executive of troubled auto giant General Motors (GM), resigns at the request of the Obama administration. During Wagoner's more than 8 years in the top job at GM, the company lost billions of dollars and in 2008 was surpassed by Japan-based Toyota as the world's top-selling maker of cars and trucks, a title the American automaker had held since the early 1930s. <em class="date">Mar 29, 1951:Rosenbergs convicted of espionage</h2> In one of the most sensational trials in American history, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are convicted of espionage for their role in passing atomic secrets to the Soviets during and after World War II. The husband and wife were later sentenced to death and were executed in 1953. <em class="date">Mar 29, 1951:The Mad Bomber strikes in New York</h2> On this day in 1951, a homemade device explodes at Grand Central Station in New York City, startling commuters but injuring no one. In the next few months, five more bombs were found at landmark sites around New York, including the public library. Authorities realized that this new wave of terrorist acts was the work of the Mad Bomber. <em class="date">Mar 29, 1982:Earthquake and volcano do double damage in Mexico</h2> The combination of an earthquake and a volcanic eruption at El Chichon in southern Mexico converts a hill into a crater, kills thousands of people and destroys acres of farmland on this day in 1982. The eruptions, which continued for over a week, caught many of the area residents unaware and unprepared. <em class="date">Mar 29, 2005:Miramax chiefs part ways with Disney</h2> On this day in 2005, after a yearlong negotiation process, the Walt Disney Company ends its productive but sometimes contentious relationship with Harvey and Bob Weinstein, the founders of Miramax Films. <em class="date">Mar 29, 2006:Tom Jones is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II</h2> Tom Jones can apparently count among his many fans one Elizabeth Windsor of London, Englandknown professionally as Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her other Realms and Territories Queen. A 38-year-old mother of four when the alluring Mr. Jones made his first great splash in March 1965, Her Majesty bestowed upon him four decades later one of the highest honors to which a British subject can aspire. On March 29, 2006, Queen Elizabeth II made the Welsh sensation Tom Jonesnow Sir Tom Jonesa Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. <em class="date">Mar 29, 1929:Herbert Hoover has telephone installed in Oval Office</h2> On this day in 1929, President Herbert Hoover has a phone installed at his desk in the Oval Office of the White House. It took a while to get the line to Hoover's desk working correctly and the president complained to aides when his son was unable to get through on the Oval Office phone from an outside line. Previously, Hoover had used a phone located in the foyer just outside the office. Telephones and a telephone switchboard had been in use at the White House since 1878, when President Rutherford B. Hayes had the first one installed, but no phone had ever been installed at the president's desk until Hoover's administration. <em class="date">Mar 29, 1982:Tar Heels win NCAA basketball championship</h2> On March 29, 1982, the University of North Carolina (UNC) Tar Heels win the NCAA mens basketball championship with a 63-62 defeat of the Georgetown University Hoyas. It was the first title for Carolina coach Dean Smith, who would retire in 1997 as the most successful coach in NCAA Division I mens basketball history with 879 career wins. (Bobby Knight broke the record in 2006.)history.com

 

