On This Day

March 2, 2014

1807 - The U.S. Congress passed an act to "prohibit the importation of slaves into any port or place within the jurisdiction of the United States... from any foreign kingdom, place, or country."

1836 - Texas declared its independence from Mexico and an ad interim government was formed.

1861 - The U.S. Congress created the Territory of Nevada.

1866 - Excelsior Needle Company began making sewing machine needles.

1877 - In the U.S., Rutherford B. Hayes was declared the winner of the 1876 presidential election by the U.S. Congress. Samuel J. Tilden, however, had won the popular vote on November 7, 1876.

1887 - The American Trotting Association was organized in Detroit, MI.

1897 - U.S. President Cleveland vetoed legislation that would have required a literacy test for immigrants entering the country.

1899 - Mount Rainier National Park in Washington was established by the U.S. Congress.

1899 - U.S. President McKinley signed a measure that created the rank of Admiral for the U.S. Navy. The first admiral was George Dewey.

1900 - The U.S. Congress voted to give $2 million in aid to Puerto Rico.

1901 - The first telegraph company in Hawaii opened.

1901 - The U.S. Congress passed the Platt amendment, which limited Cuban autonomy as a condition for withdrawal of U.S. troops.

1903 - The Martha Washington Hotel opened for business in New York City. The hotel had 416 rooms and was the first hotel exclusively for women.

1906 - A tornado in Mississippi killed 33 and did $5 million in damage.

1907 - In Hamburg, Germany, dock workers went on strike after the end of the night shift. British strike breakers were brought in. The issue was settled on April 22, 1907.

1908 - In New York, the Committee of the Russian Republican Administration was founded.

1908 - In Paris, Gabriel Lippmann introduced three-dimensional color photography at the Academy of Sciences.

1911 - Maurice Maeterlinck's "The Bluebird" opened in Paris.

1917 - The Russian Revolution began with Czar Nicholas II abdicating.

1917 - Citizens of Puerto Rico were granted U.S. citizenship with the enactment of the Jones Act.

1925 - State and federal highway officials developed a nationwide route-numbering system and adopted the familiar U.S. shield-shaped, numbered marker.

1929 - The U.S. Court of Customs & Patent Appeals was created by the U.S. Congress.

1933 - The motion picture King Kong had its world premiere in New York.

1939 - The Massachusetts legislature voted to ratify the Bill of Rights to the U.S. Constitution. These first ten amendments had gone into effect 147 years before.

1946 - Ho Chi Minh was elected President of Vietnam.

1949 - The B-50 Superfortress Lucky Lady II landed in Fort Worth, TX. The American plane had completed the first non-stop around-the-world flight.

1962 - Wilt 'The Stilt' Chamberlain scored 100 points against the New York Knicks 169-147. Chamberlain broke several NBA records in the game.

1969 - In Toulouse, France, the supersonic transport Concorde made its first test flight.

1974 - Postage stamps jumped from 8 to 10 cents for first-class mail.

1983 - The U.S.S.R. performed an underground nuclear test.

1984 - The first McDonald's franchise was closed. A new location was opened across the street from the old location in Des Plaines, IL.

1985 - The U.S. government approved a screening test for AIDS that detected antibodies to the virus that allowed possibly contaminated blood to be kept out of the blood supply.

1986 - Corazon Aquino was sworn into office as president of the Philippines. Her first public declaration was to restore the civil rights of the citizens of her country.

1987 - The U.S. government reported that the median price for a new home had gone over $100,000 for the first time.

1989 - Representatives from the 12 European Community nations all agreed to ban all production of CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) by the end of the 20th century.

1995 - Russian anti-corruption journalist Vladislav Listyev was killed by a gunman in Moscow.

1995 - Nick Leeson was arrested for his role in the collapse of Britain's Barings Bank.

1998 - The U.N. Security Council endorsed U.N. chief Kofi Annan's deal to open Iraq's presidential palaces to arms inspectors.

1998 - Images from the American spacecraft Galileo indicated that the Jupiter moon Europa has a liquid ocean and a source of interior heat.

2000 - In Great Britain, Chile's former President Augusto Pinochet Ugarte was freed from house arrest and allowed to return to Chile. Britain's Home Secretary jack Straw had concluded that Pinochet was mentally and physically unable to stand trial. Belgium, France, Spain and Switzerland had sought the former Chilean leader on human-rights violations.

2003 - Over the Sea of Japan, there was a confrontation between four armed North Korean fighter jets and a U.S. RC-135S Cobra Ball. No shots were fired in the encounter in international airspace about 150 miles off North Korea's coast. The U.S. Air Force announced that it would resume reconnaissance flights on March 12.

2004 - NASA announced that the Mars rover Opportunity had discovered evidence that water had existed on Mars in the past.

2011 - Steve Jobs unveiled Apple's iPad 2.

March 3, 2014

1791 - The U.S. Congress passed a resolution that created the U.S. Mint.

1803 - The first impeachment trial of a U.S. Judge, John Pickering, began.

1812 - The U.S. Congress passed the first foreign aid bill.

1817 - The first commercial steamboat route from Louisville to New Orleans was opened.

1845 - Florida became the 27th U.S. state.

1845 - The U.S. Congress passed legislation overriding a U.S. President’s veto. It was the first time the Congress had achieved this.

1849 - The U.S. Department of the Interior was established.

1849 - The Gold Coinage Act was passed by the U.S. Congress. It allowed the minting of gold coins.

1849 - The U.S. Congress created the territory of Minnesota.

1851 - The U.S. Congress authorized the 3-cent piece. It was the smallest U.S. silver coin.

1857 - Britain and France declared war on China.

1863 - Free city delivery of mail was authorized by the U.S. Postal Service.

1875 - The U.S. Congress authorized the 20-cent piece. It was only used for 3 years.

1878 - Russia and the Ottomans signed the treaty of San Stenafano. The treaty granted independence to Romania, Serbia, Montenegro, and the autonomy of Bulgaria.

1885 - The American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) was incorporated in New York as a subsidiary of the American Bell Telephone Company.

1885 - The U.S. Post Office began offering special delivery for first-class mail.

1894 - The "Atlantis" was first published. It was the first Greek newspaper in America.

1900 - Striking miners in Germany returned to work.

1903 - In St. Louis, MO, Barney Gilmore was arrested for spitting.

1903 - The U.S. imposed a $2 head tax on immigrants.

1904 - Wilhelm II of Germany made the first recording of a political document with Thomas Edison's cylinder.

1905 - The Russian Czar agreed to create an elected assembly.

1906 - A Frenchman tried the first flight in an airplane with tires.

1908 - The U.S. government declared open war on on U.S. anarchists.

1909 - Aviators Herring, Curtiss and Bishop announced that airplanes would be made commercially in the U.S.

1910 - J.D. Rockefeller Jr. announced his withdrawal from business to administer his father's fortune for an "uplift in humanity". He also appealed to the U.S. Congress for the creation of the Rockefeller Foundation.

1910 - In New York, Robert Forest founded the National Housing Association to fight deteriorating urban living conditions.

1910 - Nicaraguan rebels admitted defeat in open war and resorted to guerrilla tactics in the hope of U.S. intervention.

1915 - The motion picture "Birth of a Nation" debuted in New York City.

1918 - The Treaty of Brest Litovsky was signed by Germany, Austria and Russia. The treaty ended Russia's participation in World War I.

1923 - The first issue of Time magazine was published.

1930 - "Flying High" opened at the Apollo Theatre in New York City.

1931 - The "Star Spangled Banner," written by Francis Scott Key, was adopted as the American national anthem. The song was originally a poem known as "Defense of Fort McHenry."

1938 - A world record for the indoor mile run was set by Glenn Cunningham. He ran the distance in 4 minutes, 4.4 seconds.

1939 - In Bombay, Ghandi began a fast to protest the state's autocratic rule.

1941 - Moscow denounced the Axis rule in Bulgaria.

1945 - Superman encountered Batman and Robin for the first time on the Mutual Broadcasting System.

1945 - During World War II, Finland declared war on the Axis.

1952 - "Whispering Streets" debuted on ABC Radio.

1952 - The U.S. Supreme Court upheld New York's Feinberg Law that banned Communist teachers in the U.S.

1956 - Morocco gained its independence.

1959 - The San Francisco Giants had their new stadium officially named Candlestick Park.

1969 - Apollo 9 was launched by NASA to test a lunar module.

1969 - Sirhan Sirhan testified in a Los Angeles court that he killed Robert Kennedy.

1973 - Japan disclosed its first defense plan since World War II.

1974 - About 350 people died when a Turkish Airlines DC-10 crashed just after takeoff from Orly Airport in Paris.

1978 - The remains of Charles Chaplin were stolen from his grave in Cosier-sur-Vevey, Switzerland. The body was recovered 11 weeks later near Lake Geneva.

1980 - The submarine Nautilus was decommissioned. The vessels final voyage had ended on May 26, 1979.

1985 - Women Against Pornography awarded its ‘Pig Award’ to Huggies Diapers. The activists claimed that the TV ads for diapers had "crossed the line between eye-catching and porn."

1985 - The TV show "Moonlighting" premiered.

1987 - The U.S. House of Representatives rejected a package of $30 million in non-lethal aid for the Nicaraguan Contras.

1991 - 25 people were killed when a United Airlines Boeing 737-200 crashed while on approach to the Colorado Springs airport.

1991 - Rodney King was severely beaten by Los Angeles police officers. The scene was captured on amateur video. (California)

1994 - The Mexican government reached a peace agreement with the Chiapas rebels.

1995 - A U.N. peacekeeping mission in Somalia ended. Several gunmen were killed by U.S. Marines in Mogadishu while overseeing the pull out of peacekeepers.

1999 - In Egypt, 19 people were killed when a bus plunged into a Nile canal.

1999 - Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones began their attempt to circumnavigate the Earth in a hot air balloon non-stop. They succeeded on March 20, 1999.

March 4, 2014

1634 - Samuel Cole opened the first tavern in Boston, MA.

1681 - England's King Charles II granted a charter to William Penn for an area that later became the state of Pennsylvania.

1766 - The British Parliament repealed the Stamp Act, which had caused bitter and violent opposition in the U.S. colonies.

1778 - The Continental Congress voted to ratify the Treaty of Amity and Commerce and the Treaty of Alliance. The two treaties were the first entered into by the U.S. government.

1789 - The first Congress of the United States met in New York and declared that the U.S. Constitution was in effect.

1791 - Vermont was admitted as the 14th U.S. state. It was the first addition to the original 13 American colonies.

1794 - The 11th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was passed by the U.S. Congress. The Amendment limited the jurisdiction of the federal courts to automatically hear cases brought against a state by the citizens of another state. Later interpretations expanded this to include citizens of the state being sued, as well.

1813 - The Russians fighting against Napoleon reached Berlin. The French garrison evacuated the city without a fight.

1826 - The first railroad in the U.S. was chartered. It was the Granite Railway in Quincy, MA.

1837 - The state of Illinois granted a city charter to Chicago.

1861 - The Confederate States of America adopted the "Stars and Bars" flag.

1877 - Emile Berliner invented the microphone.

1880 - Halftone engraving was used for the first time when the "Daily Graphic" was published in New York City.

1881 - Eliza Ballou Garfield became the first mother of a U.S. President to live in the executive mansion.

1902 - The American Automobile Association was founded in Chicago.

1904 - In Korea, Russian troops retreated toward the Manchurian border as 100,000 Japanese troops advanced.

1908 - The New York board of education banned the act of whipping students in school.

1908 - France notified signatories of Algeciras that it would send troops to Chaouia, Morocco.

1914 - Doctor Fillatre successfully separated Siamese twins.

1917 - Jeanette Rankin of Montana took her seat as the first woman elected to the House of Representatives.

1925 - Calvin Coolidge took the oath of office in Washington, DC. The presidential inauguration was broadcast on radio for the first time.

1930 - Emma Fahning became the first woman bowler to bowl a perfect game in competition run by the Women’s International Bowling Congress in Buffalo, NY.

1933 - U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt gave his inauguration speech in which he said "We have nothing to fear, but fear itself."

1933 - Labor Secretary Frances Perkins became the first woman to serve in a Presidential administrative cabinet.

1942 - "Junior Miss" starring Shirley Temple aired on CBS radio for the first time.

1942 - The Stage Door Canteen opened on West 44th Street in New York City.

1947 - France and Britain signed an alliance treaty.

1950 - Walt Disney’s "Cinderella" was released across the U.S.

Disney movies, music and books

1952 - U.S. President Harry Truman dedicated the "Courier," the first seagoing radio broadcasting station.

1952 - Ronald Reagan and Nancy Davis were married.

1954 - In Boston, Peter Bent Brigham Hospital reported the first successful kidney transplant.

1974 - "People" magazine was available for the first time.

1975 - Queen Elizabeth knighted Charlie Chaplin.

1986 - "Today" debuted in London as England’s newest, national, daily newspaper.

1989 - Time, Inc. and Warner Communications Inc. announced a plan to merge.

1991 - Sheik Saad al-Jaber al-Sabah, the prime minister of Kuwait, returned to his country for the first time since Iraq's invasion.

1994 - Bosnia's Croats and Moslems signed an agreement to form a federation in a loose economic union with Croatia.

1997 - U.S. President Clinton barred federal spending on human cloning.

1998 - Microsoft repaired software that apparently allowed hackers to shut down computers in government and university offices nationwide.

1998 - The U.S. Supreme Court said that federal law banned on-the-job sexual harassment even when both parties are the same sex.

1999 - Monica Lewinsky's book about her affair with U.S. President Clinton went on sale in the U.S.

2002 - Canada banned human embryo cloning but permitted government-funded scientists to use embryos left over from fertility treatment or abortions.

March 5, 2014

1623 - The first alcohol temperance law in the colonies was enacted in Virginia.

1624 - In the American colony of Virginia, the upper class was exempted from whipping by legislation.

1750 - "King Richard III" was performed in New York City. It was the first Shakespearean play to be presented in America.

1766 - The first Spanish governor of Louisiana, Antonio de Ulloa, arrived in New Orleans.

1770 - "The Boston Massacre" took place when British troops fired on a crowd in Boston killing five people. Two British troops were later convicted of manslaughter.

1793 - Austrian troops defeated the French and recaptured Liege.

1842 - A Mexican force of over 500 men under Rafael Vasquez invaded Texas for the first time since the revolution. They briefly occupied San Antonio, but soon headed back to the Rio Grande.

1845 - The U.S. Congress appropriated $30,000 to ship camels to the western U.S.

1864 - For the first time, Oxford met Cambridge in track and field competition in England.

1867 - An abortive Fenian uprising against English rule took place in Ireland.

1868 - The U.S. Senate was organized into a court of impeachment to decide charges against President Andrew Johnson.

1872 - George Westinghouse patented the air brake.

1900 - Two U.S. battleships left for Nicaragua to halt revolutionary disturbances.

1901 - Germany and Britain began negotiations with hopes of creating an alliance.

1902 - In France, the National Congress of Miners decided to call for a general strike for an 8-hour day.

1907 - In St. Petersburg, Russia, the new Duma opened. 40,000 demonstrators were dispersed by troops.

1910 - In Philadelphia, PA, 60,000 people left their jobs to show support for striking transit workers.

1910 - The Moroccan envoy signed the 1909 agreement with France.

1912 - The Italians became the first to use dirigibles for military purposes. They used them for reconnaissance flights behind Turkish lines west of Tripoli.

1918 - The Soviets moved the capital of Russia from Petrograd to Moscow.

