Today In History

[minidog]

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.

1847 - John Chapman 'Johnny Appleseed' died in Allen County, Indiana. This day became known as Johnny Appleseed Day.

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.

1905 - The Parisian subway was officially inaugurated.

1907 - U.S. President 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.

1927 - The Flatheads Gang stole $104,250 in the first armored-car robbery near Pittsburgh, PA.

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 organ 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.

1965 - The Rev. James J. Reeb, a white minister from Boston, died after being beaten by whites during a civil rights disturbances in Selma, Alabama.

1966 - Three men were convicted of the murder of Malcolm X.

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

1977 - More than 130 hostages held in Washington, DC, by Hanafi Muslims were freed after ambassadors from three Islamic nations joined the negotiations.

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

1978 - Palestinian guerrillas on the Tel Aviv Haifa highway killed 34 Israelis.

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.

1991 - In South Africa a curfew was imposed on black townships after fighting between political gangs had left 49 dead.

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.

2003 - Fort Drum, NY, 11 troops were killed and two were injured during a training mission when a Black Hawk helicopter crashed.

2004 - In Madrid, Spain, several coordinated bombing attacks on commuter trains killed at least 190 people and injured more than 2,000.
Current Birthdays


Terrence Howard turns 40 years old today

86 Terence Alexander
Actor


78 Rupert Murdoch
Media mogul


75 Sam Donaldson
Broadcast journalist


73 Antonin Scalia
Supreme Court justice


70 Flaco Jimenez
Musician (Texas Tornados)


64 Tricia O'Neil
Actress


63 Mark Metcalf
Actor ("Animal House")


62 Mark Stein
Rock musician (Vanilla Fudge)


59 Bobby McFerrin
Singer


59 Jerry Zucker
Director


57 Susan Richardson
Actress ("Eight is Enough")


56 Jimmy Iovine
Head of Interscope Records


55 Gale Norton
Former secretary of the interior


54 Jimmy Fortune
Country singer (The Statler Brothers)


54 Nina Hagen
Singer


52 Cheryl Lynn
R&B singer


47 Jeffrey Nordling
Actor


46 Alex Kingston
Actress ("ER")


46 David Talbot
Country musician


44 Wallace Langham
Actor ("CSI")


44 Jesse Jackson Jr.
U.S. congressman, D-Ill.


42 John Barrowman
Actor


41 Lisa Loeb
Rock singer


40 Pete Droge
Rock singer


40 Rami Jaffee
Rock musician


38 Johnny Knoxville
Actor ("Jackass")


30 Benji Madden
Rock musician (Good Charlotte)


30 Joel Madden
Rock musician (Good Charlotte)


29 Dan Uggla
Baseball player


28 David Anders
Actor ("Alias")


28 LeToya
R&B singer


27 Thora Birch
Actress


25 Rob Brown
Actor


20 Anton Yelchin
Actor

Historic Birthdays


Ralph Abernathy

3/11/1926 - 4/17/1990
American pastor and civil rights leader

51 Torquato Tasso
3/11/1544 - 4/25/1595
Italian poet of the late Renaissance


76 John McLean
3/11/1785 - 4/4/1861
United States Supreme Court justice; dissented in the Dred Scott decision (1857)


78 Joseph Bertrand
3/11/1822 - 4/5/1900
French mathematician and educator


70 Charles Eastlake
3/11/1836 - 11/20/1906
English museologist and art writer


63 Sir Malcolm Campbell
3/11/1885 - 12/31/1948
English car racer


84 Vannevar Bush
3/11/1890 - 6/28/1974
American electrical engineer and goverment administrator in World War II


70 Dorothy Gish
3/11/1898 - 6/4/1968
American film and stage actress


72 Frederick IX
3/11/1899 - 1/14/1972
Danish king; encouraged resistance against Germans in World War II


89 Lawrence Welk
3/11/1903 - 5/17/1992
American bandleader and showman


79 Harold Wilson
3/11/1916 - 5/24/1995
English Labor Party politician; twice prime minister

 

[minidog]

1496 - Jews were expelled from Syria.

1507 - Cesare Borgia died while fighting alongside his brother, the king of Navarre in Spain.

1609 - The Bermuda Islands became an English colony.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1879 - The British Zulu War began.

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

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

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

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

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

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

1909 - The British Parliament increased naval appropriations for Britain.

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

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

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

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

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

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

1933 - U.S. President 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.