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<em class="date">Mar 30, 1981resident Reagan shot</h2> On March 30, 1981, President Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest outside a Washington, D.C., hotel by a deranged drifter named John Hinckley Jr.The president had just finished addressing a labor meeting at the Washington Hilton Hotel and was walking with his entourage to his limousine when Hinckley, standing among a group of reporters, fired six shots at the president, hitting Reagan and three of his attendants. White House Press Secretary James Brady was shot in the head and critically wounded, Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy was shot in the side, and District of Columbia policeman Thomas Delahaney was shot in the neck. After firing the shots, Hinckley was overpowered and pinned against a wall, and President Reagan, apparently unaware that he'd been shot, was shoved into his limousine by a Secret Service agent and rushed to the hospital.The president was shot in the left lung, and the .22 caliber bullet just missed his heart. In an impressive feat for a 70-year-old man with a collapsed lung, he walked into George Washington University Hospital under his own power. As he was treated and prepared for surgery, he was in good spirits and quipped to his wife, Nancy, ''Honey, I forgot to duck,'' and to his surgeons, Please tell me you're Republicans. Reagan's surgery lasted two hours, and he was listed in stable and good condition afterward. <em class="date">Mar 30, 2009resident Obama announces auto industry shakeup</h2> On this day in 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama issues an ultimatum to struggling American automakers General Motors (GM) and Chrysler: In order to receive additional bailout loans from the government, he says, the companies need to make dramatic changes in the way they run their businesses. The president also announced a set of initiatives intended to assist the struggling U.S. auto industry and boost consumer confidence, including government backing of GM and Chrysler warranties, even if both automakers went out of business. In December 2008, GM (the world's largest automaker from the early 1930s to 2008) and Chrysler (then America's third-biggest car company) accepted $17.4 billion in federal aid in order to stay afloat. At that time, the two companies had been hit hard by the global economic crisis and slumping auto sales; however, critics charged that their problems had begun several decades earlier and included failures to innovate in the face of foreign competition and issues with labor unions, among other factors. <em class="date">Mar 30, 1980:Oil workers drown in North Sea</h2> A floating apartment for oil workers in the North Sea collapses, killing 123 people, on this day in 1980. <em class="date">Mar 30, 1870:15th Amendment adopted</h2>   Following its ratification by the requisite three-fourths of the states, the 15th Amendment, granting African-American men the right to vote, is formally adopted into the U.S. Constitution. Passed by Congress the year before, the amendment reads, the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. One day after it was adopted, Thomas Peterson-Mundy of Perth Amboy, New Jersey, became the first African American to vote under the authority of the 15th Amendment. <em class="date">Mar 30, 1974:John Denver has his first #1 hit with Sunshine On My Shoulders </h2> Of his many enormous hits in the 1970s, none captured the essence of John Denver better than his first #1 song, Sunshine On My Shoulders, which reached the top of the pop charts on this day in 1974. <em class="date">Mar 30, 1965:Bill Bradley scores 58 points for Princeton</h2> On this day in 1965, Princeton forward Bill Bradley sets an NCAA men's basketball record with 58 points in a game against Wichita State. Bradley was the dominant player in college basketball that year and won the tournament's Most Outstanding Player award. history.com

 

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<em class="date">Mar 31, 1889:Eiffel Tower opens</h2> On March 31, 1889, the Eiffel Tower is dedicated in Paris in a ceremony presided over by Gustave Eiffel, the tower's designer, and attended by French Prime Minister Pierre Tirard, a handful of other dignitaries, and 200 construction workers. <em class="date">Mar 31, 1931:Knute Rockne, Studebaker namesake, dies</h2> On this day in 1931, Knute Rockne, the legendary Notre Dame football coach and namesake of the Studebaker Rockne line of autos, is killed in a plane crash near Bazaar, Kansas, at the age of 43. <em class="date">Mar 31, 1973:Mississippi River reaches peak flood level</h2> The Mississippi River reaches its peak level in St. Louis during a record 77-day flood. During the extended flood, 33 people died and more than $1 billion in damages were incurred. <em class="date">Mar 31, 1492:Jews to be expelled from Spain</h2>   In Spain, a royal edict is issued by the nation's Catholic rulers declaring that all Jews who refuse to convert to Christianity will be expelled from the country. Most Spanish Jews chose exile rather than the renunciation of their religion and culture, and the Spanish economy suffered with the loss of an important portion of its workforce. Many Spanish Jews went to North Africa, the Netherlands, and the Americas, where their skills, capital, and commercial connections were put to good use. Among those who chose conversion, some risked their lives by secretly practicing Judaism, while many sincere converts were nonetheless persecuted by the Spanish Inquisition. The Spanish Muslims, or Moors, were ordered to convert to Christianity in 1502. <em class="date">Mar 31, 1854:Treaty of Kanagawa signed with Japan</h2> In Tokyo, Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry, representing the U.S. government, signs the Treaty of Kanagawa with the Japanese government, opening the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate to American trade and permitting the establishment of a U.S. consulate in Japan. <em class="date">Mar 31, 1999:The Matrix released</h2> On this day in 1999, the writing and directing sibling team of Andy and Larry Wachowski release their second film, the mind-blowing science-fiction blockbuster The Matrix. <em class="date">Mar 31, 1943:Oklahoma! premieres on Broadway</h2> The financial risk of mounting a Broadway musical is so great that few productions ever make it to the Great White Way without a period of tryouts and revisions outside of New York City. This was as true in the 1940s as it is today, and especially so during the war years, when the producers of an innovative little musical called Away We Go had real concerns about their show's commercial viability. Even with lyrics and music by two of theater's leading lights, Away We Go was believed by many to be a flop in the making. Indeed, an assistant to the famous gossip columnist Walter Winchell captured the prevailing wisdom in a telegram sent from New Haven, Connecticut, during the show's out-of-town tryout. His message read: No girls. No legs. No chance. This would prove to be one of the most off-base predictions in theater history when the slightly retooled show opened on Broadway on March 31, 1943 under a new titleOklahoma!and went on to set a Broadway record of 2,212 performances before finally closing more than 15 years later. <em class="date">Mar 31, 1776:Abigail Adams asks her husband to remember the ladies </h2> On this day in 1776, future first lady Abigail Adams writes to her husband urging him to remember the ladies when drafting a new code of laws for the fledgling nation. <em class="date">Mar 31, 1995:Longest strike in Major League Baseball history ends</h2> Major League Baseball players are sent back to work after the longest strike in baseball history ends on this day in 1995. Because of the strike, the 1994 World Series was cancelled; it was the first time baseball did not crown a champion in 89 years. <em class="date">Mar 31, 1968:Johnson announces bombing halt</h2> In a televised speech to the nation, President Lyndon B. Johnson announces a partial halt of bombing missions over North Vietnam and proposes peace talks. He said he had ordered unilaterally a halt to air and naval bombardments of North Vietnam except in the area north of the Demilitarized Zone, where the continuing enemy build-up directly threatens Allied forward positions. He also stated that he was sending 13,500 more troops to Vietnam and would request further defense expenditures--$2.5 billion in fiscal year 1968 and $2.6 billion in fiscal year 1969--to finance recent troop build-ups, re-equip the South Vietnamese Army, and meet responsibilities in Korea. In closing, Johnson shocked the nation with an announcement that all but conceded that his own presidency had become another wartime casualty: I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president.  history.com