1922 - "Annie Oakley" (Phoebe Ann Moses) broke all existing records for women's trap shooting. She hit 98 out of 100 targets.

1923 - Old-age pension laws were enacted in the states of Montana and Nevada.

1924 - Frank Caruana of Buffalo, NY, became the first bowler to roll two perfect games in a row.

1933 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered a four-day bank holiday in order to stop large amounts of money from being withdrawn from banks.

1933 - The Nazi Party won 44 percent of the vote in German parliamentary elections.

1934 - In Amarillo, TX, the first Mother's-In-Law Day was celebrated.

1943 - Germany called fifteen- and sixteen-year-olds for military service due to war losses.

1946 - Winston Churchill delivered his "Iron Curtain Speech".

1946 - The U.S. sent protests to the U.S.S.R. on incursions into Manchuria and Iran.

1953 - Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin died. He had been in power for 29 years.

1956 - The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the ban on segregation in public schools.

1969 - Gustav Heinemann was elected West German President.

1970 - A nuclear non-proliferation treaty went into effect after 43 nations ratified it.

1976 - The British pound fell below the equivalent of $2 for the first time in history.

1977 - U.S. President Jimmy Carter appeared on CBS News with Walter Cronkite for the first "Dial-a-President" radio talk show.

1984 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that cities had the right to display the Nativity scene as part of their Christmas display.

1984 - The U.S. accused Iraq of using poison gas.

1985 - Mike Bossy (New York Islanders) became the first National Hockey League player to score 50 goals in eight consecutive seasons.

1993 - Cuban President Fidel Castro said that Hillary Clinton was "a beautiful woman."

1993 - Sprinter Ben Johnson was banned from racing for life by the Amateur Athletic Association after testing positive for banned performance-enhancing substances for a second time.

1997 - North Korea and South Korea met for first time in 25 years for peace talks.

1997 - Chuck Niles received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1998 - NASA announced that an orbiting craft had found enough water on the moon to support a human colony and rocket fueling station.

1998 - It was announced that Air Force Lt. Col. Eileen Collins would lead crew of Columbia on a mission to launch a large X-ray telescope. She was the first woman to command a space shuttle mission.

March 6, 2014

1521 - Ferdinand Magellan discovered Guam.

1808 - At Harvard University, the first college orchestra was founded.

1820 - The Missouri Compromise was enacted by the U.S. Congress and signed by U.S. President James Monroe. The act admitted Missouri into the Union as a slave state, but prohibited slavery in the rest of the northern Louisiana Purchase territory.

1834 - The city of York in Upper Canada was incorporated as Toronto.

1836 - The thirteen-day siege of the Alamo by Santa Anna and his army ended. The Mexican army of three thousand men defeated the 189 Texas volunteers.

1854 - At the Washington Monument, several men stole the Pope's Stone from the lapidarium.

1857 - The U.S. Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision ruled that blacks could not sue in federal court to be citizens.

1886 - "The Nightingale" was first published. It was the first magazine for nurses.

1899 - Aspirin was patented by German researchers Felix Hoffman and Hermann Dreser.

1900 - In West Virginia, an explosion trapped 50 coal miners underground.

1901 - An assassin tried to kill Wilhelm II of Germany in Bremen.

1907 - British creditors of the Dominican Republic claimed that the U.S. had failed to collect debts.

1928 - A Communist attack on Peking, China resulted in 3,000 dead and 50,000 fled to Swatow.

1939 - In Spain, Jose Miaja took over the Madrid government after a military coup and vowed to seek "peace with honor."

1941 - Les Hite and his orchestra recorded "The World is Waiting for the Sunrise".

1944 - During World War II, U.S. heavy bombers began the first American raid on Berlin. Allied planes dropped 2000 tons of bombs.

1946 - Ho Chi Minh, the President of Vietnam, struck an agreement with France that recognized his country as an autonomous state within the Indochinese Federation and the French Union.

1947 - The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the contempt conviction of John L. Lewis.

1947 - Winston Churchill announced that he opposed British troop withdrawals from India.

1947 - The first air-conditioned naval ship, "The Newport News," was launched from Newport News, VA.

1957 - The British African colonies of the Gold Coast and Togoland became the independent state of Ghana.

1960 - Switzerland granted women the right to vote in municipal elections.

1960 - The United States announced that it would send 3,500 troops to Vietnam.

1964 - Tom O’Hara set a new world indoor record when he ran the mile in 3 minutes, 56.4 seconds.

1967 - U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson announced his plan to establish a draft lottery.

1970 - Charles Manson released his album "Lies" to finance his defense against murder charges.

1973 - U.S. President Richard Nixon imposed price controls on oil and gas.

1975 - Iran and Iraq announced that they had settled their border dispute.

1980 - Islamic militants in Tehran said that they would turn over American hostages to the Revolutionary Council.

1981 - Walter Cronkite appeared on his last episode of "CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite." He had been on the job 19 years.

1981 - U.S. President Reagan announced a plan to cut 37,000 federal jobs.

1982 - National Basketball Association history was made when San Antonio beat Milwaukee 171-166 in three overtime periods to set the record for most points by two teams in a game. The record was beaten on December 13, 1983 by the Pistons and the Nuggets when they played to a final score of 186-184

1983 - The United States Football League began its first season of pro football competition.

1985 - Yul Brynner played his his 4,500th performance in the musical "The King and I."

1987 - The British ferry Herald of Free Enterprise capsized in the Channel off the coast of Belgium. 189 people died.

1990 - In Afghanistan, an attempted coup to remove President Najibullah from office failed.

1990 - The Russian Parliament passed a law that sanctioned the ownership of private property.

1991 - In Paris, five men were jailed for plotting to smuggle Libyan arms to the Irish Republican Army.

1992 - The last episode of "The Cosby Show" aired. The show had been on since September of 1984.

1992 - The computer virus "Michelangelo" went into effect.

1997 - A gunman stole "Tete de Femme," a million-dollar Picasso portrait, from a London gallery. The painting was recovered a week later.

1997 - Britain's Queen Elizabeth II launched the first official royal Web site.

1998 - A Connecticut state lottery accountant gunned down three supervisors and the lottery chief before killing himself.

March 7, 2014

322 BC - Aristotle, the Greek philosopher, died.

1774 - The British closed the port of Boston to all commerce.

1799 - In Palestine, Napoleon captured Jaffa and his men massacred more than 2,000 Albanian prisoners.

1848 - In Hawaii, the Great Mahele was signed.

1849 - The Austrian Reichstag was dissolved.

1850 - U.S. Senator Daniel Webster endorsed the Compromise of 1850 as a method of preserving the Union.

1854 - Charles Miller received a patent for the sewing machine.

1876 - Alexander Graham Bell received a patent (U.S. Patent No. 174,465) for his telephone.

1901 - It was announced that blacks had been found enslaved in parts of South Carolina.

1904 - The Japanese bombed the Russian town of Vladivostok.

1904 - In Springfield, OH, a mob broke into a jail and shot a black man accused of murder.

1906 - Finland granted women the right to vote.

1908 - Cincinnati's mayor, Mark Breith announced before the city council that, "Women are not physically fit to operate automobiles."

1911 - Willis Farnworth patented the coin-operated locker.

1911 - In the wake of the Mexican Revolution, the U.S. sent 20,000 troops to the border of Mexico.

1918 - Finland signed an alliance treaty with Germany.

1925 - The Soviet Red Army occupied Outer Mongolia.

1927 - A Texas law that banned Negroes from voting was ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court.

1933 - CBS radio debuted "Marie The Little French Princess." It was the first daytime radio serial.

1933 - The board game Monopoly was invented.

1935 - Malcolm Campbell set an auto speed record of 276.8 mph in Florida.

1936 - Hitler sent German troops into the Rhineland in violation of the Locarno Pact and the Treaty of Versailles.

1942 - Japanese troops landed on New Guinea.

1945 - During World War II, U.S. forces crossed the Rhine River at Remagen, Germany.

1947 - John L. Lewis declared that only a totalitarian regime could prevent strikes.

1951 - U.N. forces in Korea under General Matthew Ridgeway launched Operation Ripper against the Chinese.

1954 - Russia appeared for the first time in ice-hockey competition. Russia defeated Canada 7-2 to win the world ice-hockey title in Stockholm, Sweden.

1955 - "Peter Pan" was presented as a television special for the first time.

1955 - Baseball commissioner Ford Frick said that he was in favor of legalizing the spitball.

1955 - Phyllis Diller made her debut at the Purple Onion in San Francisco, CA.

1959 - Melvin C. Garlow became the first pilot to fly over a million miles in jet airplanes.

1965 - State troopers and a sheriff's posse broke up a march by civil rights demonstrators in Selma, AL.

1968 - The Battle of Saigon came to an end.

1971 - A thousand U.S. planes bombed Cambodia and Laos.

1975 - The U.S. Senate revised the filibuster rule. The new rule allowed 60 senators to limit debate instead of the previous two-thirds.

1981 - Anti-government guerrillas in Colombia executed the kidnapped American Bible translator Chester Allen Bitterman. The guerrillas accused Bitterman of being a CIA agent.

1983 - TNN (The Nashville Network) began broadcasting.

1985 - "Commonwealth" magazine ceased publication after five decades.

1985 - The first AIDS antibody test, an ELISA-type test, was released.

1987 - Mike Tyson became the youngest heavyweight titleholder when he beat James Smith in a decision during a 12-round fight in Las Vegas, NV.

1989 - Poland accused the Soviet Union of a World War II massacre in Katyn.

1994 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that parodies that poke fun at an original work can be considered "fair use" that does not require permission from the copyright holder.

1994 - In Moldova, a referendum was rejected by 90% of voters to form a union with Rumania.

1999 - In El Salvador, Francisco Flores Pérez of the ruling Nationalist Republican Alliance (Arena) was elected president.

2002 - A federal judge awarded Anna Nicole Smith more than $88 million in damages. The ruling was the latest in a legal battle over the estate of Smith's late husband, J. Howard Marshall II.

2003 - Scientists at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center announced that they had transferred 6.7 gigabytes of uncompressed data from Sunnvale, CA, to Amsterdam, Netherlands, in 58 seconds. The data was sent via fiber-optic cables and traveled 6,800 miles.

2009 - NASA's Kepler Mission, a space photometer for searching for extrasolar planets in the Milky Way galaxy, was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.

2012 - The successor to Apple's iPad2 was unveiled.

March 8, 2014

1618 - Johann Kepler discovered the third Law of Planetary Motion.

1702 - England's Queen Anne took the throne upon the death of King William III.

1782 - The Gnadenhutten massacre took place. About 90 Indians were killed by militiamen in Ohio in retaliation for raids carried out by other Indians.

1853 - The first bronze statue of Andrew Jackson is unveiled in Washington, DC.

1855 - A train passed over the first railway suspension bridge at Niagara Falls, NY.

1862 - The Confederate ironclad "Merrimack" was launched.

1880 - U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes declared that the United States would have jurisdiction over any canal built across the isthmus of Panama.

1887 - The telescopic fishing rod was patented by Everett Horton.

1894 - A dog license law was enacted in the state of New York. It was the first animal control law in the U.S.

1904 - The Bundestag in Germany lifted the ban on the Jesuit order of priests.

1905 - In Russia, it was reported that the peasant revolt was spreading to Georgia.

1907 - The British House of Commons turned down a women's suffrage bill.

1909 - Pope Pius X lifted the church ban on interfaith marriages in Hungary.

1910 - In France, Baroness de Laroche became the first woman to obtain a pilot's license.

1910 - The King of Spain authorized women to attend universities.

1911 - In Europe, International Women's Day was celebrated for the first time.

1911 - British Minister of Foreign Affairs Edward Gray declared that Britain would not support France in the event of a military conflict.

1917 - Russia's "February Revolution" began with rioting and strikes in St. Petersburg. The revolution was called the "February Revolution" due to Russia's use of the Old Style calendar.

1917 - The U.S. Senate voted to limit filibusters by adopting the cloture rule.

1921 - Spanish Premier Eduardo Dato was assassinated while leaving the Parliament in Madrid.

1921 - French troops occupied Dusseldorf.

1933 - Self-liquidating scrip money was issued for the first time at Franklin, IN.

1941 - Martial law was proclaimed in Holland in order to extinguish any anti-Nazi protests.

1942 - During World War II, Japanese forces captured Rangoon, Burma.

1943 - Japanese forces attacked American troops on Hill 700 in Bougainville. The battle lasted five days.

1945 - Phyllis Mae Daley received a commission in the U.S. Navy Nurse Corps. She later became the first African-American nurse to serve duty in World War II.

1946 - In New York City, the "Journal American" became the first commercial business to receive a helicopter license.

1946 - The French naval fleet arrived at Haiphong, Vietnam.

1948 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that religious instruction in public schools was unconstitutional.

1953 - A census bureau report indicated that 239,000 farmers had quit farming over the last 2 years.

1954 - France and Vietnam opened talks in Paris on a treaty to form the state of Indochina.

1954 - Herb McKenley set a world record for the quarter mile when he ran the distance in 46.8 seconds.

1957 - The International Boxing Club was ruled a monopoly putting it in violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Law.

1959 - Groucho, Chico and Harpo made their final TV appearance together.

1961 - Max Conrad circled the globe in a record time of eight days, 18 hours and 49 minutes in the Piper Aztec.

1965 - The U.S. landed about 3,500 Marines in South Vietnam. They were the first U.S. combat troops to land in Vietnam.

1966 - Australia announced that it would triple the number of troops in Vietnam.

1973 - Two bombs exploded near Trafalgar Square in Great Britain. 234 people were injured.

1982 - The U.S. accused the Soviets of killing 3,000 Afghans with poison gas.

1985 - The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) reported that 407,700 Americans were millionaires. That was more than double the total from just five years before.

1986 - Four French television crewmembers were abducted in west Beirut. All four were eventually released.

1988 - In Fort Campbell, KY, 17 U.S. soldiers were killed when two Army helicopters collided in midair.

1989 - In Lhasa, Tibet, martial law was declared after three days of protest against Chinese rule.

1999 - The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the conviction of Timothy McVeigh for the bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995.

1999 - The White House, under President Bill Clinton, directed the firing of nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee from his job at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The firing was a result of alleged security violations.

2001 - The U.S. House of Representatives voted for an across-the-board tax cut of nearly $1 trillion over the next decade.

2005 - In norther Chechnya, Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov was killed during a raid by Russian forces.

March 9, 2014

1454 - Amerigo Vespucci was born in Florence, Italy. Matthias Ringmann, a German mapmaker, named the American continent in his honor.

1617 - The Treaty of Stolbovo ended the occupation of Northern Russia by Swedish troops.

1734 - The Russians took Danzig (Gdansk) in Poland.

1745 - The first carillon was shipped from England to Boston, MA.

1788 - Connecticut became the 5th state to join the United States.

1793 - Jean Pierre Blanchard made the first balloon flight in North America. The event was witnessed by U.S. President George Washington.

1796 - Napoleon Bonaparte and Josephine de Beauharnais were married. They were divorced in 1809.

1799 - The U.S. Congress contracted with Simeon North, of Berlin, CT, for 500 horse pistols at the price of $6.50 each.

1812 - Swedish Pomerania was seized by Napoleon.

1820 - The U.S. Congress passed the Land Act that paved the way for westward expansion of North America.

1822 - Charles M. Graham received the first patent for artificial teeth.

1832 - Abraham Lincoln announced that he would run for a political office for the first time. He was unsuccessful in his run for a seat in the Illinois state legislature.

1839 - The French Academy of Science announced the Daguerreotype photo process.