1980 - In Chicago, IL, a jury found John Wayne Gacy Jr. guilty of the murders of 33 men and boys.

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, of the NBA’s 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 - Several bombs were set of in Bombay, India. About 300 were killed and hundreds more were injured.

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.

1997 - Police in Los Angeles arrested Mikail Markhasev for the shooting of Bill Cosby's 27-year-old son, Ennis. Markhasev was later convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

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 - In Houston, Andrea Yates was convicted of murdering her five children in the family bathtub.

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 - In Belgrade, Serbia-Montenegro, Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic was assassinated as he walked into government headquarters. Djindjic had helped to topple Slobodan Milosevic and had declared war on organized crime.

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.

2004 - In Spain, millions of people marched to protest train bombings in Madrid that killed 191 people the day before.

Current Birthdays


Aaron Eckhart turns 41 years old today

81 Edward Albee
Playwright ("Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf")


77 Andrew Young
Civil rights leader, politician


76 Barbara Feldon
Actress ("Get Smart")


69 Al Jarreau
R&B, jazz singer


63 Liza Minnelli
Singer-actress


62 Mitt Romney
Former Massachusetts governor


61 Kent Conrad
U.S. senator, D-N.D.


61 James Taylor
Singer, songwriter


60 Bill Payne
Rock musician (Little Feat)


59 Jon Provost
Actor ("Lassie")


56 Carl Hiaasen
Author


52 Steve Harris
Rock musician (Iron Maiden)


52 Marlon Jackson
Singer (The Jackson Five)


52 Jerry Levine
Actor


49 Courtney B. Vance
Actor


48 Titus Welliver
Actor


47 Darryl Strawberry
Baseball player


46 Julia Campbell
Actress


40 Graham Coxon
Rock musician (Blur)


36 Tommy Bales
Country musician (Flynnville Train)


27 Samm Levine
Actor


15 Tyler Patrick Jones
Actor ("Ghost Whisperer")


10 Kendall Applegate
Actress ("Desperate Housewives")


Historic Birthdays


Adolph Simon Ochs

3/12/1858 - 4/8/1935
American newspaper publisher; owned The New York Times

87 Andre Le Notre
3/12/1613 - 9/15/1700
French landscape architect; designed the Versailles gardens


67 George Berkeley
3/12/1685 - 1/14/1753
Anglo-Irish Anglican bishop, philosopher and scientist


72 Sir John Abbott
3/12/1821 - 10/30/1893
Canadian lawyer, statesman and prime minister (1891-92)


70 Clement Studebaker
3/12/1831 - 11/27/1901
American manufacturer; leader in the auto industry


74 Gabriele D'Annunzio
3/12/1863 - 3/1/1938
Italian novelist, dramatist, journalist and political leader


69 Wilhelm Frick
3/12/1877 - 10/16/1946
German statesman; Hitler's minister of the interior


60 Vaslav Nijinsky
3/12/1889 - 4/8/1950
Russian ballet dancer


68 Elaine de Kooning
3/12/1920 - 2/1/1989
American painter, teacher and art critic


47 Jack Kerouac
3/12/1922 - 10/21/1969
American poet, novelist and spokesman for the Beat movement

 

[minidog]

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

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

1519 - Cortez landed in Mexico.

1639 - Harvard University was named for clergyman John Harvard.

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

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

1781 - Sir William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus.

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

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

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

1877 - Chester Greenwood patented the earmuff.

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

1881 - Tsar Alexander II was assassinated when a bomb was thrown at him near his palace.

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.

1928 - The St. Francis Dam in California burst and killing 400 people.

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.

1964 - 38 residents of a New York City neighborhood failed to respond to the screams of Kitty Genovese, 28 years old, as she was stabbed to death.

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

1970 - A group calling itself "Revolutionary Force 9" took credit for 3 bombs that exploded in New York City.

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.

1992 - An earthquake in eastern Turkey killed more than 1,000.

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.

1998 - Sgt. Maj. Gene McKinney, at one time the U.S. Army's top enlisted man, was acquitted of pressuring military women for sex. He was convicted of trying to persuade the chief accuser to lie. He was reprimanded and had his rank reduced.

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.

