On This Day

March 9, 2015

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, 2015

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.

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 11, 2015

537 - The Goths began their siege on Rome.

1302 - The characters Romeo and Juliet were married this day according to William Shakespeare.

1649 - The peace of Rueil was signed between the Frondeurs (rebels) and the French government.

1665 - A new legal code was approved for the Dutch and English towns, guaranteeing religious observances unhindered.

1702 - The Daily Courant, the first regular English newspaper was published.

1791 - Samuel Mulliken became the first person to receive more than one patent from the U.S. Patent Office.

1810 - The Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was married by proxy to Archduchess Marie Louise of Austria.

1824 - The U.S. War Department created the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Seneca Indian Ely Parker became the first Indian to lead the Bureau.

1845 - Seven hundred Maoris led by their chief, Hone-Heke, burned the small town of Kororareka. The act was in protest to the settlement of Maoriland by Europeans, which was a breach of the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi.

1861 - A Confederate Convention was held in Montgomery, Alabama, where a new constitution was adopted.

1865 - Union General William Sherman and his forces occupied Fayetteville, NC.

1867 - In Hawaii, the volcano Great Mauna Loa erupted.

1882 - The Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association was formed in Princeton, NJ.

1888 - The "Blizzard of '88" began along the U.S. Atlantic Seaboard shutting down communication and transportation lines. More than 400 people died.(March 11-14)

1900 - British Prime Minister Lord Salisbury rejected the peace overtures offered from the Boer leader Paul Kruger.

1901 - Britain rejected an amended treaty to the canal agreement with Nicaragua.

1901 - U.S. Steel was formed when industrialist J.P. Morgan purchased Carnegie Steep Corp. The event made Andrew Carnegie the world's richest man.

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

1905 - The Parisian subway was officially inaugurated.

1907 - U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt induced California to revoke its anti-Japanese legislation.

1907 - In Bulgaria, Premier Nicolas Petkov was killed by an anarchist.

1909 - The first gold medal to a perfect-score bowler was awarded to A.C. Jellison by the American Bowling Congress.

1927 - Samuel Roxy Rothafel opened the famous Roxy Theatre in New York City.

1930 - Babe Ruth signed a two-year contract with the New York Yankees for the sum of $80,000.

1930 - U.S. President Howard Taft became the first U.S. president to be buried in the National Cemetery in Arlington, VA.

1935 - The German Air Force became an official department of the Reich.

1941 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the Lend-Lease Act, which authorized the act of providing war supplies to the Allies.

1946 - Communists and Nationalists began fighting as the Soviets pulled out of Mukden, Manchuria.

1946 - Pravda denounced Winston Churchill as anti-Soviet and a warmonger.

1947 - The DuMont network aired "Movies For Small Fry." It was network television's first successful children's program.

1948 - Reginald Weir became the first black tennis player to participate in a U.S. Indoor Lawn Tennis Association tournament.

1959 - The Lorraine Hansberry drama A Raisin in the Sun opened at New York's Ethel Barrymore Theater.

1964 - U.S. Senator Carl Hayden broke the record for continuous service in the U.S. Senate. He had worked 37 years and seven days.

1965 - The American navy began inspecting Vietnamese junks in an effort to end arms smuggling to the South.

1969 - Levi-Strauss started selling bell-bottomed jeans.

1978 - Bobby Hull (Winnipeg Jets) joined Gordie Howe by getting his 1,000th career goal.

1985 - Mikhail Gorbachev was named the new chairman of the Soviet Communist Party.

1986 - Popsicle announced its plan to end the traditional twin-stick frozen treat for a one-stick model.

1988 - A cease-fire was declared in the war between Iran and Iraq.

1990 - Lithuania declared its independence from the Soviet Union. It was the first Soviet republic to break away from Communist control.

1990 - In Chile, Patricio Aylwin was sworn in as the first democratically elected president since 1973.

1992 - Former U.S. President Nixon said that the Bush administration was not giving enough economic aid to Russia.

1993 - Janet Reno was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate to become the first female attorney general.

1993 - North Korea withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty refusing to open sites for inspection.

1994 - In Chile, Eduardo Frei was sworn in as President. It was the first peaceful transfer of power in Chile since 1970.

1997 - An explosion at a nuclear waste reprocessing plant caused 35 workers to be exposed to low levels of radioactivity. The incident was the worst in Japan's history.

1998 - The International Astronomical Union issued an alert that said that a mile-wide asteroid could come very close to, and possibly hit, Earth on Oct. 26, 2028. The next day NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced that there was no chance the asteroid would hit Earth.

2002 - Two columns of light were pointed skyward from ground zero in New York as a temporary memorial to the victims of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

March 12, 2015

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.

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.

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.

March 13, 2015

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.

1865 - 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.

2012 - After 244 years of publication, Encyclopædia Britannica announced it would discontinue its print edition.

March 14, 2015

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.

1954 - The Viet Minh launched an assault on Dien Bien Phu in Saigon.