1858 - Albert Potts was awarded a patent for the letter box.

1859 - The National Association of Baseball Players adopted the rule that limited the size of bats to no more than 2-1/2 inches in diameter.

1860 - The first Japanese ambassador to the U.S. was appointed.

1862 - During the U.S. Civil War, the ironclads Monitor and Virginia fought to a draw in a five-hour battle at Hampton Roads, Virginia.

1863 - General Ulysses Grant was appointed commander-in-chief of the Union forces.

1897 - A patent was issued to William Spinks and William Hoskins for cue chalk.

1900 - In Germany, women petition Reichstag for the right to take university entrance exams.

1905 - In Egypt, U.S. archeologist Davies discovered the royal tombs of Tua and Yua.

1905 - In Manchuria, Japanese troops surrounded 200,000 Russian troops that were retreating from Mudken.

1905 - In Congo, Belgian Vice Gov. Costermans committed suicide following an investigation of colonial policy.

1906 - In the Philippines, fifteen Americans and 600 Moros were killed in the last two days of fighting.

1909 - The French National Assembly passed an income tax bill.

1910 - Union men urged for a national sympathy strike for miners in Pennsylvania.

1911 - The funding for five new battleships was added to the British military defense budget.

1916 - Mexican raiders led by Pancho Villa attacked Columbus, New Mexico. 17 people were killed by the 1,500 horsemen.

1929 - Eric Krenz became the first athlete to toss the discus over 160 feet.

1932 - Eamon De Valera was elected president of the Irish Free State and pledged to abolish all loyalty to the British Crown.

1933 - The U.S. Congress began its 100 days of enacting New Deal legislation.

1936 - The German press warned that all Jews who vote in the upcoming elections would be arrested.

1945 - "Those Websters" debuted on CBS radio.

1945 - During World War II, U.S. B-29 bombers launched incendiary bomb attacks against Japan.

1946 - The A.F.L. accused Juan Peron of using the army to establish a dictatorship over Argentine labor.

1949 - The first all-electric dining car was placed in service on the Illinois Central Railroad.

1954 - WNBT-TV (now WNBC-TV), in New York, broadcast the first local color television commercials. The ad was Castro Decorators of New York City. (New York)

1956 - British authorities arrested and deported Archbishop Makarios from Cyprus. He was accused of supporting terrorists.

1957 - Egyptian leader Nasser barred U.N. plans to share the tolls for the use of the Suez Canal.

1959 - Mattel introduced Barbie at the annual Toy Fair in New York.

1964 - Production began on the first Ford Mustang.

1965 - The first U.S. combat troops arrived in South Vietnam.

1967 - Svetlana Alliluyeva, Josef Stalin's daughter defected to the United States.

1969 - "The Smothers Brothers' Comedy Hour" was canceled by CBS-TV.

1975 - Work began on the Alaskan oil pipeline.

1975 - Iraq launched an offensive against the rebel Kurds.

1977 - About a dozen armed Hanafi Muslims invaded three buildings in Washington, DC. They killed one person and took more than 130 hostages. The siege ended two days later.

1983 - The official Soviet news agency TASS says that U.S. President Reagan is full of "bellicose lunatic anti-communism."

1985 - "Gone With The Wind" went on sale in video stores across the U.S. for the first time.

1986 - U.S. Navy divers found the crew compartment of the space shuttle Challenger along with the remains of the astronauts.

1987 - Chrysler Corporation offered to buy American Motors Corporation.

1989 - The U.S. Senate rejected John Tower as a choice for a cabinet member. It was the first rejection in 30 years.

1989 - In Maylasia, 30 Asian nations conferred on the issue of "boat people".

1989 - In the U.S., a strike forced Eastern Airlines into bankruptcy.

1989 - In the U.S., President George H.W. Bush urged for a mandatory death penalty in drug-related killings.

1990 - Dr. Antonia Novello was sworn in as the first female and Hispanic surgeon general.

1993 - Rodney King testified at the federal trial of four Los Angeles police officers accused of violating his civil rights. (California)

1995 - The Canadian Navy arrested a Spanish trawler for illegally fishing off of Newfoundland.

2000 - In Norway, the coalition government of Kjell Magne Bondevik resigned as a result of an environmental dispute.

March 10, 2014

0241 BC - The Roman fleet sank 50 Carthaginian ships in the Battle of Aegusa.

0049 BC - Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon and invaded Italy.

1496 - Christopher Columbus concluded his second visit to the Western Hemisphere when he left Hispaniola for Spain.

1629 - England's King Charles I dissolved Parliament and did not call it back for 11 years.

1656 - In the American colony of Virginia, suffrage was extended to all free men regardless of their religion.

1776 - "Common Sense" by Thomas Paine was published.

1785 - Thomas Jefferson was appointed minister to France. He succeeded Benjamin Franklin.

1792 - John Stone patented the pile driver.

1804 - The formal ceremonies transferring the Louisiana Purchase from France to the U.S. took place in St. Louis.

1806 - The Dutch in Cape Town, South Africa surrendered to the British.

1814 - In France, Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated by a combined Allied Army at the battle of Laon.

1848 - The U.S. Senate ratified the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the war with Mexico.

1849 - Abraham Lincoln applied for a patent for a device to lift vessels over shoals by means of inflated cylinders.

1864 - Ulysses S. Grant became commander of the Union armies in the U.S. Civil War.

1876 - Alexander Graham Bell made the first successful call with the telephone. He spoke the words "Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you."

1880 - The Salvation Army arrived in the U.S. from England.

1893 - New Mexico State University canceled its first graduation ceremony because the only graduate was robbed and killed the night before.

1894 - New York Gov. Roswell P. Flower signed the nation's first dog-licensing law.

1902 - The Boers of South Africa scored their last victory over the British, when they captured British General Methuen and 200 men.

1902 - Tochangri, Turkey, was entirely wiped out by an earthquake.

1902 - U.S. Attorney General Philander Knox announced that a suit was being brought against Morgan and Harriman's Northern Securities Company. The suit was enforcement of the Sherman Antitrust Act. Northern Securities loss in court was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court on March 14, 1904.

1903 - Harry C. Gammeter patented the multigraph duplicating machine.

1903 - In New York's harbor, the disease-stricken ship Karmania was quarantined with six dead from cholera.

1906 - In France, 1,200 miners were buried in an explosion at Courrieres.

1909 - Britain extracted territorial concessions from Siam and Malaya.

1910 - Slavery was abolished in China.

1912 - China became a republic after the overthrow of the Manchu Ch'ing Dynasty.

1913 - William Knox rolled the first perfect 300 game in tournament competition.

1924 - The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a New York state law forbidding late-night work for women.

1927 - Prussia lifted its Nazi ban allowing Adolf Hitler to speak in public.

1933 - Nevada became the first U.S. state to regulate drugs.

1940 - W2XBS-TV in New York City aired the first televised opera as it presented scenes from "I Pagliacci".

1941 - The Brooklyn Dodgers announced that their players would begin wearing batting helmets during the 1941 season.

1941 - Vichy France threatened to use its navy unless Britain allowed food to reach France.

1944 - The Irish refused to oust all Axis envoys and denied the accusation of spying on Allied troops.

1945 - American B-29 bombers attacked Tokyo, Japan, 100,000 were killed.

1947 - The Big Four met in Moscow to discuss the future of Germany.

1947 - Poland and Czechoslovakia signed a 20-year mutual aid pact.

1949 - Nazi wartime broadcaster Mildred E. Gillars, also known as "Axis Sally," was convicted in Washington, DC. Gillars was convicted of treason and served 12 years in prison.

1953 - North Korean gunners at Wonsan fired upon the USS Missouri. The ship responded by firing 998 rounds at the enemy position.

1955 - The last broadcast of "The Silver Eagle" was heard on radio.

1956 - Julie Andrews at the age of 23 made her TV debut in "High Tor" with Bing Crosby and Nancy Olson.

1959 - "Sweet Bird of Youth", a play by Tennessee Williams, opened in New York City.

1965 - Walter Matthau and Art Carney opened in "The Odd Couple". It later became a hit on television.

1966 - The North Vietnamese captured a Green Beret camp at Ashau Valley.

1966 - France withdrew from NATO's military command to protest U.S. dominance of the alliance and asked NATO to move its headquarters from Paris.

1969 - James Earl Ray pled guilty in Memphis, TN, to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Ray later repudiated the guilty plea and maintained his innocence until his death in April of 1998.

1971 - The U.S. Senate approved an amendment to lower the voting age to 18.

1975 - The North Vietnamese Army attacked the South Vietnamese town of Ban Me Thout.

1980 - Iran's leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, lent his support to the militants holding American hostages in Tehran.

1981 - The U.S. Postal Service announced an increase in first class postage from 15 to 18 cents.

1982 - The U.S. banned Libyan oil imports due to their continued support of terrorism.

1986 - The Wrigley Company, of Chicago, raised the price of its seven-stick pack of Wrigley’s chewing gum from a quarter to 30 cents.

1987 - The Vatican condemned surrogate parenting as well as test-tube and artificial insemination.

1990 - Haitian President Prosper Avril was ousted 18 months after seizing power in a coup.

1991 - "Phase Echo" began. It was the operation to withdraw 540,000 U.S. troops from the Persian Gulf region.

1994 - White House officials began testifying before a federal grand jury about the Whitewater controversy.

1995 - U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher told Yasser Arafat that he must do more to curb Palestinian terrorists.

1998 - U.S. troops in the Persian Gulf began receiving the first vaccinations against anthrax.

2002 - The Associated Press reported that the Pentagon informed the U.S. Congress in January that it was making contingency plans for the possible use of nuclear weapons against countries that threaten the U.S. with weapons of mass destruction, including Iraq and North Korea.

2003 - North Korea test-fired a short-range missile. The event was one of several in a patter of unusual military maneuvers.

March 12, 2014

1496 - Jews were expelled from Syria.

1609 - The Bermuda Islands became an English colony.

1664 - New Jersey became a British colony. King Charles II granted land in the New World to his brother James (The Duke of York).

1755 - In North Arlington, NJ, the steam engine was used for the first time.

1789 - The U.S. Post Office was established.

1809 - Britain signed a treaty with Persia forcing the French to leave the country.

1857 - "Simon Boccanegra" by Verdi debuted in Venice.

1884 - The State of Mississippi authorized the first state-supported college for women. It was called the Mississippi Industrial Institute and College.

1863 - President Jefferson Davis delivered his State of the Confederacy address.

1879 - The British Zulu War began.

1889 - Almon B. Stowger applied for a patent for his automatic telephone system.

1894 - Coca-Cola was sold in bottles for the first time.

1903 - The Czar of Russia issued a decree providing for nominal freedom of religion throughout his territory.

1904 - After 30 years of drilling, the tunnel under the Hudson River was completed. The link was between Jersey City, NJ, and New York, NY.

1905 - In Rome, Premier Giovanni Giolliwas forced out of office by continued civil strife.

1906 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that corporations must yield incriminating evidence in anti-trust suits.

1909 - The British Parliament increased naval appropriations for Britain.

1909 - Three U.S. warships were ordered to Nicaragua to stem the conflict with El Salvador.

1911 - Dr. Fletcher of Rockefeller Institute discovered the cause of infantile paralysis.

1912 - The Girl Scout organization was founded. The original name was Girl Guides.

1923 - Dr. Lee DeForest demonstrated phonofilm. It was his technique for putting sound on motion picture film.

1930 - Ghandi began his 200-mile march to the sea that symbolized his defiance of British rule over India.

1933 - President Paul von Hindenburg dropped the flag of the German Republic and ordered that the swastika and empire banner be flown side by side.

1933 - U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt presented his first presidential address to the nation. It was the first of the "Fireside Chats."

1935 - Parimutuel betting became legal in the State of Nebraska.

1938 - The "Anschluss" took place as German troops entered Austria.

1940 - Finland surrendered to Russia ending the Russo-Finnish War.

1944 - Britain barred all travel to Ireland.

1947 - U.S. President Truman established the "Truman Doctrine" to help Greece and Turkey resist Communism.

1959 - The U.S. House joined the U.S. Senate in approving the statehood of Hawaii.

1966 - Bobby Hull, of the Chicago Blackhawks, became the first National Hockey League (NHL) player to score 51 points in a single season.

1974 - "Wonder Woman" debuted on ABC-TV. The show later went to CBS-TV.

1984 - Lebanese President Gemayel opened the second meeting in five years calling for the end to nine-years of war.

1985 - The U.S. and the U.S.S.R. began arms control talks in Geneva.

1985 - Larry Bird (Boston Celtics) scored a club-record 60 points against the Atlanta Hawks.

1985 - Former U.S. President Richard M. Nixon announced that he planned to drop Secret Service protection and hire his own bodyguards in an effort to lower the deficit by $3 million.

1987 - "Les Miserables" opened on Broadway.

1989 - Prime Minister Sadiq al Mahdi of Sudan formed a new cabinet to end civil war.

1989 - About 2,500 veterans and supporters marched at the Art Institute of Chicago to demand that officials remove an American flag placed on the floor as part of an exhibit.

1992 - Mauritius became a republic but remained a member of the British Commonwealth.

1993 - In the U.S., the Pentagon called for the closure of 31 major military bases.

1993 - Janet Reno was sworn in as the first female U.S. attorney general.

1994 - A photo by Marmaduke Wetherell of the Loch Ness monster was confirmed to be a hoax. The photo was taken of a toy submarine with a head and neck attached.

1994 - The Church of England ordained its first women priests.

1998 - Astronomers cancelled a warning that a mile-wide asteroid might collide with Earth saying that calculations had been off by 600,000 miles.

1999 - Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic became members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). All three countries were members of the former Warsaw Pact.

2002 - U.S. homeland security chief Tom Ridge unveiled a color-coded system for terror warnings.

2002 - Conoco and Phillips Petroleum stockholders approved a proposed merger worth $15.6 billion.

2003 - In Utah, Elizabeth Smart was reunited with her family nine months after she was abducted from her home. She had been taken on June 5, 2002, by a drifter that had previously worked at the Smart home.

2003 - The U.S. Air Force announced that it would resume reconnaissance flights off the coast of North Korea. The flights had stopped on March 2 after an encounter with four armed North Korean jets.

2009 - It was announced that the Sear Tower in Chicago, IL, would be renamed Willis Tower.

2010 - In the U.S., Apple began taking pre-orders for the iPad.

March 13, 2014

0483 - St. Felix III began his reign as Pope.

0607 - The 12th recorded passage of Halley's Comet occurred.

1519 - Cortez landed in Mexico.

1639 - Harvard University was named for clergyman John Harvard.

1660 - A statute was passed limiting the sale of slaves in the colony of Virginia.

1777 - The U.S. Congress ordered its European envoys to appeal to high-ranking foreign officers to send troops to reinforce the American army.

1781 - Sir William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus.

1852 - The New York "Lantern" newspaper published the first "Uncle Sam cartoon". It was drawn by Frank Henry Bellew.

1861 - Jefferson Davis signed a bill authorizing slaves to be used as soldiers for the Confederacy.

1868 - The U.S. Senate began the impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson.

1877 - Chester Greenwood patented the earmuff.

1878 - The first collegiate golf match was played between Oxford and Cambridge.

1884 - Standard time was adopted throughout the U.S.

1900 - In South Africa, British Gen. Roberts took Bloemfontein.

1901 - Andrew Carnegie announced that he was retiring from business and that he would spend the rest of his days giving away his fortune. His net worth was estimated at $300 million.

1902 - In Poland, schools were shut down across the country when students refused to sing the Russian hymn "God Protect the Czar."