Current Birthdays


Dana Delany turns 53 years old today

84 Roy Haynes
Jazz drummer


79 Jan Howard
Country singer


79 Rosalind Elias
Opera singer


76 Mike Stoller
Songwriter


70 Neil Sedaka
Singer, songwriter


59 William H. Macy
Actor


56 Deborah Raffin
Actress


55 Robin Duke
Comedian


54 Glenne Headly
Actress


52 John Hoeven
Governor of North Dakota


49 Adam Clayton
Rock musician (U2)


47 Terrence Blanchard
Jazz trumpeter


41 Christopher Collet
Actor


40 Matt McDonough
Rock musician (Mudvayne)


38 Annabeth Gish
Actress


38 Tracy Wells
Actress


37 Common
Rapper, actor


37 Khujo
Rapper


34 Glenn Lewis
R&B singer


33 Danny Masterson
Actor ("That 70s Show")


30 Johan Santana
Baseball player


24 Emile Hirsch
Actor


23 Natalie Albino
Singer (Nina Sky)


23 Nicole Albino
Singer (Nina Sky)

Historic Birthdays


Percival Lowell

3/13/1855 - 11/12/1916
American astronomer; helped discover Pluto


59 Montdory
3/13/1594 - 11/10/1653
French actor


73 Charles Bonnet
3/13/1720 - 5/20/1793
Swiss naturalist and philosophical writer


81 Charles Grey
3/13/1764 - 7/17/1845
English Whig party leader and prime minister (1830-34)


60 Karl Schinkel
3/13/1781 - 10/9/1841
German architect and painter


68 William Glackens
3/13/1870 - 5/22/1938
American artist


63 Albert Stevens
3/13/1886 - 3/26/1949
American army officer, balloonist and aerial photographer


86 Janet Flanner
3/13/1892 - 11/7/1978
American writer and Paris correspondent for The New Yorker


71 George Seferis
3/13/1900 - 9/20/1971
Greek Nobel Prize-winning poet, essayist and diplomat


74 William J. Casey
3/13/1913 - 5/6/1987
American director of the C.I.A. (1981-87)

 

[Facetious]

15 March, 1964
Elizabeth Taylor Weds Richard Burton :hatsoff:

for the first time

 

[Wainkerr99]

I was born 13 March.

 

[assholebythedoor]

Happy Birthday I was born March 19th

 

[Wainkerr99]

Caesar was assassinated in the Roman Senate on the ides of March. (His wife warned him).

Johnson appears before Congress to demand voting rights for all.
In 1965 President Lyndon B. Johnson addressed a joint session of Congress to urge the passage of legislation guaranteeing voting rights for all. It was signed into law in August.

In 1937 the world's first blood bank was established in Chicago.

 

[assholebythedoor]

Freeones has become boring as ever.

 

[minidog]

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. He greeted the Pilgrims by saying, "Welcome, Englishmen! My name is Samoset."

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.

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 and Vice Admiral John Poindexter of the National Security Council 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 plead 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.

Current Birthdays


Lauren Graham turns 42 years old today.