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, 2015

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, 2015

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, 2015

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.

March 18, 2015

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.

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.

March 19, 2015

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, 2015

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, 2015

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.

March 22, 2015

1457 - Gutenberg Bible became the first printed book.

1622 - Indians attacked a group of colonist in the James River area of Virginia. 347 residents were killed.

1630 - The first legislation to prohibit gambling was enacted. It was in Boston, MA.

1638 - Anne Hutchinsoon, a religious dissident, was expelled from the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

1719 - Frederick William abolished serfdom on crown property in Prussia.

1733 - Joseph Priestly invented carbonated water (seltzer).

1765 - The Stamp Act was passed. It was the first direct British tax on the American colonists. It was repealed on March 17, 1766.

1775 - Edmund Burke presented his 13 articles to the English parliament.

1790 - Thomas Jefferson became the first U.S. Secretary of State.

1794 - The U.S. Congress banned U.S. vessels from supplying slaves to other countries.

1822 - New York Horticultural Society was founded.

1841 - Englishman Orlando Jones patented cornstarch.

1871 - William Holden of North Carolina became the first governor to be removed by impeachment.

1872 - Illinois became the first state to require sexual equality in employment.

1873 - Slavery was abolished in Puerto Rico.

1874 - The Young Men's Hebrew Association was organized in New York City.

1882 - The U.S. Congress outlawed polygamy.

1888 - The English Football League was established.

1894 - The first playoff competition for the Stanley Cup began. Montreal played Ottawa.

1895 - Auguste and Louis Lumiere showed their first movie to an invited audience in Paris.

1901 - Japan proclaimed that it was determined to keep Russia from encroaching on Korea.

1902 - Great Britain and Persia agreed to link Europe and India by telegraph.

1903 - Niagara Falls ran out of water due to a drought.

1903 - In Columbia, the region near Galera De Zamba was devastated by a volcanic eruption.

1904 - The first color photograph was published in the London Daily Illustrated Mirror.

1905 - Child miners in Britain received a maximum 8-hour workday.

1906 - France lost the first ever rugby game ever played against Britain.

1907 - Russians troops completed the evacuation of Manchuria in the face of advancing Japanese forces.

1907 - In Paris, it was reported that male cab drivers dressed as women to attract riders.

1910 - In Liberia, a telegraph cable linked Tenerife and Monrovia.

1911 - Herman Jadlowker became the first opera singer to perform two major roles in the same day at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City.

1915 - A German zeppelin made a night raid on Paris railway stations.

1919 - The first international airline service was inaugurated on a weekly schedule between Paris and Brussels.

1933 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a bill legalizing the sale and possession of beer and wine containing up to 3.2% alcohol.

1934 - The first Masters golf championship began in Augusta, GA.

1935 - In New York, blood tests were authorized as evidence in court cases.

1935 - Persia was renamed Iran.

1941 - The Grand Coulee Dam in Washington began operations.

1943 - The Dutch workweek was extended to 54 hours.

1943 - Obligatory work for woman ends in Belgium.

1945 - The Arab League was formed with the adoption of a charter in Cairo, Egypt.

1946 - The British granted Transjordan independence.

1946 - The first U.S. built rocket to leave the earth's atmosphere reached a height of 50-miles.

1947 - The Greek government imposed martial law in Laconia and southern Greece.

1948 - The United States announced a land reform plan for Korea.

1948 - "The Voice of Firestone" became the first commercial radio program to be carried simultaneously on both AM and FM radio stations.

1954 - The first shopping mall opened in Southfield, Michigan.

1954 - The London gold market reopened for the first time since 1939.

1956 - Perry Como became the first major TV variety-show host to book a rock and roll act on his program. The act was Carl Perkins.

1960 - A.L. Schawlow & C.H. Townes obtained a patent for the laser. It was the first patent for any laser.

1965 - U.S. confirmed that its troops used chemical warfare against the Vietcong.

1972 - The U.S. Senate passed the Equal Rights Amendment. It was not ratified by the states.

1974 - The Viet Cong proposed a new truce with the U.S. and South Vietnam. The truce included general elections.

1975 - Walt Disney World Shopping Village opened.

Disney movies, music and books

1977 - The Dutch Den Uyl government fell.

1977 - Comedienne Lily Tomlin made her debut on Broadway in "Lily Tomlin on Stage" in New York.

1977 - Indira Ghandi resigned as the prime minister of India.

1978 - Karl Wallenda, of the Flying Wallendas, fell to his death while walking a cable strung between to hotels in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

1979 - The National Hockey League (NHL) voted to accept 4 WHA teams, the Oilers, Jets, Nordiques & Whalers.

1980 - People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) was founded by Ingrid Newkirk and Alex Pacheco.

1981 - U.S. Postage rates went from 15-cents to 18-cents an ounce.

1981 - RCA put its Selectra Vision laser disc players on the market.

1981 - A group of twelve Green Berets arrived in El Salvador. This brought the total number of advisors to fifty-four.