1902 - Andrew Carnegie approved 40 applications from libraries for donations.

1908 - The people of Jerusalem saw an automobile for the first time. The owner was Charles Glidden of Boston.

1911 - The U.S. Supreme Court approved corporate tax law.

1915 - The Germans repelled a British expeditionary force attack in France.

1918 - Women were scheduled to march in the St. Patrick's Day Parade in New York due to a shortage of men due to wartime.

1925 - A law in Tennessee prohibited the teaching of evolution.

1930 - It was announced that the planet Pluto had been discovered by scientist Clyde Tombaugh at the Lowell Observatory.

1933 - U.S. banks began to re-open after a "holiday" that had been declared by President Roosevelt.

1935 - Three-thousand-year-old archives were found in Jerusalem confirming some biblical history.

1940 - The war between Russia and Finland ended with the signing of a treaty in Moscow.

1941 - Adolf Hitler issued an edict calling for an invasion of the U.S.S.R.

1942 - Julia Flikke of the Nurse Corps became the first woman colonel in the U.S. Army.

1943 - Japanese forces ended their attack on the American troops on Hill 700 in Bougainville.

1946 - Reports from Iran indicated that Soviet tanks units were stationed 20 miles from Tehran.

1946 - Premier Tito seized wartime collaborator General Draja Mikhailovich in a cave in Yugoslavia.

1951 - Israel demanded $1.5 billion in German reparations for the cost of caring for war refugees.

1951 - The comic strip "Dennis the Menace" appeared for the first time in newspapers across the country.

1957 - Jimmy Hoffa was arrested by the FBI on bribery charges.

1963 - China invited Soviet President Khrushchev to visit Peking.

1969 - The Apollo 9 astronauts returned to Earth after the conclusion of a mission that included the successful testing of the Lunar Module.

1970 - Cambodia ordered Hanoi and Viet Cong troops to leave.

1970 - Digital Equipment Corp. introduced the PDP-11 minicomputer.

1972 - "The Merv Griffin Show" debuted in syndication for Metromedia Television.

1974 - The U.S. Senate voted 54-33 to restore the death penalty.

1974 - An embargo imposed by Arab oil-producing countries was lifted.

1980 - A jury in Winamac, IN, found Ford Motor Company innocent of reckless homicide in the deaths of three young women that had been riding in a Ford Pinto.

1988 - The board of trustees off Gallaudet University in Washington, DC, chose I. King Jordan to be its first deaf president. The college is a liberal arts college for the hearing-impaired.

1990 - The U.S. lifted economic sanctions against Nicaragua.

1991 - Exxon paid $1 billion in fines and for the clean-up of the Alaskan oil spill.

1995 - The first United Nations World Summit on Social Development concluded in Copenhagen, Denmark.

1997 - Sister Nirmala was chosen by India's Missionaries of Charity to succeed Mother Teresa as leader of the Catholic order.

2002 - Fox aired "Celebrity Boxing." Tonya Harding beat Paula Jones, Danny Banaduce beat Barry Williams and Todd Bridges defeated Vanilla Ice.

2003 - Japan sent a destroyer to the Sea of Japan amid reports that North Korea was planning to test an intermediate-range ballistic missile.

2003 - A report in the journal "Nature" reported that scientists had found 350,000-year-old human footprints in Italy. The 56 prints were made by three early, upright-walking humans that were descending the side of a volcano

March 14, 2014

1489 - Catherine Cornaro, Queen of Cyprus, sold her kingdom to Venice. She was the last of the Lusignan dynasty.

1629 - A Royal charter was granted to the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

1647 - During the Thirty Years War, France, Sweden, Bavaria and Cologne signed a Treaty of Neutrality.

1743 - First American town meeting was held at Boston's Faneuil Hall.

1757 - British Admiral John Byng was executed by a firing squad on board HMS Monarch for neglect of duty.

1794 - Eli Whitney received a patent for his cotton gin.

1864 - Samuel Baker discovered another source of the Nile in East Africa. He named it Lake Albert Nyanza.

1891 - The submarine Monarch laid telephone cable along the bottom of the English Channel to prepare for the first telephone links across the Channel.

1900 - U.S. currency went on the gold standard with the ratification of the Gold Standard Act.

1900 - In Holland, Botanist Hugo de Vries rediscovered Mendel's laws of heredity.

1901 - Utah Governor Heber M. Wells vetoed a bill that would have relaxed restrictions on polygamy.

1903 - The U.S. Senate ratified the Hay-Herran Treaty that guaranteed the U.S. the right to build a canal at Panama. The Columbian Senate rejected the treaty.

1904 - The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the governments claim that the Northern Securities Company was an illegal merger between the Great Northern and Northern Pacific Railway companies.

1905 - French bankers refused to lend money to Russia until after their war.

1905 - The British House of Commons cited a need to compete with Germany in naval strength.

1906 - The island of Ustica was devastated by an earthquake.

1912 - An anarchist named Antonio Dalba unsuccessfully attempted to kill Italy's King Victor Emmanuel III in Rome.

1914 - Henry Ford announced the new continuous motion method to assemble cars. The process decreased the time to make a car from 12½ hours to 93 minutes.

1915 - The British Navy sank the German battleship Dresden off the Chilean coast.

1918 - An all-Russian Congress of Soviets ratified a peace treaty with the Central Powers.

1923 - President Harding became the first U.S. President to file an income tax report.

1932 - George Eastman, the founder of the Kodak company, committed suicide.

1936 - Adolf Hitler told a crowd of 300,000 that Germany's only judge is God and itself.

1939 - Hungary occupied the Carpatho-Ukraine. Slovakia declared its independence.

1943 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first U.S. President to fly in an airplane while in office.

1945 - In Germany, a 22,000 pound "Grand Slam" bomb was dropped by the Royal Air Force Dumbuster Squad on the Beilefeld railway viaduct. It was the heaviest bomb used during World War II.

1947 - The U.S. signed a 99-year lease on naval bases in the Philippines.

1947 - Moscow announced that 890,532 German POWs were held in the U.S.S.R.

1951 - U.N. forces recaptured Seoul for the second time during the Korean War.

1958 - The U.S. government suspended arms shipments to the Batista government of Cuba.

1964 - A Dallas jury found jack Ruby guilty of the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald.

1967 - John F. Kennedy's body was moved from a temporary grave to a permanent one.

1976 - Egypt formally abrogated the 1971 Treaty Friendship and Cooperation with the Soviet Union.

1978 - An Israeli force of 22,000 invaded south Lebanon. The PLO bases were hit.

1979 - The Census Bureau reported that 95% of all Americans were married or would get married.

1979 - Near Peking, China, at least 200 people died when a Trident aircraft crashed into a factory.

1980 - A Polish airliner crashed while making an emergency landing near Warsaw. 87 people were killed. A 14-man U.S. boxing team was aboard the plane.

1981 - Three Pakistani airline hijackers surrendered in Syria after they had exchanged 100 passengers and crewmen for 54 Pakistani prisoners.

1983 - OPEC agreed to cut its oil prices by 15% for the first time in its 23-year history.

1989 - Imported assault guns were banned in the U.S. under President George H.W. Bush.

1991 - The "Birmingham Six," imprisoned for 16 years for their alleged part in an IRA pub bombing, were set free after a court agreed that the police fabricated evidence.

1991 - Bolivian interior minister Guillermo Capobianco resigned after U.S. officials accused him of receiving money from drug traffickers.

1995 - American astronaut Norman Thagard became the first American to enter space aboard a Russian rocket.

1996 - U.S. President Bill Clinton committed $100 million for an anti-terrorism pact with Israel to track down and root out Islamic militants.

1998 - An earthquake left 10,000 homeless in southeastern Iran.

2002 - A Scottish appeals court upheld the conviction of a Libyan intelligence agent for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. A five-judge court ruled unanimously that Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi was guilty of bringing down the plane over Lockerbie, Scotland.

2003 - Robert Blake was released from jail on $1.5 million bail. Blake had been jailed for the murder of his wife Bonny Lee Bakley.

March 15, 2014

44 BC - Roman Emperor Julius Caesar was assassinated by high ranking Roman Senators. The day is known as the "Ides of March."

1341 - During the Hundred Years War, an alliance was signed between Roman Emperor Louis IV and France's Philip VI.

1493 - Christopher Columbus returned to Spain after his first New World voyage.

1778 - In command of two frigates, the Frenchman la Perouse sailed east from Botany Bay for the last lap of his voyage around the world.

1781 - During the American Revolution, the Battle of Guilford Courthouse took place in North Carolina. British General Cornwallis' 1,900 soldiers defeated an American force of 4,400.

1820 - Maine was admitted as the 23rd state of the Union.

1862 - General John Hunt Morgan began four days of raids near the city of Gallatin, TN.

1864 - Red River Campaign began as the Union forces reach Alexandria, LA.

1875 - The Roman Catholic Archbishop of New York, John McCloskey, was named the first American cardinal.

1877 - The first cricket test between Australia and England was played in Melbourne. Australia won by 45 runs.

1892 - New York State unveiled the new automatic ballot voting machine.

1892 - Jesse W. Reno patented the Reno Inclined Elevator. It was the first escalator.

1900 - In Paris, Sarah Bernhardt starred in the premiere of Edmond Rostand's "L'Aiglon."

1901 - German Chancellor von Bulow declared that an agreement between Russia and China over Manchuria would violate the Anglo-German accord of October 1900.

1902 - In Boston, MA, 10,000 freight handlers went back to work after a weeklong strike.

1903 - The British conquest of Nigeria was completed. 500,000 square miles were now controlled by the U.K.

1904 - Three hundred Russians were killed as the Japanese shelled Port Arthur in Korea.

1907 - In Finland, woman won their first seats in the Finnish Parliament. They took their seats on May 23.

1909 - Italy proposed a European conference on the Balkans.

1910 - Otto Kahn offered $500,000 for a family portrait by Dutch artist Frans Hals. Kahn had outbid J.P. Morgan for the work.

1913 - U.S. President Woodrow Wilson held the first open presidential news conference.

1916 - U.S. President Woodrow Wilson sent 12,000 troops, under General Pershing, over the border of Mexico to pursue bandit Pancho Villa. The mission failed.

1917 - Russian Czar Nicholas II abdicated himself and his son. His brother Grand Duke succeeded as czar.

1919 - The American Legion was founded in Paris.

1922 - Fuad I assumed the title of king of Egypt after the country gained nominal independence from Britain.

1934 - Henry Ford restored the $5 a day wage.

1935 - Joseph Goebbels, German Minister of Propaganda banned four Berlin newspapers.

1937 - In Chicago, IL, the first blood bank to preserve blood for transfusion by refrigeration was established at the Cook County Hospital.

1938 - Oil was discovered in Saudi Arabia.

1939 - German forces occupied Bohemia and Moravia, and part of Czechoslovakia.

1944 - Cassino, Italy, was destroyed by Allied bombing.

1946 - British Premier Attlee offered India full independence after agreement on a constitution.

1948 - Sir Laurence Olivier was on the cover of "LIFE" magazine for his starring role in Shakespeare’s "Hamlet."

1949 - Clothes rationing in Great Britain ended nearly four years after the end of World War II.

1951 - General de Lattre demanded that Paris send him more troops for the fight in Vietnam.

1951 - The Persian parliament voted to nationalize the oil industry.

1954 - CBS television debuted its "Morning Show."

1955 - The U.S. Air Force unveiled a self-guided missile.

1956 - The musical "My Fair Lady" opened on Broadway.

1960 - Ten nations met in Geneva to discuss disarmament.

1960 - The first underwater park was established as Key Largo Coral Reef Preserve.

1964 - In Montreal, Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor were married.

1968 - The U.S. mint halted the practice of buying and selling gold.

1970 - The musical "Purlie" opened on Broadway in New York City.

1971 - CBS television announced it was going to drop "The Ed Sullivan Show."

1977 - The first episode of "Eight is Enough" was aired on ABC-TV.

1977 - The U.S. House of Representatives began a 90-day test to determine the feasibility of showing its sessions on television.

1979 - Pope John Paul II published his first encyclical "Redemptor Hominis." In the work he warned of the growing gap between the rich and poor.

1982 - Nicaragua's ruling junta proclaimed a month-long state of siege and suspended the nation's constitution for one day. This came a day after anti-government rebels destroyed two bridges near the Honduran border.

1985 - In Brazil, two decades of military rule came to an end with the installation of a civilian government.

1989 - The U.S. Food and Drug administration decided to impound all fruit imported from Chili after two cyanide-tainted grapes were found in Philadelphia, PA.

1989 - The U.S. Department of Veteran's Affairs became the 14th Department in the President's Cabinet.

1990 - In Iraq, British journalist Farzad Bazoft was hanged for spying.

1990 - Mikhail Gorbachev was elected the first executive president of the Soviet Union.

1990 - The Ford Explorer was introduced to the public.

1990 - The Soviet parliament ruled that Lithuania's declaration of independence was invalid and that Soviet law was still in force in the Baltic republic.

1991 - Four Los Angeles police officers were indicted in the beating of Rodney King on March 3, 1991. (California)

1991 - Yugoslav President Borisav Jovic resigned after about a week of anit-communist protests.

1994 - U.S. President Clinton extended the moratorium on nuclear testing until September of 1995.

1996 - The aviation firm Fokker NV collapsed.

1998 - More than 15,000 ethnic Albanians marched in Yugoslavia to demand independence for Kosovo.

1998 - CBS' "60 Minutes" aired an interview with former White House employee Kathleen Willey. Wiley said U.S. President Clinton made unwelcome sexual advances toward her in the Oval Office in 1993.

2002 - Libyan Abdel Baset Ali Mohmed Al-Megrahi began his life sentence in a Scottish jail for his role in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 on December 21, 1988.

2002 - In the U.S., Burger King began selling a veggie burger. The event was billed as the first veggie burger to be sold nationally by a fast food chain.

2002 - In Texas, Andrea Yates received a life sentence for drowning her five children on June 20, 2001.

2002 - U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell told the Associated Press that the U.S. would stand by a 24-year pledge not to use nuclear arms against states that don't have them.

2004 - Clive Woodall's novel "One for Sorrow: Two for Joy" was published. Two days later Woodall sold the film rights to Walt Disney Co. for $1 million.

March 16, 2014

1190 - The Crusaders began the massacre of Jews in York, England.

1521 - Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan reached the Philippines. He was killed the next month by natives.

1527 - The Emperor Babur defeated the Rajputs at the Battle of Kanvaha in India.

1621 - Samoset walked into the settlement of Plymouth Colony, later Plymouth, MA. Samoset was a native from the Monhegan tribe in Maine who spoke English.

1802 - The U.S. Congress established the West Point Military Academy in New York.

1836 - The Republic of Texas approved a constitution.

1850 - The novel "The Scarlet Letter," by Nathaniel Hawthorne, was published for the first time.

1871 - The State of Delaware enacted the first fertilizer law.

1882 - The U.S. Senate approved a treaty allowing the United States to join the Red Cross.

1883 - Susan Hayhurst graduated from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy. She was the first woman pharmacy graduate.

1907 - The world's largest cruiser, the British Invincible was completed at Glasgow.

1908 - China released the Japanese steamship Tatsu Maru.

1909 - Cuba suffered its first revolt only six weeks after the inauguration of Gomez.

1913 - The 15,000-ton battleship Pennsylvania was launched at Newport News, VA.

1915 - The Federal Trade Commission began operation.

1917 - Russian Czar Nicholas II abdicated his throne.

1918 - Tallulah Bankhead made her New York acting debut with a role in "The Squab Farm."