83 Jerry Lewis
Actor, comedian


68 Bernardo Bertolucci
Director


68 Chuck Woolery
Game show host


67 Jerry Jeff Walker
Country singer


62 Robin Williams
Country singer


60 Erik Estrada
Actor ("CHiPS")


60 Victor Garber
Actor ("Alias")


58 Ray Benson
Country singer (Asleep at the Wheel)


58 Kate Nelligan
Actress


55 Nancy Wilson
Rock singer (Heart)


54 Isabelle Huppert
Actress


53 Ozzie Newsome
Football Hall of Famer


53 Clifton Powell
Actor


50 Flavor Flav
Rapper (Public Enemy)


46 Jimmy DeGrasso
Rock musician (Megadeth)


45 Patty Griffin
Folk singer


40 Judah Friedlander
Actor ("30 Rock")


38 Alan Tudyk
Actor ("Firefly")


36 Tim Kang
Actor ("The Mentalist")


33 Blu Cantrell
R&B singer


31 Brooke Burns
Actress


18 Wolfgang Van Halen
Rock musician (Van Halen )

Historic Birthdays


Maxim Gorky

3/16/1868 (O.S.) - 6/14/1936
Russian novelist and short-story writer


49 Hieronymus Emser
3/16/1478 - 11/8/1527
German theologian, lecturer, editor and essayist


82 Giuseppe Crespi
3/16/1665 - 7/16/1747
Italian Baroque painter


97 Caroline Herschel
3/16/1750 - 1/9/1848
German-born English astronomer


85 James Madison
3/16/1751 - 6/28/1836
4th president of the United States (1809-17)


64 Antoine-Jean Gros
3/16/1771 - 6/26/1835
French Romantic painter


82 Francis Chesney
3/16/1789 - 1/30/1872
English soldier, explorer and Middle East traveler


74 Francois-Emile Matthes
3/16/1874 - 6/21/1948
Dutch-born American geologist and topographer


66 Reza Khan Pahlavi
3/16/1878 - 7/26/1944
Iranian Shah (1925-41)


92 James Petrillo
3/16/1892 - 10/23/1984
American labor leader


78 Alberto Gainza Paz
3/16/1899 - 12/26/1977
Argentine newspaper editor of La Prensa


67 Josef Mengele
3/16/1911 - 2/7/1979
German Nazi doctor at Auschwitz extermination camp


40 Vladimir Komarov
3/16/1927 - 4/24/1967
Russian cosmonaut

 

[minidog]

0461 - Bishop Patrick, St. Patrick, died in Saul. Ireland celebrates this day in his honor.

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 - John Joseph Montgomery made the first glider flight in Otay, California.

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 United Nations 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 - Four Dutch television crewmembers were killed in El Salvador.

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

Current Birthdays


Rob Lowe turns 45 years old today.

76 Myrlie Evers-Williams
Former NAACP chairwoman


68 Paul Kantner
Rock musician (Jefferson Airplane/Starship)


66 Jim Weatherly
Singer, songwriter


65 John Sebastian
Rock musician (Lovin' Spoonful)


64 Michael Hayden
Former CIA director


63 Harold Brown
Rock musician (War)


60 Patrick Duffy
Actor


58 Kurt Russell
Actor


57 Susie Allanson
Country singer


55 Lesley-Anne Down
Actress


54 Paul Overstreet
Country singer


54 Gary Sinise
Actor ("CSI: NY")


49 Vicki Lewis
Actress


48 Casey Siemaszko
Actor


47 Rob Sitch
Writer, director


42 Van Conner
Rock musician (Screaming Trees)


42 Billy Corgan
Rock musician (Smashing Pumpkins)


41 Mathew St. Patrick
Actor ("Six Feet Under")


40 Yanic Truesdale
Actor ("Gilmore Girls")


37 Melissa Auf der Maur
Rock musician


37 Mia Hamm
Soccer player


36 Caroline Corr
Rock musician (The Corrs)


35 Marisa Coughlan
Actress


34 Swifty
Rapper (D12)


34 Natalie Zea
Actress ("Dirty Sexy Money")


33 Brittany Daniel
Actress


33 Stephen Gately
Singer

Historic Birthdays


Bobby Jones

3/17/1902 - 12/18/1971
American golfer; first to win the Grand Slam


69 Jean-Baptiste Oudry
3/17/1686 - 4/30/1755
French Rococo painter, designer and illustrator


87 Roger Brooke Taney
3/17/1777 - 10/12/1864
5th chief justice of the United States; noted for the Dred Scott decision (1857)


55 Kate Greenaway
3/17/1846 - 11/6/1901
English artist and book illustrator


80 Charles Brush
3/17/1849 - 6/15/1929
American inventor and industrialist


92 Walter Rudolf Hess
3/17/1881 - 8/12/1973
Swiss Nobel Prize-winning physiologist


75 Bayard Rustin
3/17/1912 - 8/24/1987
American civil rights activist


45 Nat King Cole
3/17/1919 - 2/15/1965
American musician


54 Rudolf Nureyev
3/17/1938 - 1/6/1993
Russian ballet dancer

 

[minidog]

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

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

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

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

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

1583 - Dutch States General & Anjou signed a treaty.

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

1692 - William Penn was deprived of his governing powers.

1766 - Britain repealed the Stamp Act.

1813 - David Melville patented the gas streetlight.

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

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

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

1850 - Henry Wells & William Fargo founded American Express.

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

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

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

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

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

1900 - Ajax (Amsterdam Football Club) was formed.

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

1903 - France dissolved the Catholic religious orders.

1905 - Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt were married.

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

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

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

1911 - Theodore Roosevelt opened the Roosevelt Dam in Phoenix, AZ. 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.

1939 - Georgia ratified the Bill of Rights amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

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.

1961 - The Poppin' Fresh Pillsbury Dough Boy was introduced.

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.

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

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.

1989 - 12 paintings were stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. The value was $100 million making it the largest art robbery in history.

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

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

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

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

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

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

1994 - Zsa Zsa Gabor filed for bankruptcy.