1981 - The first Mongolian entered space aboard the Russian Soyuz 39.

1982 - The Space Shuttle Columbia was launched into orbit on mission STS-3. It was the third orbital flight for the Columbia.

1987 - A barge loaded with 32,000 tons of refuse left Islip, NY, to find a place to unload. After being refused by several states and three countries space was found back in Islip.

1988 - The Congress overrode U.S. President Reagan's veto of a sweeping civil rights bill.

1989 - Oliver North began two days of testimony at his Iran-Contra trial in Washington, DC.

1989 - The U.S. House Ways and Means Committee reported the class gap was widening.

1990 - A jury in Anchorage, Alaska, found Captain Hazelwood not guilty in the Valdez oil spill.

1991 - Pamela Smart, a high school teacher, was found guilty in New Hampshire of manipulating her student-lover to kill her husband.

1992 - A Fokker F-28 veered off a runway at New York's LaGuardia airport and into Flushing Bay, killing 27 people.

1993 - Cleveland Indians pitchers Steve Olin and Tim Crews were killed in a boating accident in Florida. Bob Ojeda was seriously injured in the accident.

1993 - Intel introduced the Pentium-processor (80586) 64 bits-60 MHz-100+ MIPS.

1995 - Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov returned to Earth after setting a record for 438 days in space.

1997 - Tara Lipinski, at 14 years and 10 months, became the youngest women's world figure skating champion.

2002 - The U.S. Postal Rate Commission approved a request for a postal rate increase of first-class stamps from 34 cents to 37 cents by June 30. It was the first time a postal rate case was resolved through a settlement between various groups. The groups included the U.S. Postal Service, postal employees, mailer groups and competitors.

2002 - A collection of letters and cards sent by Princess Diana of Wales sold for $33,000. The letters and cards were written to a former housekeeper at Diana's teenage home.

March 23, 2015

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 printed use of "OK" [oll korrect] occurred 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, 2015

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.

2014 - It was announced that the U.S. and its allies would exclude Russia from the G8 meeting and boycott a planned summit in Sochi in response to Russia's takeover of Crimea.

March 25, 2015

0421 - The city of Venice was founded.

1306 - Robert the Bruce was crowned king of Scotland.

1409 - The Council of Pisa opened.

1609 - Henry Hudson left on an exploration for Dutch East India Co.

1634 - Lord Baltimore founded the Catholic colony of Maryland.

1655 - Puritans jailed Governor Stone after a military victory over Catholic forces in the colony of Maryland.

1655 - Christian Huygens discovered Titan. Titan is Saturn's largest satellite.

1669 - Mount Etna in Sicily erupted destroying Nicolosi. 20,000 people were killed.

1700 - England, France and Netherlands ratify the 2nd Extermination Treaty.

1753 - Voltaire left the court of Frederik II of Prussia.

1774 - English Parliament passed the Boston Port Bill.

1776 - The Continental Congress authorized a medal for General George Washington.

1802 - France, Netherlands, Spain and England signed the Peace of Amiens.

1807 - The first railway passenger service began in England.

1807 - British Parliament abolished the slave trade.

1813 - The frigate USS Essex flew the first U.S. flag in battle in the Pacific.

1814 - The Netherlands Bank was established.

1820 - Greece freedom revolt against anti Ottoman attack

1821 - Greece gained independence from Turkey.

1856 - A. E. Burnside patented Burnside carbine.

1857 - Frederick Laggenheim took the first photo of a solar eclipse.

1865 - The SS General Lyon at Cape Hatteras caught fire and sank. 400 people were killed.

1865 - During the American Civil War, Confederate forces captured Fort Stedman in Virginia.

1879 - Japan invaded the kingdom of Liuqiu (Ryukyu) Islands, formerly a vassal of China.

1895 - Italian troops invaded Abyssinia (Ethiopia).

1898 - The Intercollegiate Trapshooting Association was formed in New York City.

1900 - The U.S. Socialist Party was formed in Indianapolis.

1901 - 55 people died when a Rock Island train derailed near Marshalltown, IA.

1901 - The Mercedes was introduced by Daimler at the five-day "Week of Nice" in Nice, France.

1901 - It was reported in Washington, DC, that Cubans were beginning to fear annexation.

1902 - Irving W. Colburn patented the sheet glass drawing machine.

1902 - In Russia, 567 students were found guilty of "political disaffection." 95 students were exiled to Siberia.

1904 - E.D. Morel and Roger Casement formed the Congo Reform Association in Liverpool.

1905 - Rebel battle flags that were captured during the American Civil War were returned to the South.

1905 - Russia received Japan's terms for peace.

1907 - Nicaraguan troops took Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras.

1908 - Wilhelm II paid an official visit to Italy's king in Venice.

1909 - In Russia, revolutionary Popova was arrested on 300 murder charges.

1911 - In New York City, 146 women were killed in fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company in New York City. The owners of the company were indicted on manslaughter charges because some of the employees had been behind locked doors in the factory. The owners were later acquitted and in 1914 they were ordered to pay damages to each of the twenty-three families that had sued.