1926 - Physicist Robert H. Goddard launched the first liquid-fuel rocket.

1928 - The U.S. planned to send 1,000 more Marines to Nicaragua.

1935 - Adolf Hitler ordered a German rearmament and violated the Versailles Treaty.

1939 - Germany occupied the rest of Czechoslovakia.

1945 - Iwo Jima was declared secure by the Allies. However, small pockets of Japanese resistance still existed.

1946 - Algerian nationalist leader Ferhat Abbas was freed after spending a year in jail.

1946 - India called British Premier Attlee's independence off contradictory and a propaganda move.

1947 - Martial law was withdrawn in Tel Aviv.

1950 - Congress voted to remove federal taxes on oleomargarine.

1964 - Paul Hornung and Alex Karras were reinstated to the NFL after an 11-month suspension for betting on football games.

1964 - U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson submitted a $1 billion war on poverty program to Congress.

1968 - U.S. troops in Vietnam destroyed a village consisting mostly of women and children. The event is known as the My-Lai massacre.

1978 - Italian politician Aldo Moro was kidnapped by left-wing urban guerrillas. Moro was later murdered by the group.

1982 - Russia announced they would halt their deployment of new nuclear missiles in Western Europe.

1984 - Mozambique and South Africa signed a pact banning the support for one another's internal enemies.

1984 - William Buckley, the CIA station chief in Beirut, was kidnapped by gunmen. He died while in captivity.

1985 - "A Chorus Line" played its 4,000 performance.

1985 - Terry Anderson, an Associated Press newsman, was taken hostage in Beirut. He was released in December 4, 1991.

1987 - "Bostonia" magazine printed an English translation of Albert Einstein’s last high school report card.

1988 - Indictments were issued for Lt. Colonel Oliver North, Vice Admiral John Poindexter of the National Security Council, and two others for their involvement in the Iran-Contra affair.

1988 - Mickey Thompson and his wife Trudy were shot to death in their driveway. Thompson, known as the "Speed King," set nearly 500 auto speed endurance records including being the first person to travel more than 400 mph on land.

1989 - In the U.S.S.R., the Central Committee approved Gorbachev's agrarian reform plan.

1989 - The Soviet Communist Party's Central Committee approved large-scale agricultural reforms and elected the party's 100 members to the Congress of People's Deputies.

1993 - In France, ostrich meat was officially declared fit for human consumption.

1994 - Tonya Harding pled guilty in Portland, OR, to conspiracy to hinder prosecution for covering up the attack on her skating rival Nancy Kerrigan. She was fined $100,000. She was also banned from amateur figure skating.

1994 - Russia agreed to phase out production of weapons-grade plutonium.

1995 - NASA astronaut Norman Thagard became the first American to visit the Russian space station Mir.

1998 - Rwanda began mass trials for 1994 genocide with 125,000 suspects for 500,000 murders.

1999 - The 20 members of the European Union's European Commission announced their resignations amid allegations of corruption and financial mismanagement.

March 17, 2014

0461 - Bishop Patrick, St. Patrick, died in Saul. Ireland celebrates this day in his honor. (More about St. Patrick's Day)

1756 - St. Patrick's Day was celebrated in New York City for the first time. The event took place at the Crown and Thistle Tavern.

1766 - Britain repealed the Stamp Act that had caused resentment in the North American colonies.

1776 - British forces evacuated Boston to Nova Scotia during the Revolutionary War.

1868 - Postage stamp canceling machine patent was issued.

1870 - Wellesley College was incorporated by the Massachusetts legislature under its first name, Wellesley Female Seminary.

1884 - In Otay, California, John Joseph Montgomery made the first manned, controlled, heavier-than-air glider flight in the United States.

1886 - 20 Blacks were killed in the Carrollton Massacre in Mississippi.

1891 - The British steamer Utopia sank off the coast of Gibraltar.

1901 - In Paris, Vincent Van Gogh's paintings were shown at the Bernheim Gallery.

1909 - In France, the communications industry was paralyzed by strikes.

1910 - The Camp Fire Girls organization was founded by Luther and Charlotte Gulick. It was formally presented to the public exactly 2 years later.

1914 - Russia increased the number of active duty military from 460,000 to 1,700,000.

1917 - America’s first bowling tournament for ladies began in St. Louis, MO. Almost 100 women participated in the event.

1930 - Al Capone was released from jail.

1941 - The National Gallery of Art was officially opened by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt in Washington, DC.

1942 - Douglas MacArthur became the Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in the Southwestern Pacific.

1944 - During World War II, the U.S. bombed Vienna.

1950 - Scientists at the University of California at Berkeley announced that they had created a new radioactive element. They named it "californium". It is also known as element 98.

1958 - The Vanguard 1 satellite was launched by the U.S.

1959 - The Dalai Lama (Lhama Dhondrub, Tenzin Gyatso) fled Tibet and went to India.

1961 - The U.S. increased military aid and technicians to Laos.

1962 - Moscow asked the U.S. to pull out of South Vietnam.

1966 - A U.S. submarine found a missing H-bomb in the Mediterranean off of Spain.

1967 - Snoopy and Charlie Brown of "Peanuts" were on the cover of "LIFE" magazine.

1969 - Golda Meir was sworn in as the fourth premier of Israel.

1970 - The U.S. Army charged 14 officers with suppression of facts in the My Lai massacre case.

1972 - U.S. President Nixon asked Congress to halt busing in order to achieve desegregation.

1973 - Twenty were killed in Cambodia when a bomb went off that was meant for the Cambodian President Lon Nol.

1973 - The first American prisoners of war (POWs) were released from the "Hanoi Hilton" in Hanoi, North Vietnam.

1982 - In El Salvador, four Dutch television crewmembers were killed by government troops.

1985 - U.S. President Reagan agreed to a joint study with Canada on acid rain.

1989 - A series of solar flares caused a violent magnetic storm that brought power outages over large regions of Canada.

1992 - In Buenos Aires, 10 people were killed in a suicide car-bomb attack against the Israeli embassy.

1992 - White South Africans approved constitutional reforms to give legal equality to blacks.

1995 - Gerry Adams became the first leader of Sinn Fein to be received at the White House.

1998 - Washington Mutual announced it had agreed to buy H.F. Ahmanson and Co. for $9.9 billion dollars. The deal created the nation's seventh-largest banking company.

1999 - A panel of medical experts concluded that marijuana had medical benefits for people suffering from cancer and AIDS.

1999 - The International Olympic Committee expelled six of its members in the wake of a bribery scandal.

2000 - In Norway, Jens Stotenberg and the Labour Party took office as Prime Minister. The coalition government of Kjell Magne Bondevik resigned on March 9 as a result of an environmental dispute.

2000 - In Kanungu, Uganda, a fire at a church linked to the cult known as the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments killed more than 530. On March 31, officials set the number of deaths linked to the cult at more than 900 after authorities subsequently found mass graves at various sites linked to the cult.

2007 - Mike Modano (Dallas Stars) scored his 502nd and 503rd career goals making him the all-time U.S. leader in goal-scoring.

2009 - The iTunes music Store reached 800 million applications downloaded

March 18, 2014

0037 - The Roman Senate annuls Tiberius’ will and proclaims Caligula emperor.

1123 - The first Latern Council (9th ecumenical council) opened in Rome.

1190 - Crusaders killed 57 Jews in Bury St. Edmonds England.

1532 - The English parliament banned payments by English church to Rome.

1541 - Hernando de Soto observed the first recorded flood of the Mississippi River.

1583 - Dutch States General & Anjou signed a treaty.

1673 - Lord Berkley sold his half of New Jersey to the Quakers.

1692 - William Penn was deprived of his governing powers.

1766 - Britain repealed the Stamp Act.

1813 - David Melville patented the gas streetlight.

1818 - The U.S. Congress approved the first pensions for government service.

1834 - The first railroad tunnel in the U.S. was completed. The work was in Pennsylvania.

1835 - Charles Darwin left Santiago Chile on his way to Portillo Pass.

1850 - Henry Wells & William Fargo founded American Express.

1865 - The Congress of the Confederate States of America adjourned for the last time.

1874 - Hawaii signed a treaty giving exclusive trading rights with the islands to the U.S.

1881 - Barnum and Bailey's Greatest Show on Earth opened in Madison Square Gardens.

1891 - Britain became linked to the continent of Europe by telephone.

1899 - Phoebe, a moon of the planet Saturn, was discovered.

1900 - Ajax (Amsterdam Football Club) was formed.

1902 - In Turkey, the Sultan granted a German syndicate the first concession to access Baghdad by rail.

1903 - France dissolved the Catholic religious orders.

1905 - Franklin Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt were married.

1906 - In Morocco, it was reported that France and Germany were in a deadlock at the Algeciras Conference.

1909 - Einar Dessau of Denmark used a short wave transmitter to become the first person to broadcast as a "ham" operator.

1910 - The first opera by a U.S. composer performed at the Met in New York City.

1911 - Theodore Roosevelt opened the Roosevelt Dam in Arizona. It was the largest dam in the U.S. at the time.

1911 - North Dakota enacted a hail insurance law.

1913 - Greek King George I was killed by an assassin. Constantine I succeeded him.

1916 - Russia countered the Verdun assault with an attack at Lake Naroch. The Russians lost 100,000 men and the Germans lost 20,000.

1917 - The Germans sank the U.S. ships, City of Memphis, Vigilante and the Illinois, without any warning.

1919 - The Order of DeMolay was established in Kansas City.

1920 - Greece adopted the Gregorian calendar.

1921 - Poland was enlarged with the second Peace of Riga.

1921 - The steamer "Hong Koh" ran aground off of Swatow China. Over 1,000 people were killed.

1922 - Mohandas K. Gandhi was sentenced to six years in prison for civil disobedience in India. He served only 2 years of the sentence.

1922 - Princeton and Yale played the first intercollegiate indoor polo championship.

1931 - Schick Inc. displayed the first electric shaver.

1937 - More than 400 people, mostly children, were killed in a gas explosion at a school in New London, TX.

1938 - Mexico took control of all foreign-owned oil properties on its soil.

1938 - New York first required serological blood tests of pregnant women.

1940 - The soap opera "Light of the World" was first heard on NBC radio.

1940 - Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini held a meeting at the Brenner Pass. The Italian dictator agreed to join in Germany's war against France and Britain during the meeting.

1942 - The third military draft began in the U.S. because of World War II.

1943 - The Reich called off its offensive in Caucasus.

1943 - American forces took Gafsa in Tunisia.

1944 - The Russians reached the Rumanian border in the Balkans during World War II.

1945 - 1,250 U.S. bombers attacked Berlin.

1945 - Maurice "Rocket" Richard became the first National Hockey League (NHL) player to score 50 goals.

1948 - France, Great Britain, and Benelux signed the Treaty of Brussels.

1949 - The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was ratified.

1950 - Nationalist troops landed on the mainland of China and capture Communist held Sungmen.

1952 - In Philadelphia, PA, the first plastic lenses were fitted for a cataract patient.

1953 - An earthquake hit West Turkey killing 250 people.

1954 - RKO Pictures was sold for $23,489,478. It became the first motion picture studio to be owned by an individual. The person was Howard Hughes.

1959 - U.S. President Eisenhower signed the Hawaii statehood bill.

1962 - French and Algerian rebels agreed to a truce.

1963 - "Tovarich" opened at the Broadway Theater in New York City for 264 performances.

1963 - France performed an underground nuclear test at Ecker Algeria.

1963 - The U.S. Supreme Court handed down the Miranda decision concerning legal council for defendants.

1965 - Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov became the first man to spacewalk when he left the Voskhod II space capsule while in orbit around the Earth. He was outside the spacecraft for about 20 minutes.

1966 - The government of Indonesia was formed by General Suharto.

1966 - Scott Paper began selling paper dresses for $1.

1968 - The U.S. Congress repealed the requirement for a gold reserve.

1969 - U.S. President Nixon authorizes Operation Menue. It was the ‘secret’ bombing of Cambodia.

1970 - The U.S. Postal Service experienced the first postal strike.

1970 - The NFL selected Wilson to be the official football and scoreboard as official time.

1971 - U.S. helicopters airlifted 1,000 South Vietnamese soldiers out of Laos.

1971 - A landslide in Lake Yanahuani, Chungar Peru, killed 200.

1974 - Most of the Arab oil-producing nations ended their five-month embargo against the United States, Europe and Japan.

1975 - Saigon abandoned most of the Central Highlands of Vietnam to Hanoi.

1975 - The Kurds ended their fight against Iraq.

1977 - Vietnam turned over an MIA to a U.S. delegation.

1979 - Iranian authorities detained American feminist Kate Millett. The next day she was deported.

1980 - The Vostok rocket exploded on the launch pad killing 50.

1981 - The U.S. disclosed that there were biological weapons tested in Texas in 1966.

1986 - Buckingham Palace announced the engagement of Prince Andrew to Sarah Ferguson.

1986 - The U.S. Treasury Department announced that a clear, polyester thread was to be woven into bills in an effort to thwart counterfeiters.

1987 - The U.S. performed nuclear tests at a Nevada test site.

1990 - Thirteen paintings were stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. The value was $100 million making it the largest art robbery in history.

1989 - A 4,400-year-old mummy was discovered at the Pyramid of Cheops in Egypt.

1990 - The first free elections took place in East Germany.

1990 - The 32-day lockout of baseball players ended.

1990 - In Tampa, FL, a little league player was killed after being hit with a pitch.

1992 - Leona Hemsly was sentenced to 4 years in prison for tax evasion.

1992 - White South Africans voted for constitutional reforms that would give legal equality to blacks.

1994 - Zsa Zsa Gabor filed for bankruptcy.

1997 - A Russian AN-24 crashed killing 50 people.

2003 - China's new president, Hu Jintao, announced that his country must deepen reforms and raise living standards of workers and farmers.

March 19, 2014

1571 - Spanish troops occupied Manila.

1628 - The Massachusetts colony was founded by Englishmen.

1644 - 200 members of the Peking imperial family/court committed suicide.

1687 - French explorer La Salle was murdered by his own men while searching for the mouth of the Mississippi River, in the Gulf of Mexico.

1702 - Upon the death of William III of Orange, Anne Stuart, the sister of Mary, succeeds to the throne of England, Scotland and Ireland.

1748 - The English Naturalization Act passed granting Jews right to colonize in the U.S.

1775 - Poland & Prussia signed a trade agreement.

1822 - The city of Boston, MA, was incorporated.

1831 - The first bank robbery in America was reported. The City Bank of New York City lost $245,000 in the robbery.

1865 - The Battle of Bentonville took place. The Confederates retreated from Greenville, NC.

1866 - The immigrant ship Monarch of the Seas sank in Liverpool killing 738.

1879 - Jim Currie opened fire on the actors Maurice Barrymore and Ben Porter near Marshall, TX. The shots wounded Barrymore and killed Porter.

1895 - The Los Angeles Railway was established to provide streetcar service.

1900 - U.S. President McKinley asserted that there was a need for free trade with Puerto Rico.

1900 - Archeologist Arthur John Evans began the excavation of Knossos Palace in Greece.

1903 - The U.S. Senate ratified the Cuban treaty, gaining naval bases in Guantanamo and Bahia Honda.

1905 - French explorer S. de Segonzac was taken prisoner by Moroccans.

1906 - Reports from Berlin estimated the cost of the German war in S.W. Africa at $150 million.

1908 - The state of Maryland barred Christian Scientists from practicing without medical diplomas.

1915 - Pluto was photographed for the first time. However, it was not known at the time.