 

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<em class="date">Apr 1, 1700:April Fools tradition popularized</h2> On this day in 1700, English pranksters begin popularizing the annual tradition of April Fools' Day by playing practical jokes on each other.Although the day, also called All Fools' Day, has been celebrated for several centuries by different cultures, its exact origins remain a mystery. Some historians speculate that April Fools' Day dates back to 1582, when France switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, as called for by the Council of Trent in 1563. People who were slow to get the news or failed to recognize that the start of the new year had moved to January 1 and continued to celebrate it during the last week of March through April 1 became the butt of jokes and hoaxes. These included having paper fish placed on their backs and being referred to as poisson d'avril (April fish), said to symbolize a young, easily caught fish and a gullible person. <em class="date">Apr 1, 1993:The Polish Prince killed in plane crash</h2> On this day in 1993, race car driver and owner Alan Kulwicki, who won the 1992 National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) Winston Cup championship by one of the tightest margins in series history, is killed in a plane crash near Bristol, Tennessee, where he was scheduled to compete in a race the following day. The 38-year-old Kulwicki had been the first owner-driver to collect the championship since Richard Petty did so in 1979, as well as the first NASCAR champ to hold a college degree. <em class="date">Apr 1, 1865:Florida Governor commits suicide</h2> Worn down by the stresses of his office, Florida Governor John Milton commits suicide at his plantation, Sylvania. Milton was a capable governor who valiantly defended his state and supplied provisions to the Confederacy, but by the end of the war much of Florida was occupied by Union forces and the state's finances were depleted. Just before his death, Milton addressed the Florida legislature and said that Yankees have developed a character so odious that death would be preferable to reunion with them. Milton was 57 when he put a pistol to his head. <em class="date">Apr 1, 1946:Alaskan earthquake triggers massive tsunami</h2> On this day in 1946, an undersea earthquake off the Alaskan coast triggers a massive tsunami that kills 159 people in Hawaii. <em class="date">Apr 1, 1918:RAF founded</h2> On April 1, 1918, the Royal Air Force (RAF) is formed with the amalgamation of the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS). The RAF took its place beside the British navy and army as a separate military service with its own ministry. <em class="date">Apr 1, 1963:Soap operas General Hospital and The Doctors premiere</h2> On this day in 1963, the ABC television network airs the premiere episode of General Hospital, the daytime drama that will become the networks most enduring soap opera and the longest-running serial program produced in Hollywood. On the same day, rival network NBC debuts its own medical-themed soap opera, The Doctors. <em class="date">Apr 1, 1984:Marvin Gaye is shot and killed by his own father</h2> At the peak of his career, Marvin Gaye was the Prince of Motownthe soulful voice behind hits as wide-ranging as How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) and Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology). Like his label-mate Stevie Wonder, Gaye both epitomized and outgrew the crowd-pleasing sound that made Motown famous. Over the course of his roughly 25-year recording career, he moved successfully from upbeat pop to message music to satin-sheet soul, combining elements of Smokey Robinson, Bob Dylan and Barry White into one complicated and sometimes contradictory package. But as the critic Michael Eric Dyson put it, the man who chased away the demons of millions...with his heavenly sound and divine art was chased by demons of his own throughout his life. That life came to a tragic end on this day 1984, when Marvin Gaye was shot and killed by his own father one day short of his 45th birthday. <em class="date">Apr 1, 1877iscoverer of Tombstone begins prospecting</h2> Ignoring the taunts of fellow miners who say he will only find his own tombstone, prospector Edward Schieffelin begins his search for silver in the area of present-day southern Arizona. Later that year, Schieffelin was not only alive and well, but he had found one of the richest silver veins in the West. He named it the Tombstone Lode. <em class="date">Apr 1, 1985:Villanova beats Georgetown for NCAA basketball championship</h2> On this day in 1985, in one of the greatest upsets in college basketball history, the Villanova Wildcats beat the Georgetown Hoyas, 66-64, to win the NCAA Mens Division I tournament. The victory was Villanovas first-ever national championship. history.com