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

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

Current Birthdays


Queen Latifah turns 39 years old today


83 Peter Graves
Actor ("Mission: Impossible")


82 John Kander
Composer ("Chicago")


73 F.W. de Klerk
Former South African president


71 Charley Pride
Country singer


66 Kevin Dobson
Actor ("Knots Landing")


59 Brad Dourif
Actor ("Deadwood")


58 Bill Frisell
Jazz guitarist


50 Irene Cara
Singer


47 Thomas Ian Griffith
Actor


47 James McMurtry
Rock singer, songwriter


46 Vanessa L. Williams
Singer, actress


45 Bonnie Blair
Olympic gold medal speed skater


45 Scott Saunders
Country musician (Sons of the Desert)


43 Jerry Cantrell
Rock musician (Alice in Chains)


42 Miki Berenyi
Rock musician


37 Dane Cook
Actor, comedian


35 Stuart Zender
Rock musician (Jamiroquai)


34 Brian Griese
Football player


32 Devin Lima
Pop singer (LFO)


30 Adam Levine
Rock singer (Maroon Five)

Historic Birthdays


Grover Cleveland

3/18/1837 - 6/24/1908
22nd and 24th president of the United States


77 Friedrich Nicolai
3/18/1733 - 1/8/1811
German writer; a leader of the German Enlightenment


68 John C. Calhoun
3/18/1782 - 3/31/1850
American statesman


74 Francis Lieber
3/18/1798 - 10/2/1872
German-born American political philosopher and jurist


73 Antonio Salviati
3/18/1816 - 1/25/1890
Italian glass manufacturer


90 Nathanael Herreshoff
3/18/1848 - 6/2/1938
American naval architect and yacht designer


55 Rudolf Diesel
3/18/1858 - 9/29/1913
German thermal engineer; invented the internal-combustion engine


78 William Sulzer
3/18/1863 - 11/6/1941
New York governor (1913); impeached and removed from office


71 Neville Chamberlain
3/18/1869 - 11/9/1940
English prime minister


77 Chiang Ching-kuo
3/18/1910 - 1/13/1988
Chinese son of Chiang Kai-shek and his successor as leader of China

 

[minidog]

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 was 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.

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

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.

Current Birthdays


Glenn Close turns 62 years old today.

84 Brent Scowcroft
Former national security adviser


79 Ornette Coleman
Jazz saxophonist


76 Phyllis Newman
Actress, singer


76 Philip Roth
Author


76 Renee Taylor
Actress


73 Ursula Andress
Actress


72 Clarence "Frogman" Henry
R&B singer


63 Ruth Pointer
Singer (The Pointer Sisters)


57 Harvey Weinstein
Movie producer


54 Bruce Willis
Actor


51 Andy Reid
Football coach


39 Gert Bettens
Rock musician (K's Choice)


36 Bun B
Rapper


33 Zach Lind
Rock musician (Jimmy Eat World)


30 Abby Brammell
Actress ("The Unit")


20 Craig Lamar Traylor
Actor ("Malcolm in the Middle")

Historic Birthdays


Earl Warren

3/19/1891 - 7/9/1974
14th chief justice of the United States (1953-69)


56 Johannes Magnus
3/19/1488 - 3/22/1544
Swedish Roman Catholic archbishop and historian


66 Alonso Cano
3/19/1601 - 9/3/1667
Spanish painter, sculptor and architect


81 Elias Hicks
3/19/1748 - 2/27/1830
American Quaker minister; advocated the abolition of slavery


42 Nikolay Gogol
3/19/1809 (OS) - 2/21/1852 (OS)
Ukrainian-born Russian humorist, dramatist and novelist


60 David Livingstone
3/19/1813 - 5/1/1873
Scottish missionary and explorer; opened Africa to the West


69 Sir Richard Burton
3/19/1821 - 10/20/1890
English scholar, explorer, writer and translator


80 Wyatt Earp
3/19/1848 - 1/13/1929
American frontiersman; became lawman and gambler


80 Alfred von Tirpitz
3/19/1849 - 3/6/1930
German admiral and chief builder of German navy before World War I


65 William Jennings Bryan
3/19/1860 - 7/26/1925
American Democratic and Populist leader


100 James Van Fleet
3/19/1892 - 9/23/1992
American commander who led troops in Normandy on D-Day in World War II


58 Frederic Joliot-Curie
3/19/1900 - 8/14/1958
French Nobel Prize-winning physicist; shared prize with his wife, Irene


74 Jo Mielziner
3/19/1901 - 3/15/1976
American stage designer


88 John Sirica
3/19/1904 - 8/14/1992
United States district court judge; presided at trial of Watergate burglars (1973)


76 Albert Speer
3/19/1905 - 9/1/1981
German Nazi minister for war production


56 Adolf Eichmann
3/19/1906 - 5/31/1962
German Nazi war criminal hanged by Israel

 

[assholebythedoor]

Today is my birthday.