1917 - The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Adamson Act that made the eight-hour workday for railroads constitutional.

1918 - The U.S. Congress approved Daylight-Saving Time.

1918 - A German seaplane was shot down for the first time by an American pilot.

1920 - The U.S. Senate rejected the Versailles Treaty for the second time maintaining an isolation policy.

1924 - U.S. troops were rushed to Tegucigalpa as rebel forces took the Honduran capital.

1931 - The state of Nevada legalized gambling.

1940 - The French government of Daladier fell.

1942 - The Thoroughbred Racing Association was formed in Chicago.

1944 - Tippett's oratorium "Child of Our Time," premiered in London.

1945 - About 800 people were killed as Japanese kamikaze planes attacked the U.S. carrier Franklin off Japan.

1945 - Adolf Hitler issued his "Nero Decree" which ordered the destruction of German facilities that could fall into Allied hands as German forces were retreating.

1947 - Chiang Kai-Shek's government forces took control of Yenan, the former headquarters of the Chinese Communist Party.

1948 - Lee Savold knocked out Gino Buonvino in 54 seconds of the first round of their prize fight at Madison Square Gardens.

1949 - The Soviet People's Council signed the constitution of the German Democratic Republic, and declared that the North Atlantic Treaty was merely a war weapon.

1953 - The Academy Awards aired on television for the first time.

1953 - Tennessee Williams' "Camino Real" premiered in New York City.

1954 - Viewers saw the first televised prize fight shown in color when Joey Giardello knocked out Willie Tory in round seven at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

1954 - The first rocket-driven sled that ran on rails was tested in Alamogordo, NM.

1963 - In Costa Rica, U.S. President John F. Kennedy and six Latin American presidents pledged to fight Communism.

1964 - Sean Connery began shooting his role in "Goldfinger."

1965 - Indonesia nationalized all foreign oil companies.

1965 - Rembrandt's "Titus" sold for $7,770,000.

1968 - Students at Howard University students seized an administration building.

1969 - British invaded Anguilla.

1972 - India and Bangladesh signed a friendship treaty.

1976 - Buckingham Palace announced the separation of Princess Margaret and her husband, the Earl of Snowdon, after 16 years of marriage.

1977 - Congo President Marien Ngouabi was killed by a suicide commando.

1977 - France performed a nuclear test at Muruora Island.

1977 - The last episode of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" aired.

1979 - The U.S. House of Representatives began broadcasting its daily business on TV.

1981 - During a test of the space shuttle Columbia two workers were injured and one was killed.

1981 - The Buffalo Sabres set an NHL record when they scored 9 goals in one period against Toronto.

1984 - The TV show "Kate and Allie" premiered.

1984 - A Mobile oil tanker spilled 200,000 gallons into the Columbia River.

1985 - IBM announced that it was planning to stop making the PCjr consumer-oriented computer.

1985 - The U.S. Senate voted to authorize production of the MX missile.

1987 - Televangelist Jim Bakker resigned from the PTL due to a scandal involving Jessica Hahn.

1988 - Two British soldiers were killed by mourners at a funeral in Belfast, North Ireland. The soldiers were shot to death after being dragged from a car and beaten.

1990 - Latvia's political opposition claimed victory in the republic's first free elections in 50 years.

1990 - The first world ice hockey tournament for women was held in Ottawa.

1991 - Brett Hull, of the St. Louis Blues, became the third National Hockey League (NHL) player to score 80 goals in a season.

1994 - The largest omelet in history was made with 160,000 eggs in Yokohama, Japan.

1998 - The World Health Organization warned of tuberculosis epidemic that could kill 70 million people in next two decades.

1999 - 53 people were killed and dozens were injured when a bomb exploded in a market place in southern Russia.

2000 - Vector Data Systems conducted a simulation of the 1993 Branch Davidian siege in Waco, TX. The simulation showed that the government had not fired first.

2001 - California officials declared a power alert and ordered the first of two days of rolling blackouts.

2002 - Operation Anaconda, the largest U.S.-led ground offensive since the Gulf War, ended in eastern Afghanistan. During the operation, which began on March 2, it was reported that at least 500 Taliban and al Qaeda fighters were killed. Eleven allied troops were killed during the same operation.

2002 - Actor Ben Kingsley was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace.

2003 - U.S. President George W. Bush announced that U.S. forces had launched a strike against "targets of military opportunity" in Iraq. The attack, using cruise missiles and precision-guided bombs, were aimed at Iraqi leaders thought to be near Baghdad.

March 20, 2014

0141 - The 6th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet took place.

1413 - Henry V took the throne of England upon the death of his father Henry IV.

1525 - Paris' parliament began its pursuit of Protestants.

1602 - The United Dutch East Indian Company (VOC) was formed.

1616 - Walter Raleigh was released from Tower of London to seek gold in Guyana.

1627 - France & Spain signed an accord for fighting Protestantism.

1739 - In India, Nadir Shah of Persia occupied Delhi and took possession of the Peacock throne.

1760 - The great fire of Boston destroyed 349 buildings.

1792 - In Paris, the Legislative Assembly approved the use of the guillotine.

1800 - French army defeated the Turks at Helipolis, Turkey, and advanced into Cairo.

1814 - Prince Willem Frederik became the monarch of Netherlands.

1815 - Napoleon Bonaparte entered Paris after his escape from Elba and began his "Hundred Days" rule.

1816 - The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed its right to review state court decisions.

1833 - The U.S. and Siam signed a commercial treaty.

1852 - Harriet Beecher Stowe’s book "Uncle Tom’s Cabin," subtitled "Life Among the Lowly," was first published.

1865 - A plan by John Wilkes Booth to abduct U.S. President Abraham Lincoln was ruined when Lincoln changed his plans and did not appear at the Soldier’s Home near Washington, DC.

1868 - Jesse James Gang robbed a bank in Russelville, KY, of $14,000.

1883 - The Unity treaty of Paris was signed to protect industrial property.

1885 - John Matzeliger of Suriname patented the shoe lacing machine.

1886 - The first AC power plant in the U.S. began commercial operation.

1888 - The Sherlock Holmes Adventure, "A Scandal in Bohemia," began.

1890 - The General Federation of Womans' Clubs was founded.

1891 - The first computing scale company was incorporated in Dayton, OH.

1896 - U.S. Marines landed in Nicaragua to protect U.S. citizens in the wake of a revolution.

1897 - The first U.S. orthodox Jewish Rabbinical seminary was incorporated in New York.

1897 - The first intercollegiate basketball game that used five players per team was held. The contest was Yale versus Pennsylvania. Yale won by a score of 32-10.

1899 - At Sing Sing prison, Martha M. Place became the first woman to be executed in the electric chair. She was put to death for the murder of her stepdaughter.

1900 - It was announced that European powers had agreed to keep China's doors open to trade.

1902 - France and Russia acknowledged the Anglo-Japanese alliance. They also asserted their right to protect their interests in China and Korea.

1903 - In Paris, paintings by Henri Matisse were shown at the "Salon des Independants".

1906 - In Russia, army officers mutiny at Sevastopol.

1911 - The National Squash Tennis Association was formed in New York City.

1914 - The first international figure skating championship was held in New Haven, CT.

1915 - The French called off the Champagne offensive on the Western Front.

1918 - The Bolsheviks of the Soviet Union asked for American aid to rebuild their army.

1922 - U.S. President Warren G. Harding ordered U.S. troops back from the Rhineland.

1922 - The USS Langley was commissioned. It was the first aircraft carrier for the U.S. Navy.

1932 - The German dirigible, Graf Zepplin, made the first flight to South America on regular schedule.

1933 - The first German concentration camp was completed at Dachau.

1934 - Rudolf Kuhnold gave a demonstration of radar in Kiel Germany.

1940 - The British Royal Air Force conducted an all-night air raid on the Nazi airbase at Sylt, Germany.

1943 - The Allies attacked Field Marshall Erwin Rommel's forces on the Mareth Line in North Africa.

1947 - A blue whale weighing 180-metric tons was caught in the South Atlantic.

1952 - The U.S. Senate ratified a peace treaty with Japan.

1956 - Mount Bezymianny on Kamchatka Peninsula (USSR) exploded.

1956 - Tunisia gained independence from France.

1963 - The first "Pop Art" exhibit began in New York City.

1964 - The ESRO (European Space Research Organization) was established.

1965 - U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson orders 4,000 troops to protect the Selma-Montgomery civil rights marchers.

1967 - Twiggy arrived in the U.S. for a one-week stay.

1969 - U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy called on the U.S. to close all bases in Taiwan.

1972 - 19 mountain climbers were killed on Japan's Mount Fuji during an avalanche.

1976 - Patricia Hearst was convicted of armed robbery for her role in the hold up of a San Francisco Bank.

1980 - The U.S. made an appeal to the International Court concerning the American Hostages in Iran.

1981 - Argentine ex-president Isabel Peron was sentenced to eight years in a convent.

1982 - U.S. scientists' return from Antarctica with the first land mammal fossils found there.

1984 - The U.S. Senate rejected an amendment to permit spoken prayer in public schools.

1985 - For the first time in its 99-year history, Avon representatives received a salary. Up to that time they had been paid solely on commissions.

1985 - CBS-TV presented "The Romance of Betty Boop."

1985 - Libby Riddles won the 1,135-mile Anchorage-to-Nome dog race becoming the first woman to win the Iditarod.

1986 - Fallon Carrington and Jeff Colby were wed on the TV drama "The Colby’s". "The Colby’s" was an offshoot of "Dynasty".

1987 - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved AZT. The drug was proven to slow the progress of AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome).

1989 - A Washington, DC, district court judge blocked a curfew imposed by Mayor Barry and the City Council.

1989 - In Belfast, two policemen were killed. The IRA claimed responsibility.

1989 - It was announced that Cincinnati Reds manager Pete Rose was under investigation.

1990 - The Los Angeles Lakers retired Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's #33.

1990 - Namibia became an independent nation ending 75 years of South African rule.

1990 - Imelda Marcos, widow of ex-Philippines dictator Ferdinand Marcos, went on trial for racketeering, embezzlement and bribery.

1990 - In Rumania, tanks were sent to the town of Tirgu Mures to quell ethnic riots.

1991 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that employers could not exclude women from jobs where exposure to toxic chemicals could potentially damage a fetus.

1991 - The U.S. forgave $2 billion in loans to Poland.

1992 - Janice Pennington was awarded $1.3 million for accident on the set of the "Price is Right" TV show.

1993 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin declared emergency rule. He set a referendum on whether the people trusted him or the hard-line Congress to govern.

1993 - An Irish Republican Army bomb was detonated in Warrington, England. A 3-year-old boy and a 12-year-old boy were killed.

1995 - About 35,000 Turkish troops crossed the northern border of Iraq in pursuit of the separatist rebels of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

1995 - In Tokyo, 12 people were killed and more than 5,500 others were sickened when packages containing the nerve gas Sarin was released on five separate subway trains. The terrorists belonged to a doomsday cult in Japan.

1996 - In Los Angeles, Erik and Lyle Menendez were found guilty of first-degree murder in the killing of their parents.

1996 - The U.K. announced that humans could catch CJD (Mad Cow Disease).

1997 - Brian Grazer received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1997 - Liggett Group, the maker of Chesterfield cigarettes, settled 22 state lawsuits by admitting the industry marketed cigarettes to teenagers and agreed to warn on every pack that smoking is addictive.

1998 - India's new Hindu nationalist-led government pledges to "exercise the option to induct nuclear weapons."

1999 - Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones became the first men to circumnavigate the Earth in a hot air balloon. The non-stop trip began on March 3 and covered 26,500 miles.

2000 - Former Black Panther Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, once known as H. Rap Brown, was captured following a shootout that left a sherriff's deputy dead.

2002 - Actress Pamela Anderson disclosed that she had hepatitis C.

2002 - Arthur Andersen pled innocent to charges that it had shredded documents and deleted computer files related to the energy company Enron.

2003 - Cisco Systems Inc. announced it was buying The Linksys Group INc. for $500 million in stock.

2003 - U.S. and British forces invaded Iraq from Kuwait.

March 21, 2014

1349 - 3,000 Jews were killed in Black Death riots in Efurt Germany.

1556 - Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was burned at the stake at Oxford after retracting the last of seven recantations that same day.

1788 - Almost the entire city of New Orleans, LA, was destroyed by fire. 856 buildings were destroyed.

1790 - Thomas Jefferson reported to U.S. President George Washington as the new secretary of state.

1804 - The French civil code, the Code Napoleon, was adopted.

1824 - A fire at a Cairo ammunitions dump killed 4,000 horses.

1826 - The Rensselaer School in Troy, NY, was incorporated. The school became known as Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and was the first engineering college in the U.S.

1835 - Charles Darwin & Mariano Gonzales met at Portillo Pass.

1851 - Emperor Tu Duc ordered that Christian priests be put to death.

1851 - Yosemite Valley was discovered in California.

1857 - An earthquake hit Tokyo killing about 107,000.

1858 - British forces in India lift the siege of Lucknow, ending the Indian Mutiny.

1859 - In Philadelphia, the first Zoological Society was incorporated.

1868 - The Sorosos club for professional women was formed in New York City by Jennie June. It was the first of its kind.

1871 - Journalist Henry M Stanley began his famous expedition to Africa.

1902 - Romain Roland's play "The 4th of July" premiered in Paris.

1902 - In New York, three Park Avenue mansions were destroyed when a subway tunnel roof caved in.

1904 - The British Parliament vetoed a proposal to send Chinese workers to Transvaal.

1905 - Sterilization legislation was passed in the State of Pennsylvania. The governor vetoed the measure.

1906 - Ohio passed a law that prohibited hazing by fraternities after two fatalities.

1907 - The U.S. Marines landed in Honduras to protect American interests in the war with Nicaragua.

1907 - The first Parliament of Transvaal met in Pretoria.

1908 - A passenger was carried in a bi-plane for the first time by Henri Farman of France.

1909 - Russia withdrew its support for Serbia and recognized the Austrian annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Serbia accepted Austrian control over Bosnia-Herzegovina on March 31, 1909.

1910 - The U.S. Senate granted ex-President Teddy Roosevelt a yearly pension of $10,000.

1918 - During World War I, the Germans launched the Somme Offensive.

1928 - U.S. President Calvin Coolidge gave the Congressional Medal of Honor to Charles Lindbergh for his first trans-Atlantic flight.

1934 - A fire destroyed Hakodate, Japan, killing about 1,500.

1935 - Incubator ambulance service began in Chicago, IL.

1941 - The last Italian post in East Libya, North Africa, fell to the British.

1945 - During World War II, Allied bombers began four days of raids over Germany.

1946 - The Los Angeles Rams signed Kenny Washington. Washington was the first black player to join a National Football League team since 1933.

1946 - The United Nations set up a temporary headquarters at Hunter College in New York City.

1953 - The Boston Celtics beat Syracuse Nationals (111-105) in four overtimes to eliminate them from the Eastern Division Semifinals. A total of seven players (both teams combined) fouled out of the game.

1955 - NBC-TV presented the first "Colgate Comedy Hour".

1957 - Shirley Booth made her TV acting debut in "The Hostess with the Mostest" on CBS.

1960 - About 70 people were killed in Sharpeville, South Africa, when police fired upon demonstrators.

1963 - Alcatraz Island, the federal penitentiary in San Francisco Bay, CA, closed.

1965 - The U.S. launched Ranger 9. It was the last in a series of unmanned lunar explorations.

1965 - More than 3,000 civil rights demonstrators led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. began a march from Selma to Montgomery, AL.