 

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Pope John Paul II Dies</h2>On this day in 2005, John Paul II, history's most well-traveled pope and the first non-Italian to hold the position since the 16th century, dies at his home in the Vatican. Six days later, two million people packed Vatican City for his funeral, said to be the biggest funeral in history. <em class="date">Apr 2, 1875:Walter Chrysler born</h2> Walter Percy Chrysler, the founder of the Chrysler Corporation, which for years was one of Americas Big Three automakers along with General Motors (GM) and Ford, is born on April 2, 1875, in Wamego, Kansas. <em class="date">Apr 2, 1863:Bread riots in Richmond</h2> Responding to acute food shortages, hundreds of angry women riot in Richmond, demanding that the government release emergency supplies. For several hours, the mob moved through the city, breaking windows and looting stores, before President Jefferson Davis threw his pocket change at them from the top of a wagon. Davis ordered the crowd to disperse or he would order the militia to fire upon them. The riot ended peacefully, although 44 women and 29 men were arrested. <em class="date">Apr 2, 1992:Mob boss John Gotti convicted of murder</h2> A jury in New York finds mobster John Gotti, nicknamed the Teflon Don for his ability to elude conviction, guilty on 13 counts, including murder and racketeering. In the wake of the conviction, the assistant director of the FBIs New York office, James Fox, was quoted as saying, The don is covered in Velcro, and every charge stuck. On June 23 of that year, Gotti was sentenced to life in prison, dealing a significant blow to organized crime. <em class="date">Apr 2, 1979:Anthrax poisoning kills 62 in Russia</h2> The world's first anthrax epidemic begins in Ekaterinburg, Russia (now Sverdlosk), on this day in 1979. By the time it ended six weeks later, 62 people were dead. Another 32 survived serious illness. Ekaterinburg, as the town was known in Soviet times, also suffered livestock losses from the epidemic. <em class="date">Apr 2, 1513once de Leon discovers Florida</h2> Near present-day St. Augustine, Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon comes ashore on the Florida coast, and claims the territory for the Spanish crown. <em class="date">Apr 2, 1972:Charlie Chaplin prepares for return to United States after two decades</h2> On this day in 1972, the great silent film actor and filmmaker Charlie Chaplin prepares for his first voyage to the United States since 1952, when he was denied a re-entry visa amid questions about his leftist politics. <em class="date">Apr 2, 1974:The Sting sweeps the Oscars and ragtime composer Scott Joplin gets his due</h2> The name Scott Joplin is now nearly synonymous with ragtimethe loose, syncopated musical style that swept the nation in the late-19th century and laid the groundwork for the emergence of jazz in the early 20th. Yet the most important figure in the history of ragtime was a virtual unknown as recently as the late 1960s. It was then that a grassroots ragtime revival began making Joplin and his music known within a growing community of dedicated enthusiasts. It took the star-making power of Hollywood, however, to transform him from a relatively minor cult figure into a household name. The transformation was completed on this day in 1974, when the musical score to The Sting earned Scott Joplin a share of an Oscar, more than five decades after his death in 1917. <em class="date">Apr 2, 1902:First woman judge dies in Wyoming</h2> Esther Morris, the first woman judge in American history, dies in Cheyenne, Wyoming. <em class="date">Apr 2, 1977:Red Rum wins record third Grand National</h2> On this day in 1977, racehorse Red Rum wins a historic third Grand National championship at Aintree Racecourse in Liverpool, England, after taking home victory in 1973 and 1974 and finishing second in 1975 and 1976. Red Rum remains the most successful horse in the history of the Grand National, which is considered by many to be the worlds toughest steeplechase race.history.com