1913 - The Palace Theatre opened in New York City.

1915 - 21 people died when a U.S. F-4 submarine sank off the Hawaiian coast.

1919 - The Paris Peace Commission adopted a plan to protect nations from the influx of foreign labor.

1923 - The British government granted Trans-Jordan autonomy.

1931 - Fifty people were killed in riots that broke out in India. Gandhi was one of many people assaulted.

1931 - The Scottsboro Boys were arrested in Alabama.

1936 - The Detroit Red Wings defeated the Montreal Maroons in the longest hockey game to date. The game lasted for 2 hours and 56 minutes.

1940 - The U.S. agreed to give Britain and France access to all American warplanes.

1941 - Yugoslavia joined the Axis powers.

1941 - The first paprika mill was incorporated in Dollon, SC.

1947 - A coalmine explosion in Centralia, IL, killed 111 people.

1947 - John D. Rockefeller III presented a check for $8.5 million to the United Nations for the purchase of land for the site of the U.N. center.

1953 - The USS Missouri fired on targets at Kojo, North Korea.

1954 - RCA manufactured its first color TV set and began mass production.

1957 - The European Economic Community was established with the signing of the Treaty of Rome.

1960 - A guided missile was launched from a nuclear powered submarine for the first time.

1965 - Martin Luther King Jr. led a group of 25,000 to the state capital in Montgomery, AL.

1966 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the "poll tax" was unconstitutional.

1970 - The Concorde made its first supersonic flight.

1971 - The Boston Patriots became the New England Patriots.

1972 - Bobby Hull joined Gordie Howe to become only the second National Hockey League player to score 600 career goals.

1975 - King Faisal of Saudi Arabia was shot to death by a nephew. The nephew, with a history of mental illness, was beheaded the following June.

1981 - The U.S. Embassy in San Salvador was damaged when gunmen attacked using rocket propelled grenades and machine guns.

1981 - The Down Jones industrial avarage of selected stocks on the New York Stock Exchanged closed at its highest level in more than eight years.

1982 - Wayne Gretzky became the first player in the NHL to score 200 points in a season.

1983 - The U.S. Congress passed legislation to rescue the U.S. social security system from bankruptcy.

1985 - It was reported that a U.S. Army Major stationed in East Germany had been shot and killed by a Soviet Border Guard.

1986 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan ordered emergency aid for the Honduran army. U.S. helicopters took Honduran troops to the Nicaraguan border.

1988 - Robert E. Chambers Jr. pled guilty to first-degree manslaughter in the death of 18-year-old Jennifer Levin. The case was known as New York City's "preppie murder case."

1989 - In Paris, the Louvre reopened with I.M. Pei's new courtyard pyramid.

1990 - A fire in Happy Land, an illegal New York City social club, killed 87 people.

1990 - Estonia voted for independence from the Soviet Union.

1991 - Iraqi President Saddam Hussein launched a major counter-offensive to recapture key towns from Kurds in northern Iraq.

1992 - Soviet cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev returned to Earth after spending 10 months aboard the orbiting Mir space station.

1993 - President de Klerk admitted that South Africa had built six nuclear bombs, but said that they had since been dismantled.

1994 - United States troops completed their withdrawal from Somalia.

1995 - Boxer Mike Tyson was released from jail after serving 3 years.

1996 - An 81-day standoff by the antigovernment Freemen began at a ranch near Jordan, MT.

1996 - The U.S. issued a newly redesigned $100 bill for circulation.

1998 - A cancer patient was the first known to die under Oregon's doctor-assisted suicide law.

1998 - The FCC nets $578.6 million at auction for licenses for new wireless technology.

1998 - Quinn Pletcher was found guilty on charges of extortion. He had threatened to kill Bill Gates unless he was paid $5 million.

2002 - The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) dismissed complaints against Walt Disney Co.'s ABC network broadcast of a Victoria's Secret fashion show in November 2001.

2004 - The U.S. Senate voted (61-38) on the Unborn Victims of Violence Act (H.R. 1997) to make it a separate crime to harm a fetus during the commission of a violent federal crime.

March 26, 2015

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, 2015

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.

May 5, 2015

1494 - Christopher Columbus sighted Jamaica on his second trip to the Western Hemisphere. He named the island Santa Gloria.

1798 - U.S. Secretary of War William McHenry ordered that the USS Constitution be made ready for sea. The frigate was launched on October 21, 1797, but had never been put to sea.

1809 - Mary Kies was awarded the first patent to go to a woman. It was for technique for weaving straw with silk and thread.

1814 - The British attacked the American forces at Ft. Ontario, Oswego, NY.

1834 - The first mainland railway line opened in Belgium.

1862 - The Battle of Puebla took place. It is celebrated as Cinco de Mayo Day.

1865 - The Thirteenth Amendment was ratified, abolishing slavery in the U.S.