 

[minidog]

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 thrown.

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.

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 plead 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.

Current Birthdays


William Hurt turns 59 years old today.

87 Carl Reiner
Director, producer, writer, actor


78 Hal Linden
Actor ("Barney Miller")


70 Don Edwards
Country singer


70 Brian Mulroney
Former Canadian prime minister


66 Paul Junger Witt
TV producer


63 Ranger Doug
Country musician (Riders in the Sky)


61 Marva Wright
Blues singer


61 Bobby Orr
Hockey Hall of Famer


60 Marcia Ball
Blues singer, pianist


59 Carl Palmer
Rock musician (Emerson, Lake and Palmer)


58 Jimmie Vaughan
Rock musician (The Fabulous Thunderbirds)


55 Jimmy Seales
Country musician (Shenandoah)


52 Amy Aquino
Actress


52 Vanessa Bell Calloway
Actress


52 Spike Lee
Director


52 Theresa Russell
Actress


51 Holly Hunter
Actress


48 Slim Jim Phantom
Rock musician (The Stray Cats)


46 Kathy Ireland
Model


46 David Thewlis
Actor


44 Adrian Oxaal
Rock musician (James)


41 Liza Snyder
Actress ("Yes, Dear")


39 Michael Rapaport
Actor


38 Alexander Chaplin
Actor


33 Chester Bennington
Rock singer (Linkin Park)


31 Michael Genadry
Actor


30 Bianca Lawson
Actress


Historic Birthdays


Frederick W. Taylor

3/20/1856 - 3/21/1915
American efficiency expert
(Go to obit.)



60 Ovid
3/20/43BC - //AD 17
Roman poet known for his "Metamorphoses"


49 Torbern Olof Bergman
3/20/1735 - 7/8/1784
Swedish chemist and naturalist


87 Jean-Antoine Houdon
3/20/1741 - 7/15/1828
French sculptor in the 18th century Rococo style


68 George Caleb Bingham
3/20/1811 - 7/7/1879
American frontier politician and painter


63 E.Z.C. Judson
3/20/1823 - 7/16/1886
American adventurer and writer of 19th century "dime novels"


78 Henrik Ibsen
3/20/1828 - 5/23/1906
Norwegian playwright


92 Charles William Eliot
3/20/1834 - 8/22/1926
American educator


86 B. F. Skinner
3/20/1904 - 8/18/1990
American psychologist and exponent of behaviorism


77 Sir Michael Redgrave
3/20/1908 - 3/21/1985
English stage and screen actor


80 Alfonso Garcia Robles
3/20/1911 - 9/2/1991
Mexican Nobel Peace Prize-winning diplomat and advocate of nuclear disarmament


73 John Ehrlichman
3/20/1925 - 2/14/1999
American presidential assistant during Nixon administration

 

[minidog]

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.

1984 - A Soviet submarine crashed into the USS Kitty Hawk off the coast of Japan.

1985 - In Langa, South Africa, at least 21 demonstrators were killed at a march to mark the 25th anniversary of the Sharpeville shootings.

1985 - Larry Flynt offered to sell his pornography empire for $26 million or "Hustler" magazine alone for $18 million.

1985 - Police in Langa, South Africa, opened fire on blacks marching to mark the 25th anniversary of the Sharpeville shootings. At least 21 demonstrators were killed.

1989 - Randall Dale Adams was released from a Texas prison after his conviction was overturned. The documentary "The Thin Blue Line" had challenged evidence of Adams' conviction for killing a police officer.

1990 - "Normal Life" with Moon Unit & Dweezil Zappa premiered on CBS-TV.

1990 - Australian businessman Alan Bond sold Van Gogh's "Irises" to the Gerry Museum. Bond had purchased the painting for $53.9 million in 1987.

1990 - "Sydney" starring Valerie Bertinelli premiered on CBS-TV.

1990 - Namibia became independent of South Africa.