 

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Pony Express debuts</h2>On this day in 1860, the first Pony Express mail, traveling by horse and rider relay teams, simultaneously leaves St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California. Ten days later, on April 13, the westbound rider and mail packet completed the approximately 1,800-mile journey and arrived in Sacramento, beating the eastbound packet's arrival in St. Joseph by two days and setting a new standard for speedy mail delivery. Although ultimately short-lived and unprofitable, the Pony Express captivated America's imagination and helped win federal aid for a more economical overland postal system. It also contributed to the economy of the towns on its route and served the mail-service needs of the American West in the days before the telegraph or an efficient transcontinental railroad. <em class="date"> Apr 3, 2009: Fast & Furious is top opening-day car movie</h2> Fast & Furious, the fourth film in an action-movie franchise centered around the world of illegal street racing, debuts in U.S. theaters on April 3, 2009, kicking off a record-breaking $72.5 million opening weekend at the box office. Fast & Furious, starring Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster and Michelle Rodriguez, recorded the all-time highest-grossing opening of any car-themed film, besting the 2006 animated feature Cars, which raked in more than $60 million in its opening weekend and went on to earn more than $244 million at the box office. <em class="date"> Apr 3, 1948: Truman signs Foreign Assistance Act</h2>   President Harry S. Truman signs off on legislation establishing the Foreign Assistance Act of 1948, more popularly known as the Marshall Plan. The act eventually provided over $12 billion of assistance to aid in the economic recovery of Western Europe. <em class="date"> Apr 3, 1882: Jesse James is murdered</h2> One of America's most famous criminals, Jesse James, is shot to death by fellow gang member Bob Ford, who betrayed James for reward money. For 16 years, Jesse and his brother, Frank, committed robberies and murders throughout the Midwest. Detective magazines and pulp novels glamorized the James gang, turning them into mythical Robin Hoods who were driven to crime by unethical landowners and bankers. In reality, Jesse James was a ruthless killer who stole only for himself. <em class="date"> Apr 3, 1974: Series of deadly twisters hits U.S. heartland</h2> On this day in 1974, 148 tornadoes hit the United States heartland within 16 hours. By the time the deadly storm ended, 330 people had died. This was the largest grouping of tornadoes recorded in its time, affecting 11 states and Ontario, Canada. At any one moment during the storm, there were as many as 15 separate tornadoes touching the ground. <em class="date"> Apr 3, 1996: Unabomber arrested</h2> At his small wilderness cabin near Lincoln, Montana, Theodore John Kaczynski is arrested by FBI agents and accused of being the Unabomber, the elusive terrorist blamed for 16 mail bombs that killed three people and injured 23 during an 18-year period. <em class="date"> Apr 3, 1978: Annie Hall beats out Star Wars for Best Picture</h2> The rise of the action-adventure blockbuster was on the horizon, but on this night in 1978, the small-scale romantic comedy triumphs over the big-budget space extravaganza. At the 50th annual Academy Awards, held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, Woody Allens Annie Hall won the Oscar for Best Picture, beating out George Lucas Star Wars. <em class="date"> Apr 3, 1948: The Louisiana Hayride radio program premieres on KWKH-AM Shreveport</h2>   Even the most ardent non-fans of country music can probably name the weekly live show and radio program that is regarded as country music's biggest stage: the Grand Ole Opry, out of Nashville, Tennessee. Yet even many committed country fans are unfamiliar with a program that, during its 1950s heyday, eclipsed even the Opry in terms of its impact on country music itself. From its premiere on this day in 1948 to its final weekly show in 1960, The Lousiana Hayride, out of Shreveport, Louisiana, launched the careers not only of several country-music giants, but also of a young, genre-crossing singer named Elvis Presley, the future King of Rock and Roll. <em class="date"> Apr 3, 1988: Lemieux wins NHL scoring title, stops Gretzky streak</h2> Mario Lemieux wins the Art Ross Trophy as the National Hockey Leagues top scorer on this day in 1988. Lemieuxs 168 points bested Wayne Gretzky, who had dominated the league as the top scorer for an amazing seven seasons. history.com