1891 - music Hall was dedicated in New York City. It was later renamed Carnegie Hall.

1892 - The U.S. Congress extended the Geary Chinese Exclusion Act for 10 more years. The act required Chinese in the U.S. to be registered or face deportation.

1901 - The first Catholic mass for night workers was held at the Church of St. Andrew in New York City.

1904 - The third perfect game of the major leagues was thrown by Cy Young (Boston Red Sox) against the Philadelphia Athletics. It was the first perfect game under modern rules.

1912 - Soviet Communist Party newspaper Pravda began publishing.

1916 - U.S. Marines invaded the Dominican Republic.

1917 - Eugene Jacques Bullard becomes the first African-American aviator when he earned his flying certificate with the French Air Service.

1925 - John T. Scopes, a biology teacher in Dayton, TN, was arrested for teaching Darwin's theory of evolution.

1926 - Eisenstein's film "Battleship Potemkin" was shown in Germany for the first time.

1926 - Sinclair Lewis refused a 1925 Pulitzer for "Arrowsmith."

1936 - Edward Ravenscroft received a patent for the screw-on bottle cap with a pour lip.

1945 - The Netherlands and Denmark were liberated from Nazi control.

1945 - A Japanese balloon bomb exploded on Gearhart Mountain in Oregon. A pregnant woman and five children were killed.

1955 - "Damn Yankees" opened on Broadway.

1955 - The Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) became a sovereign state.

1956 - Jim Bailey became the first runner to break the four-minute mile in the U.S. He was clocked at 3:58.5.

1961 - Alan Shepard became the first American in space when he made a 15 minute suborbital flight.

1966 - Willie Mays broke the National League record for home runs when he hit his 512th.

1978 - Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds registered his 3,000th major league hit.

1987 - The U.S. congressional Iran-Contra hearings opened.

1991 - In New York, Carnegie Hall marked its 100th anniversary.

1997 - Dolores Hope received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1997 - Ivan Reitman received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

2000 - The final episode of "Boy Meets World" aired on ABC.

May 5, 2015

1527 - German troops began sacking Rome, bringing about the end of the Renaissance.

1529 - Babur defeated the Afghan Chiefs in the Battle of Ghagra, India.

1576 - The peace treaty of Chastenoy ended the fifth war of religion.

1682 - King Louis XIV moved his court to Versailles, France.

1835 - James Gordon Bennett published the "New York Herald" for the first time.

1840 - The first adhesive postage stamps went on sale in Great Britain.

1851 - The mechanical refrigerator was patented by Dr. John Gorrie.

1851 - Linus Yale patented the clock-type lock.

1861 - Arkansas became the ninth state to secede from the Union.

1877 - Chief Crazy Horse surrendered to U.S. troops in Nebraska.

1882 - The U.S. Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act. The act barred Chinese immigrants from the U.S. for 10 years.

1889 - The Universal Exposition opened in Paris, France, marking the dedication of the Eiffel Tower. Also at the exposition was the first automobile in Paris, the Mercedes-Benz.

1910 - Kind Edward VII of England died. He was succeeded by his second son, George V.

1915 - Babe Ruth hit his first major league home run while playing for the Boston Red Sox.

1937 - The German airship Hindenburg crashed and burned in Lakehurst, NJ. Thirty-six people (of the 97 on board) were killed.

1941 - Joseph Stalin assumed the Soviet premiership.

1941 - Bob Hope gave his first USO show at California's March Field.

1942 - During World War II, the Japanese seized control of the Philippines. About 15,000 Americans and Filipinos on Corregidor surrendered to the Japanese.

1945 - Axis Sally made her final propaganda broadcast to Allied troops.

1946 - The New York Yankees became the first major league baseball team to travel by plane.

1954 - British runner Roger Banister broke the four minute mile.

1957 - U.S. Senator John Fitzgerald Kennedy was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his book "Profiles in Courage".

1959 - The Pablo Picasso painting of a Dutch girl was sold for $154,000 in London. It was the highest price paid (at the time) for a painting by a living artist.

1960 - Britain's Princess Margaret married Anthony Armstrong Jones. They were divorced in 1978.

1960 - U.S. President Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act of 1960.

1962 - The first nuclear warhead was fired from the Polaris submarine.

1981 - A jury of international architects and sculptors unanimously selected Maya Ying Lin's entry for the design of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

1994 - The Chunnel officially opened. The tunnel under the English Channel links England and France.

1994 - Former Arkansas state worker Paula Jones filed suit against U.S. President Clinton. The case alleged that he had sexually harassed her in 1991.

1997 - Army Staff Sgt. Delmar G. Simpson was sentenced to 25 years in prison for raping six trainees at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland.

1997 - Four health-care companies agreed to a settlement of $600 million to hemophiliacs who had contracted AIDS from tainted blood between 1978-1985.

1999 - Britain's Labour Party won the largest number of seats in the first elections for Scotland's new Parliament and Wales' new Assembly.