1971 - Two U.S. platoons in Vietnam refused their orders to advance.

1972 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states could not require one year of residency for voting eligibility.

1974 - An attempt was made to kidnap Princess Anne in London's Pall Mall.

1980 - U.S. President Jimmy Carter announced to the U.S. Olympic Team that they would not participate in the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow as a boycott against Soviet intervention in Afghanistan.

1980 - On the TV show "Dallas", J.R. Ewing was shot.

1982 - The movie "Annie" premiered.

1982 - The United States, U.K. and other Western countries condemned the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan.

1984 - A Soviet submarine crashed into the USS Kitty Hawk off the coast of Japan.

1985 - Larry Flynt offered to sell his pornography empire for $26 million or "Hustler" magazine alone for $18 million.

1985 - Police in Langa, South Africa, opened fire on blacks marching to mark the 25th anniversary of the Sharpeville shootings. At least 21 demonstrators were killed.

1989 - Randall Dale Adams was released from a Texas prison after his conviction was overturned. The documentary "The Thin Blue Line" had challenged evidence of Adams' conviction for killing a police officer.

1990 - "Normal Life" with Moon Unit & Dweezil Zappa premiered on CBS-TV.

1990 - Australian businessman Alan Bond sold Van Gogh's "Irises" to the Gerry Museum. Bond had purchased the painting for $53.9 million in 1987.

1990 - "Sydney" starring Valerie Bertinelli premiered on CBS-TV.

1990 - Namibia became independent of South Africa.

1991 - 27 people were lost at sea when two U.S. Navy anti-submarine planes collided.

1991 - The U.N. Security Council lifted the food embargo against Iraq.

1994 - Dudley Moore was arrested for hitting his girlfriend.

1994 - Steven Spielberg won his first Oscars. They were for best picture and best director for "Schindler's List."

1994 - Wayne Gretzky tied Gordie Howe's NHL record of 801 goals.

1994 - Bill Gates of Microsoft and Craig McCaw of McCaw Cellular Communications announced a $9 billion plan that would send 840 satellites into orbit to relay information around the globe.

1995 - New Jersey officially dedicated the Howard Stern Rest Area along Route 295.

1995 - Tokyo police raided the headquarters of Aum Shinrikyo in search of evidence to link the cult to the Sarin gas released on five Tokyo subway trains.

1999 - Israel's Supreme Court rejected the final effort to have American Samuel Sheinbein returned to the U.S. to face murder charges for killing Alfred Tello, Jr. Under a plea bargain Sheinbein was sentenced to 24 years in prison.

2000 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had overstepped its regulatory authority when it attempted to restrict the marketing of cigarettes to youngsters.

2001 - Nintendo released Game Boy Advance.

2002 - In Pakistan, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh was charged with murder for his role in the kidnapping of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pear. Three other Islamic militants that were in custody were also charged along with seven more accomplices that were still at large.

2002 - In Paris, an 1825 print by French inventor Joseph Nicephore Niepce was sold for $443,220. The print, of a man leading a horse, was the earliest recorded image taken by photographic means.

2003 - It was reported that the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 235.27 (2.8%) at 8,521.97. It was the strongest weekly gain in more than 20 years.

March 23, 2014

1026 - Koenraad II crowned himself king of Italy.

1066 - The 18th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet took place.

1490 - The first dated edition of Maimonides "Mishna Torah" was published.

1657 - France and England formed an alliance against Spain.

1775 - American revolutionary Patrick Henry declared, "give me liberty, or give me death!"

1794 - Josiah G. Pierson patented a rivet machine.

1806 - Explorers Lewis and Clark, reached the Pacific coast, and began their return journey to the east.

1808 - Napoleon's brother Joseph took the throne of Spain.

1835 - Charles Darwin reached Los Arenales, in the Andes.

1836 - The coin press was invented by Franklin Beale.

1839 - The first recorded use of "OK" [oll korrect] was used in Boston's Morning Post.

1840 - The first successful photo of the Moon was taken.

1848 - Hungary proclaimed its independence of Austria.

1857 - Elisha Otis installed the first modern passenger elevator in a public building. It was at the corner of Broome Street and Broadway in New York City.

1858 - Eleazer A. Gardner patented the cable streetcar.

1861 - John D. Defrees became the first Superintendent of the United States Government Printing Office.

1861 - London's first tramcars began operations.

1868 - The University of California was founded in Oakland, CA.

1880 - John Stevens patented the grain crushing mill. The mill increased flour production by 70 percent.

1881 - The Boers and Britain signed a peace accord ending the first Boer war.

1881 - A gas lamp caused a fire in an opera house in Nice, France. 70 people were killed.

1889 - U.S. President Harrison opened Oklahoma for white colonization.

1901 - Dame Nellie Melba, revealed the secret of her now famous toast.

1901 - It was learned that Boers were starving in British concentration camps in South Africa.

1901 - Shots were fired at Privy Councilor Pobyedonostzev, who was considered to be Russia's most hated man.

1902 - In Italy, the minimum legal working age was raised from 9 to 12 for boys and from 11 to 15 for girls.

1903 - The Wright brothers obtained an airplane patent.

1903 - U.S. troops were sent to Honduras to protect the American consulate during revolutionary activity.

1909 - British Lt. Shackleton found the magnetic South Pole.

1909 - Theodore Roosevelt began an African safari sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution and National Geographic Society.

1910 - In the Canary Islands, women offered candidates for legislative elections.

1912 - The Dixie Cup was invented.

1917 - Austrian Emperor Charles I made a peace proposal to French President Poincare.

1917 - In the Midwest U.S., four tornadoes kill 211 people over a four day period.

1918 - Lithuania proclaimed independence.

1919 - Benito Mussolini founded his Fascist political movement in Milan, Italy.

1920 - Britain denounced the U.S. because of their delay in joining the League of Nations.

1920 - The Perserikatan Communist of India (PKI) political party was formed.

1921 - Arthur G. Hamilton set a new parachute record when he safely jumped from 24,400 feet.

1922 - The first airplane landed at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC.

1925 - The state of Tennessee enacted a law that made it a crime for a teacher in any state-supported public school to teach any theory that was in contradiction to the Bible's account of man's creation.

1932 - In the U.S., the Norris-LaGuardia Act established workers' right to strike.

1933 - The German Reichstag adopted the Enabling Act. The act effectively granted Adolf Hitler dictatorial legislative powers.

1934 - The U.S. Congress accepted the independence of the Philippines in 1945.

1936 - Italy, Austria & Hungary signed the Pact of Rome.

1937 - The L.A. Railway Co. started using PCC streetcars.

1940 - "Truth or Consequences" was heard on radio for the first time.

1942 - The Japanese occupy the Andaman Islands.

1942 - During World War II, the U.S. government began evacuating Japanese-Americans from West Coast homes to detention centers.

1950 - "Beat the Clock" premiered on CBS-TV.

1951 - U.S. paratroopers descended from flying boxcars in a surprise attack in Korea.

1956 - Pakistan became the first Islamic republic. It was still within the British Commonwealth.

1956 - Sudan became independent.

1957 - The U.S. Army sold the last of its homing pigeons.

1965 - America's first two-person space flight took off from Cape Kennedy with astronauts Virgil I. Grissom and John W. Young aboard. The craft was the Gemini 3.

1965 - The Moroccan Army shot at demonstrators. About 100 people were killed.

1967 - Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. called the Vietnam War the biggest obstacle to the civil rights movement.

1970 - Mafia "Boss" Carlo Gambino was arrested for plotting to steal $3 million.

1972 - The U.S. called a halt to the peace talks on Vietnam being held in Paris.

1972 - Evel Knievel broke 93 bones after successfully jumping 35 cars.

1973 - The last airing of "Concentration" took place. The show had been on NBC for 15 years.

1980 - The deposed shah of Iran, Muhammad Riza Pahlavi, left Panama for Egypt.

1981 - U.S. Supreme Court upheld a law making statutory rape a crime for men but not women.

1981 - CBS Television announced plans to reduce "Captain Kangaroo" to a 30-minute show each weekday morning.

1983 - U.S. President Reagan first proposed development of technology to intercept enemy missiles. The proposal became known as the Strategic Defense Initiative and "Star Wars."

1983 - Dr. Barney Clark died after 112 days with a permanent artificial heart.

1989 - A 1,000-foot diameter asteroid missed Earth by 500,000 miles.

1989 - Joel Steinberg was sentenced to 25 years for killing his adopted daughter.

1989 - Two electrochemists, Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischman, announced that they had created nuclear fusion in a test tube at room temperature.

1990 - Former Exxon Valdez Captain Joseph Hazelwood was ordered to help clean up Prince William Sound and pay $50,000 in restitution for the 1989 oil spill.

1993 - U.N. experts announced that record ozone lows had been registered over a large area of the Western Hemisphere.

1994 - Luis Donaldo Colosio, Mexico's leading presidential candidate, was assassinated in Tijuana. Mario Aburto Martinez was arrested at the scene and confessed to the killing.

1994 - Wayne Gretzky broke Gordie Howe's National Hockey League (NHL) career record with his 802nd goal.

1994 - Howard Stern formally announced his Libertarian run for New York governor.

1996 - Taiwan held its first democratic presidential elections.

1998 - Germany's largest bank pledged $3.1 million to Jewish foundations as restitution for Nazi looting.

1998 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that term limits for state lawmakers were constitutional.

1998 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin fired his Cabinet.

1998 - The movie "Titanic" won 11 Oscars at the Academy Awards.

1998 - The German company Bertelsmann AG agreed to purchase the American publisher Random House for $1.4 billion. The merger created the largest English-language book-publishing company in the world.

1999 - Paraguay's Vice President Luis Maria Argana was shot to death by two gunmen.

1999 - NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana gave formal approval for air strikes against Serbian targets.

1999 - Near Mandi Bahauddin, Pakistan, a bus fell into a fast-moving canal. Nine were confirmed dead, 31 were missing and presumed dead, and 20 were injured.

2001 - Russia's orbiting Mir space station plunged into the South Pacific after its 15-years of use.

March 24, 2014

1379 - The Gelderse war ended.

1545 - German Parliament opened in Worms.

1550 - France and England signed the Peace of Boulogne.

1629 - The first game law was passed in the American colonies, by Virginia.

1664 - A charter to colonize Rhode Island was granted to Roger Williams in London.

1720 - In Paris, banking houses closed due to financial crisis.

1765 - Britain passed the Quartering Act that required the American colonies to house 10,000 British troops in public and private buildings.

1792 - Benjamin West became the first American artist to be selected president of the Royal Academy of London.

1828 - The Philadelphia & Columbia Railway was authorized as the first state owned railway.

1832 - Mormon Joseph Smith was beaten, tarred and feathered in Ohio.

1837 - Canada gave blacks the right to vote

1848 - A state of siege was proclaimed in Amsterdam.

1868 - Metropolitan Life Insurance Company was formed.

1878 - The British frigate Eurydice sank killing 300.

1880 - The first "hail insurance company" was incorporated in Connecticut. It was known as Tobacco Growers’ Mutual Insurance Company.

1882 - In Berlin, German scientist Robert Koch announced the discovery of the tuberculosis germ (bacillus).

1883 - The first telephone call between New York and Chicago took place.

1900 - Mayor Van Wyck of New York broke the ground for the New York subway tunnel that would link Manhattan and Brooklyn.

1900 - In New Jersey, the Carnegie Steel Corporation was formed.

1904 - Vice Adm. Tojo sank seven Russian ships as the Japanese strengthened their blockade of Port Arthur.

1905 - In Crete, a group led by Eleutherios Venizelos claimed independence from Turkey.

1906 - In Mexico, the Tehuantepec Istmian Railroad opened as a rival to the Panama Canal.

1906 - The "Census of the British Empire" revealed that England ruled 1/5 of the world.

1911 - In Denmark, penal code reform abolished corporal punishment.

1920 - The first U.S. coast guard air station was established at Morehead City, NC.

1924 - Greece became a republic.

1927 - Chinese Communists seized Nanking and break with Chiang Kai-shek over the Nationalist goals.

1932 - Belle Baker hosted a radio variety show from a moving train. It was the first radio broadcast from a train.

1934 - U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt signed a bill granting future independence to the Philippines.

1938 - The U.S. asked that all powers help refugees fleeing from the Nazis.

1944 - In Rome, The Gestapo rounded up innocent Italians and shot them to death in response to a bomb attack that killed 32 German policemen. Over 300 civilians were executed.

1946 - The Soviet Union announced that it was withdrawing its troops from Iran.

1947 - The U.S. Congress proposed the limitation of the presidency to two terms.

1954 - Britain opened trade talks with Hungary.

1955 - Tennessee Williams' play "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" debuted on Broadway.

1955 - The first oil drill seagoing rig was put into service.

1960 - A U.S. appeals court ruled that the novel, "Lady Chatterly’s Lover", was not obscene and could be sent through the mail.

1972 - Great Britain imposed direct rule over Northern Ireland.

1976 - The president of Argentina, Isabel Peron, was deposed by her country's military.

1980 - In San Salvador, Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero was shot to death by gunmen as he celebrated Mass.

1981 - "Nightline" with Ted Koppel premiered.

1982 - Soviet leader Leonid L. Brezhnev stated that Russia was willing to resume border talks with China.

1985 - Thousands demonstrated in Madrid against the NATO presence in Spain.

1988 - Former national security aides Oliver L. North and John M. Poindexter and businessmen Richard V. Secord and Albert Hakim pled innocent to Iran-Contra charges.

1989 - The Exxon Valdez spilled 240,000 barrels (11 million gallons) of oil in Alaska's Prince William Sound after it ran aground.

1989 - The U.S. decided to send humanitarian aid to the Contras.

1990 - Indian troops left Sri Lanka.

1991 - The African nation of Benin held its first presidential elections in about 30 years.

1993 - In Israel, Ezer Weizman, an advocate of peace with neighboring Arab nations, was elected President.

1995 - Russian forces surrounded Achkoi-Martan. It was one of the few remaining strongholds of rebels in Chechenia.

1995 - The U.S. House of Representatives passed a welfare reform package that made the most changes in social programs since the New Deal.

1997 - The Australian parliament overturned the world's first and only euthanasia law.

1998 - In Jonesboro, AR, two young boys open fire at students from woods near a school. Four students and a teacher were killed and 10 others were injured. The two boys were 11 and 13 years old cousins.

1998 - A former FBI agent said papers found in James Earl Ray's car supports a conspiracy theory in the assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

1999 - In Kenya, at least 31 people were killed when a passenger train derailed. Hundreds were injured.

1999 - NATO launched air strikes against Yugoslavia (Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo and Vojvodina). The attacks marked the first time in its 50-year history that NATO attacked a sovereign country. The bombings were in response to Serbia's refusal to sign a peace treaty with ethnic Albanians who were seeking independence for the province of Kosovo.

1999 - The 7-mile tunnel under Mont Blanc in France was an inferno after a truck carrying flour and margarine caught on fire. At least 30 people were killed.

2001 - Apple Computer Inc's operating system MAC OS X went on sale.

2002 - Thieves stole five 17th century paintings from the Frans Hals Museum in the Dutch city of Haarlem. The paintings were worth about $2.6 million. The paintings were works by Jan Steen, Cornelis Bega, Adriaan van Ostade and Cornelis Dusart.

2005 - The government of Kyrgyzstan collapsed after opposition protesters took over President Askar Akayev's presidential compound and government offices.

2005 - Sandra Bullock received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

2006 - In Spain, the Basque separatist group ETA announced a permanent cease-fire.