1991 - 27 people were lost at sea when two U.S. Navy anti-submarine planes collided.

1991 - The U.N. Security Council lifted the food embargo against Iraq.

1994 - Dudley Moore was arrested for hitting his girlfriend.

1994 - Steven Spielberg won his first Oscars. They were for best picture and best director for "Schindler's List."

1994 - Wayne Gretzky tied Gordie Howe's NHL record of 801 goals.

1994 - Bill Gates of Microsoft and Craig McCaw of McCaw Cellular Communications announced a $9 billion plan that would send 840 satellites into orbit to relay information around the globe.

1995 - New Jersey officially dedicated the Howard Stern Rest Area along Route 295.

1995 - Tokyo police raided the headquarters of Aum Shinrikyo in search of evidence to link the cult to the Sarin gas released on five Tokyo subway trains.

1999 - Israel's Supreme Court rejected the final effort to have American Samuel Sheinbein returned to the U.S. to face murder charges for killing Alfred Tello, Jr. Under a plea bargain Sheinbein was sentenced to 24 years in prison.

2000 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had overstepped its regulatory authority when it attempted to restrict the marketing of cigarettes to youngsters.

2001 - Nintendo released Game Boy Advance.

2002 - In Pakistan, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh was charged with murder for his role in the kidnapping of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pear. Three other Islamic militants that were in custody were also charged along with seven more accomplices that were still at large.

2002 - In Paris, an 1825 print by French inventor Joseph Nicephore Niepce was sold for $443,220. The print, of a man leading a horse, was the earliest recorded image taken by photographic means.

2003 - It was reported that the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 235.27 (2.8%) at 8,521.97. It was the strongest weekly gain in more than 20 years.

Current Birthdays


Matthew Broderick turns 47 years old today.

78 Al Freeman Jr.
Actor


77 Joseph Silverstein
Violinist, conductor


70 Kathleen Widdoes
Actress ("As the World Turns")


69 Solomon Burke
Singer


65 Marie-Christine Barrault
Actress


64 Rose Stone
Rock musician (Sly and the Family Stone)


63 Timothy Dalton
Actor


60 Eddie Money
Rock singer


59 Roger Hodgson
Rock musician (Supertramp)


58 Conrad Lozano
Rock musician (Los Lobos)


58 Russell Thompkins Jr.
R&B singer (The Stylistics)


51 Sabrina LeBeauf
Actress ("The Cosby Show")


51 Gary Oldman
Actor


47 Rosie O'Donnell
Actress, comedian


42 Jonas "Joker" Berggren
Rock musician (Ace of Base)


42 Maxim
MC (Prodigy)


41 Andrew Copeland
Rock musician (Sister Hazel)


40 DJ Premier
DJ (Gang Starr)


35 Laura Allen
Actress


29 Ronaldinho
Soccer player


24 Adrian Peterson
Minnesota Vikings running back

Historic Birthdays


Florenz Ziegfeld

3/21/1867 - 7/22/1932
American theatrical producer of spectacular revues

70 Nicholas of Flue, Saint
3/21/1417 - 3/21/1487
Swiss hermit and folk hero


65 Johann S. Bach
3/21/1685 - 7/28/1750
German composer of the Baroque era


66 Benito Juarez
3/21/1806 - 7/18/1872
Mexican national hero and president (1861-72)


85 Alice Henry
3/21/1857 - 2/14/1943
Australian journalist; promoted women's suffrage and social reform


86 Maurice Farman
3/21/1877 - 2/25/1964
French aircraft designer and manufacturer


90 John Walter Tewksbury
3/21/1878 - 4/24/1968
American sprinter; Olympic gold medalist


59 Jock Sutherland
3/21/1889 - 4/11/1948
Scottish-born American collegiate and professional football coach


72 Phyllis McGinley
3/21/1905 - 2/22/1978
American poet, writer and author of juvenile books


72 John D. III Rockefeller
3/21/1906 - 7/10/1978
American philanthropist


75 Nizar Qabbani
3/21/1923 - 4/30/1998
Syrian diplomat and poet

 

[minidog]

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 prohibited 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.