1999 - A parole board in New York voted to release Amy Fisher. She had been in jail for 7 years for shooting her lover's wife, Mary Jo Buttafuoco, in the face.

May 7, 2015

0558 - The dome of the church of St. Sophia in Constantinople collapsed. It was immediately rebuilt as ordered by Justinian.

1274 - The Second Council of Lyons opened in France to regulate the election of the pope.

1429 - The English siege of Orleans was broken by Joan of Arc.

1525 - The German peasants' revolt was crushed by the ruling class and church.

1663 - The first Theatre Royal was opened in London.

1763 - Indian chief Pontiac began all out war on the British in New York.

1789 - The first U.S. Presidential Inaugural Ball was held in New York City.

1800 - The U.S. Congress divided the Northwest Territory into two parts. The western part became the Indiana Territory and the eastern section remained the Northwest Territory.

1847 - The AMA (American Medical Association) was organized in Philadelphia, PA.

1898 - The first Intercollegiate Trapshooting Association meet was held in New Haven, CT.

1912 - Columbia University approved final plans for awarding the Pulitzer Prize in several categories.

1912 - The first airplane equipped with a machine gun flew over College Park, MD.

1915 - The Lusitania, a civilian ship, was sunk by a German submarine. 1,201 people were killed.

1926 - A U.S. report showed that one-third of the nation's exports were motors.

1937 - The German Condor Legion arrived in Spain to assist Franco’s forces.

1939 - Germany and Italy announced a military and political alliance known as the Rome-Berlin Axis.

1940 - Winston Churchill became British Prime Minister.

1942 - In the Battle of the Coral Sea, Japanese and American navies attacked each other with carrier planes. It was the first time in the history of naval warfare where two enemy fleets fought without seeing each other.

1943 - The last major German strongholds in North Africa, Tunis and Bizerte, fell to Allied forces.

1945 - Baseball owner Branch Rickey announced the organization of the United States Negro Baseball League. There were 6 teams.

1945 - Germany signed unconditional surrender ending World War II. It would take effect the next day.

1946 - Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corp. was founded. The company was later renamed Sony.

1951 - Russia was admitted to participate in the 1952 Olympic Games by the International Olympic Committee.

1954 - French Colonial Forces surrendered to the Vietminh at Dien Bien Phu after 55 days of fighting.

1954 - The United States and the United Kingdom rejected the Soviet Union's bid to join NATO.

1958 - Howard Johnson set an aircraft altitude record in F-104.

1960 - Leonid Brezhnev became president of the Soviet Union.

1975 - U.S. President Ford declared an end to the Vietnam War.

1977 - Rookie Janet Guthrie set the fastest time on opening day of practice for the Indianapolis 500. Her time was 185.607.

1984 - A $180 million out-of-court settlement was announced in the Agent Orange class-action suit brought by Vietnam veterans who claimed they had suffered injury from exposure to the defoliant while serving in the armed forces.

1987 - Shelly Long, as Diane Chambers, made her last appearance as a regular on the TV show "Cheers."

1992 - A 203-year-old proposed constitutional amendment barring the U.S. Congress from giving itself a midterm pay raise was ratified as the 27th Amendment.

1994 - The Edvard Munch painting "The Scream" was recovered after being stolen 3 months earlier from an Oslo Museum. This version of "The Scream", one of four different versions, was painted on paper.

1996 - The trial of Serbian police officer Dusan Tadic opened in the Netherlands. He was later convicted on murder-torture charges and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

1997 - A report released by the U.S. government said that Switzerland provided Nazi Germany with equipment and credit during World War II. Germany exchanged for gold what had been plundered or stolen. Switzerland did not comply with postwar agreements to return the gold.

1998 - Daimler-Benz bought Chrysler Corp. for close to $40 billion. It was the largest industrial merger on record.

1998 - Residents of London voted to elect their own mayor for the first time in history. The vote would take place in May 2000.

1998 - Leeza Gibbons received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1999 - A jury ruled that "The Jenny Jones Show" and Warner Bros. were liable in the shooting death of Scott Amedure. He was killed by another guest on the show. The jury's award was $25 million.

1999 - Jerry Moss received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1999 - In Belgrade, Yugoslavia, three Chinese citizens were killed and 20 were wounded when a NATO plane mistakenly bombed the Chinese embassy.

1999 - In Guinea-Bissau, the government of President João Bernardo Vieira was ousted in a military coup.

2000 - Russian President Vladimir V. Putin named First Deputy Premier Mikhail Kasyanov as premier.

2003 - In Washington, DC, General Motors Corp. delivered six fuel cell vehicles to Capitol Hill for lawmakers and others to test drive during the next two years.

2003 - Roger Moore collapsed during a matinee performance of the Broadway comedy "The Play What I Wrote." He finished the show after a 10-minute break. He was fitted with a pacemaker the following day.

2013 - The Dow Jones industrial average closed at 15,056.20. It was the first time it had closed over 15,000.

May 8, 2015

1096 - Peter the Hermit and his army reached Hungary. They passed through without incident.