March 26, 2014

1026 - Conrad II was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope John XIX.

1799 - Napoleon captured Jaffa Palestine.

1780 - The British Gazette and Sunday Monitor was published for the first time. It was the first Sunday newspaper in Britain.

1793 - The Holy Roman Emperor formally declared war on France.

1804 - The U.S. Congress ordered the removal of Indians east of the Mississippi to Louisiana.

1804 - The Louisiana Purchase was divided into the District of Louisiana and the Territory of Orleans.

1854 - Charles III, duke of Parma, was attacked by an assassin. He died the next day.

1871 - The Paris Commune was formally set up.

1878 - Hastings College of Law was founded.

1885 - Eastman Kodak (Eastman Dry Plate and Film Co.) produced the first commercial motion picture film in Rochester, NY.

1898 - In South Africa, the world's first game reserve, the Sabi Game reserve, was designated.

1909 - Russian troops invaded Persia to support Muhammad Ali as shah in place of the constitutional government.

1910 - The U.S. Congress passed an amendment to the 1907 Immigration Act that barred criminals, paupers, anarchists and carriers of disease from settling in the U.S.

1913 - During the Balkan War, the Bulgarians took Adrianople.

1917 - At the start of the battle of Gaza, the British cavalry withdrew when 17,000 Turks blocked their advance.

1937 - Spinach growers in Crystal City, TX, erected a statue of Popeye.

1938 - Herman Goering warned all Jews to leave Austria.

1942 - The Germans began sending Jews to Auschwitz in Poland.

1945 - The battle of Iwo Jima ended.

1945 - In the Aleutians, the battle of Komandorski began when the Japanese attempted to reinforce a garrison at Kiska and were intercepted by a U.S. naval force.

1951 - The U.S. Air Force flag was approved. The flag included the coat of arms, 13 white stars and the Air Force seal on a blue background.

1953 - Dr. Jonas Salk announced a new vaccine that would prevent poliomyelitis.

1956 - Red Buttons made his debut as a television actor in "Studio One" on CBS television.

1958 - The U.S. Army launched America's third successful satellite, Explorer III.

1962 - The U.S. Supreme Court supported the 1-man-1-vote apportionment of seats in the State Legislature.

1969 - The TV movie "Marcus Welby" was seen on ABC-TV. It was later turned into a series.

1971 - Sheikh Mujibur Rahman declared East Pakistan to be the independent republic of Bangladesh.

1971 - "Cannon" premiered on CBS-TV as a movie. It was turned into a series later in the year.

1972 - The Los Angeles Lakers broke a National Basketball Association (NBA) record by winning 69 of their 82 games.

1973 - Egyptian President Anwar Sadat took over the premiership and said "the stage of total confrontation (with Israel) has become inevitable."

1973 - Women were allowed on the floor of the London Stock Exchange for the first time.

1979 - The Camp David treaty was signed by Israel and Egypt that ended the 31-year state of war between the countries.

1981 - In Great Britain, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) gained official recognition.

1982 - Ground breaking ceremonies were held in Washington, DC, for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

1983 - The U.S. performed a nuclear test at the Nevada Test Site.

1989 - The first free elections took place in the Soviet Union. Boris Yeltsin was elected.

1991 - The presidents of Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil and Uruguay signed an agreement that established the Southern Cone Common Market, a free-trade zone, by January 1, 1995.

1992 - In Indianapolis, heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson was found guilty of rape. He was sentenced to 6 years in prison. He only served three.

1995 - Seven of the 15 European Union states abolished border controls.

1996 - The International Monetary Fund approved a $10.2 billion loan for Russia to help the country transform its economy.

1997 - The 39 bodies of Heaven's Gate members are found in a mansion in Rancho Santa Fe, CA. The group had committed suicide thinking that they would be picked up by a spaceship following behind the comet Hale-Bopp.

1998 - In the U.S., the Federal government endorses new HIV test that yields instant results.

1998 - Unisys Corp. and Lockheed Martin Corp. pay a $3.15 million fine for selling spare parts at inflated prices to the U.S. federal government.

1999 - The macro virus "Melissa" was reported for the first.

1999 - In Michigan, Dr. jack Kevorkian was convicted of second-degree murder for giving a terminally ill man a lethal injection and putting it all on videotape on September 17, 1998 for "60 Minutes."

2000 - The Seattle Kingdome was imploded to make room for a new football arena.

2000 - In Russia, acting President Vladimir Putin was elected president outright. He won a sufficient number of votes to avoid a runoff election.

2007 - The design for the "Forever Stamp" was unveiled by the U.S. Postal Service.

March 27, 2014

1794 - The U.S. Congress authorized the creation of the U.S. Navy.

1802 - The Treaty of Amiens was signed ending the French Revolutionary War.

1836 - In Goliad, TX, about 350 Texan prisoners, including their commander James Fannin, were executed under orders from Gen. Antonio López de Santa Anna. An estimated 30 Texans escaped execution.

1836 - The first Mormon temple was dedicated in Kirtland, OH.

1841 - The first steam fire engine was tested in New York City.

1860 - The corkscrew was patented by M.L. Byrn.

1866 - U.S. President Andrew Johnson vetoed the civil rights bill, which later became the 14th amendment.

1884 - The first long-distance telephone call was made from Boston to New York.

1899 - The first international radio transmission between England and France was achieved by the Italian inventor G. Marconi.

1900 - The London Parliament passed the War Loan Act that gave 35 million pounds to the Boer War cause in South Africa.

1900 - The Russian army mobilized 250,000 troops for active duty.

1901 - Filipino rebel leader Emilio Aguinaldo was captured by the U.S.

1904 - Mary Jarris "Mother" Jones was ordered by Colorado state authorities to leave the state. She was accused of stirring up striking coal miners.

1907 - French troops occupied Oudja, Morocco, as a punitive action for the murder of French Dr. Muchamp.

1912 - The first cherry blossom trees were planted in Washington, DC. The trees were a gift from Japan.

1917 - The Seattle Metropolitans, of the Pacific Coast League of Canada, defeated the Montreal Canadiens and became the first U.S. hockey team to win the Stanley Cup.

1931 - Actor Charlie Chaplin received France’s Legion of Honor decoration.

1933 - About 55,000 people staged a protest against Hitler in New York City.

1933 - In the U.S., the Farm Credit Administration was authorized.

1941 - Tokeo Yoshikawa arrived in Oahu, HI, and began spying for Japan on the U.S. Fleet at Pearl Harbor.

1942 - The British raided the Nazi submarine base at St. Nazaire, France.

1946 - Four-month long strikes at both General Electric and General Motors ended with a wage increase.

1952 - The U.S. Eighth Army reached the 38th parallel in Korea, the original dividing line between the two Koreas.

1955 - Steve McQueen made his network TV debut on "Goodyear Playhouse."

1958 - Nikita Khrushchev became the chairman of the Soviet Council of Ministers in addition to First Secretary of the Communist Party.

1958 - The U.S. announced a plan to explore space near the moon.

1976 - Washington, DC, opened its subway system.

1985 - Billy Dee Williams received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1988 - The U.S. Senate ratified the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.

1989 - The U.S. anti-missile satellite failed the first test in space.

1993 - In China, Communist Party leader Jiang Zemin was appointed President.

1997 - Russian workers, nearly 2 million, held a nationwide strike to protest unpaid wages.

1997 - In Australia, Governor-General William Deane signed a bill to overturn a 1996 Northern Territory act to legalize assisted suicides. The 1996 act was the first in the world to permit assisted suicides.

1998 - In the U.S., the FDA approved the prescription drug Viagra. It was the first pill for male impotence.

1998 - Top civilian aircraft makers in France, Spain, Germany and Britain agreed to create single European aerospace and defense company.

2004 - NASA successfully launched an unpiloted X-43A jet that hit Mach 7 (about 5,000 mph).

2007 - NFL owners voted to make instant replay a permanent officiating tool.

March 28, 2014

1774 - Britain passed the Coercive Act against Massachusetts.

1797 - Nathaniel Briggs patented a washing machine.

1834 - The U.S. Senate voted to censure President Jackson for the removal of federal deposits from the Bank of the United States.

1854 - The Crimean War began with Britain and France declaring war on Russia.

1864 - A group of Copperheads attack Federal soldiers in Charleston, IL. Five were killed and twenty were wounded.

1865 - Outdoor advertising legislation was enacted in New York. The law banned "painting on stones, rocks and trees."

1885 - The Salvation Army was officially organized in the U.S.

1898 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a child born in the U.S. to Chinese immigrants was a U.S. citizen. This meant that they could not be deported under the Chinese Exclusion Act.

1903 - Anatole France's "Crainquebille" premiered in Paris.

1905 - The U.S. took full control over Dominican revenues.

1908 - Automobile owners lobbied the U.S. Congress, supporting a bill that called for vehicle licensing and federal registration.

1910 - The first seaplane took off from water at Martinques, France. The pilot was Henri Fabre.

1911 - In New York, suffragists performed the political play "Pageant of Protest."

1917 - During World War I the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) was founded.

1921 - U.S. President Warren Harding named William Howard Taft as chief justice of the United States Supreme Court.

1922 - Bradley A. Fiske patented a microfilm reading device.

1930 - Constantinople and Angora changed their names to Istanbul and Ankara respectively.

1933 - In Germany, the Nazis ordered a ban on all Jews in businesses, professions and schools.

1938 - In Italy, psychiatrists demonstrated the use of electric-shock therapy for treatment of certain mental illnesses.

1939 - The Spanish Civil War ended as Madrid fell to Francisco Franco.

1941 - The Italian fleet was defeated by the British at the Battle of Matapan.

1942 - British naval forces raided the Nazi occupied French port of St. Nazaire.

1945 - Germany launched the last of the V-2 rockets against England.

1947 - The American Helicopter Society revealed a flying device that could be strapped to a person's body.

1962 - The U.S. Air Force announced research into the use of lasers to intercept missiles and satellites.

1963 - Sonny Werblin announced that the New York Titans of the American Football League was changing its name to the New York Jets. (NFL)

1967 - Raymond Burr starred in a TV movie titled "Ironside." The movie was later turned into a television series.

1968 - The U.S. lost its first F-111 aircraft in Vietnam when it vanished while on a combat mission. North Vietnam claimed that they had shot it down.

1974 - A streaker ran onto the set of "The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson."

1979 - A major accident occurred at Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island nuclear power plant. A nuclear power reactor overheated and suffered a partial meltdown.

1981 - In Bangkok, Thailand, Indonesian terrorists hijacked an airplane. Four of the five terrorists were killed on March 31.

1986 - The U.S. Senate passed $100 million aid package for the Nicaraguan contras.

1986 - More than 6,000 radio stations of all format varieties played "We are the World" simultaneously at 10:15 a.m. EST.

1990 - Jesse Owens received the Congressional Gold Medal from U.S. President George H.W. Bush.

1990 - In Britain, a joint Anglo-U.S. "sting" operation ended with the seizure of 40 capacitors, which can be used in the trigger mechanism of a nuclear weapon.

1991 - The U.S. embassy in Moscow was severely damaged by fire.

1994 - Violence between Zulus and African National Congress supporters took the lives of 18 in Johannesburg.

1999 - Paraguay's President Raúl Cubas Grau resigned after protests inspired by the assassination of Vice-President Luis María Argaña on March 23. The nation's Congress had accused Cubas and his political associate, Gen. Lino César Oviedo, for Cubas' murder. Senate President Luis González Macchi took office as Paraguay's new chief executive.

2002 - The exhibit "The Italians: Three Centuries of Italian Art" opened at the National Gallery of Australia.

2010 - China's Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co. signed a deal to buy Ford Motor Co.'s Volvo car unit.

March 29, 2014

1461 - Edward IV secured his claim to the English thrown by defeating Henry VI’s Lancastrians at the battle of Towdon.

1638 - First permanent European settlement in Delaware was established.

1847 - U.S. troops under General Winfield Scott took possession of the Mexican stronghold at Vera Cruz.

1848 - Niagara Falls stopped flowing for one day due to an ice jam.

1867 - The British Parliament passed the North America Act to create the Dominion of Canada.

1882 - The Knights of Columbus organization was granted a charter by the State of Connecticut.

1901 - The first federal elections were held in Australia.

1903 - A regular news service began between New York and London on Marconi's wireless.

1906 - In the U.S., 500,000 coal miners walked off the job seeking higher wages.

1913 - The Reichstag announced a raise in taxes in order to finance the new military budget.

1916 - The Italians call off the fifth attack on Isonzo.

1932 - jack Benny made his radio debut.

1936 - Italy firebombed the Ethiopian city of Harar.

1941 - The British sank five Italian warships off the Peloponnesus coast in the Mediterranean.

1943 - In the U.S. rationing of meat, butter and cheese began during World War II.

1946 - Fiorella LaGuardia became the director general of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Organization.

1946 - Gold Coast became the first British colony to hold an African parliamentary majority.

1951 - The Chinese reject MacArthur's offer for a truce in Korea.

1951 - In the United States, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage. They were executed in June 19, 1953.

1961 - The 23rd amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. The amendment allowed residents of Washington, DC, to vote for president.

1962 - Cuba opened the trial of the Bay of Pigs invaders.

1962 - jack Paar made his final appearance on the "Tonight" show.

1966 - Leonid Brezhnev became the First Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party. He denounced the American policy in Vietnam and called it one of aggression.

1967 - France launched its first nuclear submarine.

1971 - Lt. William Calley Jr., of the U.S. Army, was found guilty of the premeditated murder of at least 22 Vietnamese civilians. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. The trial was the result of the My Lai massacre in Vietnam on March 16, 1968.

1971 - A jury in Los Angeles recommended the death penalty for Charles Manson and three female followers for the 1969 Tate-La Bianca murders. The death sentences were later commuted to live in prison.

1973 - "Hommy," the Puerto Rican version of the rock opera "Tommy," opened in New York City.

1973 - The last U.S. troops left South Vietnam.

1974 - Mariner 10, the U.S. space probe became the first spacecraft to reach the planet Mercury. It had been launched on November 3, 1973.

1974 - Eight Ohio National Guardsmen were indicted on charges stemming from the shooting deaths of four students at Kent State University on May 4, 1970. All the guardsmen were later acquitted.

1975 - Egyptian president Anwar Sadat declared that he would reopen the Suez Canal on June 5, 1975.

1979 - The Committee on Assassinations Report issued by U.S. House of Representatives stated the assassination of President John F. Kennedy was the result of a conspiracy.

1982 - The soap opera "Search for Tomorrow" changed from CBS to NBC.

1986 - A court in Rome acquitted six men in a plot to kill the Pope.

1987 - Hulk Hogan took 11 minutes, 43 seconds to pin Andre the Giant in front of 93,136 at Wrestlemania III fans at the Silverdome in Pontiac, MI.

1992 - Democratic presidential front-runner Bill Clinton said "I didn't inhale and I didn't try it again" in reference to when he had experimented with marijuana.

1993 - The South Korean government agreed to pay financial support to women who had been forced to have sex with Japanese troops during World War II.

1993 - Clint Eastwood won his first Oscars. He won them for best film and best director for the film "Unforgiven."

1995 - The U.S. House of Representatives rejected a constitutional amendment that would have limited terms to 12 years in the U.S. House and Senate.

1998 - Tennessee won the woman's college basketball championship over Louisiana. Tennessee had set a NCAA record with regular season record or 39-0.

1999 - At least 87 people died in an earthquake in India's Himalayan foothills.

1999 - The Dow Jones industrial average closed above the 10,000 mark for the first time.

2004 - Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia became members of NATO.

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