1450 - jack Cade's Rebellion-Kentishmen revolted against King Henry VI.

1541 - Hernando de Soto reached the Mississippi River. He called it Rio de Espiritu Santo.

1794 - Antoine Lavoisier was executed by guillotine. He was the French chemist that discovered oxygen.

1794 - The United States Post Office was established.

1846 - The first major battle of the Mexican War was fought. The battle occurred in Palo Alto, TX.

1847 - The rubber tire was patented by Robert W. Thompson.

1879 - George Selden applied for the first automobile patent.

1886 - Pharmacist Dr. John Styth Pemberton invented what would later be called "Coca-Cola."

1904 - U.S. Marines landed in Tangier to protect the Belgian legation.

1914 - The U.S. Congress passed a Joint Resolution that designated the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day.

1915 - H.P. Whitney's Regret became the first filly to win the Kentucky Derby.

1919 - The first transatlantic flight took-off by a navy seaplane.

1921 - Sweden abolished capital punishment.

1933 - Gandhi began a hunger strike to protest British oppression in India.

1939 - clay Puett's electric starting gate was used for the first time.

1943 - The Germans suppressed a revolt by Polish Jews and destroyed the Warsaw Ghetto.

1945 - U.S. President Harry Truman announced that World War II had ended in Europe.

1954 - Parry O'Brien became the first to toss a shot put over 60 feet. O'Brien achieved a distance of 60 feet 5 1/4 inches.

1956 - Alfred E. Neuman appeared on the cover of "Mad Magazine" for the first time.

1958 - U.S. President Eisenhower ordered the National Guard out of Little Rock as Ernest Green became the first black to graduate from an Arkansas public school.

1959 - Mike and Marian Ilitch founded "Little Caesars Pizza Treat".

1960 - Diplomatic relations between Cuba and the Soviet Union resumed.

1961 - New Yorkers selected a new name for their new National League baseball franchise. They chose the Mets.

1970 - Construction workers broke up an anti-war protest on New York City's Wall Street.

1973 - Militant American Indians who had held the South Dakota hamlet of Wounded Knee for 10 weeks surrendered.

1984 - The Soviet Union announced that they would not participate in the 1984 Summer Olympics Games in Los Angeles.

1984 - Joanie (Erin Moran) and Chachi (Scott Baio) got married on ABC-TV's "Happy Days."

1985 - "New Coke" was released to the public on the 99th anniversary of Coca-Cola.

1986 - Reporters were told that 84,000 people had been evacuated from areas near the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Soviet Ukraine.

1997 - Larry King received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1998 - A pipe burst leaving a million residents without water in Malaysia's capital area. This added to four days of shortages that 2 million already faced.

1999 - The first female cadet graduated from The Citadel military college.

May 9, 2015

1429 - Joan of Arc defeated the besieging English at Orleans.

1502 - Christopher Columbus left Spain for his final trip to the Western Hemisphere.

1671 - Thomas "Captain" Blood stole the crown jewels from the Tower of London.

1754 - The first newspaper cartoon in America showed a divided snake "Join or die" in "The Pennsylvania Gazette."

1785 - Joseph Bramah patented the beer-pump handle.

1825 - The Chatham Theatre opened in New York City. It was the first gas-lit theater in America.

1901 - In Australia, the Duke of Cornwall and York declared the First Commonwealth Parliament open.

1915 - German and French forces fought the Battle of Artois.

1926 - Americans Richard Byrd and Floyd Bennett became the first men to fly an airplane over the North Pole.

1930 - A starting gate was used to start a Triple Crown race for the first time.

1936 - Fascist Italy took Addis Abba and annexed Ethiopia.

1936 - The first sheet of postage stamps of more than one variety went on sale in New York City.

1940 - Vivien Leigh debuted in America on stage in "Romeo and Juliet" with Lawrence Olivier.

1941 - The German submarine U-110 was captured at sea by Britain's Royal navy.

1945 - U.S. officials announced that the midnight entertainment curfew was being lifted immediately.

1946 - King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy abdicated and was replaced by Umberto.

1955 - West Germany joined NATO.

1958 - Richard Burton made his network television debut in the presentation of "Wuthering Heights" on CBS-TV.

1960 - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved for sale an oral birth-control pill for the first time.

1961 - Jim Gentile (Baltimore Orioles) set a major league baseball record when he hit a grand slam home run in two consecutive innings. The game was against the Minnesota Twins.

1962 - A laser beam was successfully bounced off Moon for the first time.

1974 - The House Judiciary Committee began formal hearings on the Nixon impeachment.

1978 - The bullet-riddled body of former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro was found in an automobile in the center of Rome. The Red Brigades had abducted him.

1980 - A Liberian freighter hit the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay in Florida. 35 motorists were killed and a 1,400-foot section of the bridge collapsed.

1987 - Tom Cruise and Mimi Rogers were married.

1994 - Nelson Mandela was chosen to be South Africa's first black president.

1996 - In video testimony to a courtroom in Little Rock, AR, U.S. President Clinton insisted that he had nothing to do with a $300,000 loan in the criminal case against his former Whitewater partners.

2002 - In Bethlehem, West Bank, a deal was reached that would end the 38-day standoff at the Church of the Nativity. Thirteen suspected militants were to be deported to several different countries. The standoff had begun on April 2, 2002.

2002 - In Kaspiisk, Russia, 39 people were killed and at least 130 were injurde when a remote-controlled bomb exploded during a holiday parade.

2002 - In Bahrain, people were allowed to vote for representatives for the first time in nearly 30 years. Women were allowed to vote for the first time in the country's history.

May 10, 2015

1503 - Christopher Columbus discovered the Cayman Islands.

1676 - Bacon's Rebellion, which pits frontiersmen against the government, began.

1768 - The imprisonment of the journalist John Wilkes as an outlaw provoked violence in London. Wilkes was returned to parliament as a member for Middlesex.

1773 - The English Parliament passed the Tea Act, which taxed all tea in the U.S. colonies.

1774 - Louis XVI ascended the throne of France.

1775 - Ethan Allen and Colonel Benedict Arnold led an attack on the British Fort Ticonderoga and captured it from the British.

1796 - Napoleon Bonaparte won a brilliant victory against the Austrians at Lodi bridge in Italy.

1840 - Mormon leader Joseph Smith moved his band of followers to Illinois to escape the hostilities they had experienced in Missouri.

1857 - The Seepoys of India revolted against the British Army.

1865 - Confederate President Jefferson Davis was captured by Union troops near Irvinville, GA.

1869 - Central Pacific and Union Pacific Rail Roads meet in Promontory, UT. A golden spike was driven in at the celebration of the first transcontinental railroad in the U.S.

1872 - Victoria Woodhull became the first woman nominated for the U.S. presidency.

1876 - Richard Wagner’s "Centennial Inaugural March" was heard for the first time at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, PA.

1898 - A vending machine law was enacted in Omaha, NE. It cost $5,000 for a permit.

1908 - The first Mother's Day observance took place during a church service in Grafton, West Virginia.

1924 - J. Edgar Hoover was appointed head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

1927 - The Hotel Statler in Boston, MA. became the first hotel to install radio headsets in each of its 1,300 rooms.

1928 - WGY-TV in Schenectady, NY, began regular television programming.

1930 - The Adler Planetarium opened to the public in Chicago, IL.

1933 - The Nazis staged massive public book burnings in Germany.

1940 - Germany invaded Belgium, France, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg.

1941 - England's House of Commons was destroyed by a German air raid.

1941 - Rudolf Hess, Adolf Hitler's deputy, parachuted into Scotland on what he claimed was a peace mission.

1942 - U.S. forces in the Philippines began to surrender to the Japanese.

1943 - U.S. troops invaded Attu in the Aleutian Islands to expel the Japanese.

1960 - The U.S.S. Triton completed the first circumnavigation of the globe under water. The trip started on February 16.

1962 - Marvel Comics published the first issue of "The Incredible Hulk."

1968 - Preliminary Vietnam peace talks began in Paris.

1969 - The National and American Football Leagues announced their plans to merge for the 1970-71 season.

1978 - Britain's Princess Margaret and the Earl of Snowdon announced they were divorcing after 18 years of marriage.

1982 - Elliott Gould made his dramatic television debut after 30 movies in 17 years. He starred in "The Rules of Marriage" on CBS-TV.

1986 - Navy Lt. Commander Donnie Cochran became the first black pilot to fly with the Blue Angels team.

1994 - Nelson Mandela was sworn in as South Africa’s first black president.

1997 - An earthquake in northeastern Iran killed at least 2,400 people.

1999 - China broke off talks on human rights with the U.S. in response to NATO's accidental bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia.

1999 - The Cezanne painting "Still Life With Curtain, Pitcher and Bowl of Fruit" sold for 60.5 million.

2000 - 11,000 residents were evacuated in Los Alamos, NM, due to a fire that was blown into a canyon. The fire had been deliberately set to clear brush.

2001 - Boeing Co. announced that it would be moving its headquarters to Chicago, IL.

2001 - In Ghana, 121 people were killed in a stampede at a soccer game.

2002 - Robert Hanssen was sentenced to life in prison with no chance for parole. Hanssen, an FBI agent, had sold U.S. secrets to Moscow for $1.4 million in cash and diamonds.

2002 - Taiwan test fired a locally made Sky Bow II surface-to-air missile for the first time. They also fired three U.S.-made Hawk missiles.

2002 - Dr. Pepper announced that it would be introducing a new flavor, Red Fusion, for the first time in 117 years.

2011 - It was announced that Microsoft had closed a deal to purchase the internet phone service Skype for $8.5 billion.

2013 - In New York, NY, crane operators hoisted the final pieces of the spire atop One World Trade Center (formerly called the Freedom Tower).

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