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

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

Current Birthdays


Reese Witherspoon turns 33 years old today

97 Karl Malden
Actor


79 Stephen Sondheim
Composer, lyricist


78 William Shatner
Actor ("Star Trek," "Boston Legal")


75 Orrin Hatch
U.S. senator, R-Utah


74 M. Emmet Walsh
Actor


68 Jeremy Clyde
Singer (Chad and Jeremy)


66 George Benson
Jazz guitarist, singer


62 James Patterson
Author


61 Wolf Blitzer
Broadcast journalist


61 Andrew Lloyd Webber
Composer


60 Fanny Ardant
Actress


57 Bob Costas
Sportscaster


54 James House
Country singer


54 Lena Olin
Actress


52 Stephanie Mills
R&B singer, actress


50 Matthew Modine
Actor


41 Tim Beeler
Country musician (Flynnville Train)


35 Marcus Camby
Basketball player


34 Anne Dudek
Actress


34 Cole Hauser
Actor


33 Kellie Williams
Actress


32 John Otto
Rock musician (Limp Bizkit)


28 Mims
Rapper

Historic Birthdays


Louis L'Amour

3/22/1908 - 6/10/1988
American best-selling author of more than100 books


59 Maximilian I
3/22/1459 - 1/12/1519
Austrian archduke, German king and Holy Roman emporer- (1493-1519)


42 Sir Anthony Van Dyck
3/22/1599 - 12/9/1641
Flemish painter, etcher and draftsman


80 Wm. Pulteney Bath
3/22/1684 - 7/7/1764
English Whig politician; opposed Sir Robert Walpole


51 Anton Raphael Mengs
3/22/1728 - 6/29/1779
German painter; leading Neoclassicist


43 Thomas Crawford
3/22/1814 - 10/10/1857
American sculptor of "Freedom" figure on top of the Capitol dome


85 Robert Millikan
3/22/1868 - 12/19/1953
American Nobel Prize-winning physicist


67 Arthur Vandenberg
3/22/1884 - 4/18/1951
American Republican senator


67 Joseph Schildkraut
3/22/1896 - 1/21/1964
Austrian-born American stage, television and film star


92 Ruth Page
3/22/1899 - 4/7/1991
American dancer and choreographer


47 Johannes Brinkman
3/22/1902 - 5/6/1949
Dutch architect


82 James Gavin
3/22/1907 - 2/23/1990
American army commander in World War II

 

[minidog]

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.

1898 - The first automobile was sold.

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 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.

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 pleaded 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.

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.

Current Birthdays


Peyton Manning turns 33 years old today


83 Dario Fo
Nobel Prize-winning playwright


70 Bob Mackie
Fashion designer


65 R. Lee Ermey
Actor


64 Curtis Hanson
Director


62 Christine Gregoire
Governor of Washington


61 Lee Oskar
Rock musician (War)


60 Nick Lowe
Rock singer


58 Dougie Thomson
Rock musician (Supertramp)


56 Louie Anderson
Comedian


55 Robert Carradine
Actor


55 Donna Pescow
Actress


49 Kelly LeBrock
Actress


48 Rodney "Kool Kollie" Terry
R&B DJ (Ghostown DJs)


47 Star Jones
TV personality


39 Sharon Corr
Rock singer, musician (The Corrs)


39 Lara Flynn Boyle
Actress


39 Maceo (aka P.A. Pasemaster Mase)
Rapper (De La Soul)


36 Jim Parsons
Actor ("The Big Bang Theory")


35 Alyson Hannigan
Actress ("How I Met Your Mother", "Buffy the Vampire Slayer")


29 Benj Gershman
Rock musician (O.A.R.)


19 Keisha Castle-Hughes
Actress ("The Whale Rider")


Historic Birthdays


Harry Houdini

3/24/1874 - 10/31/1926
American magician and escape artist

61 Georgius Agricola
3/24/1494 - 11/21/1555
German scholar and scientist known as the "father of mineralogy"


72 Rufus King
3/24/1755 - 4/29/1827
American founding father; helped frame the Constitution


64 Thos.Spencer Baynes
3/24/1823 - 5/31/1887
English editor of 9th edition of Encyclopedia Britannica


62 William Morris
3/24/1834 - 10/3/1896
English designer, craftsman and poet


82 Andrew Mellon
3/24/1855 - 8/26/1937
American financier, philanthropist and secretary of the treasury


86 Emile Fabre
3/24/1869 - 9/25/1955
French playwright and administrator of the Comedie-Francaise


71 Edward Weston
3/24/1886 - 1/1/1958
American photographer


46 Fatty Arbuckle
3/24/1887 - 6/29/1933
American silent film actor


60 Wilhelm Reich
3/24/1897 - 11/3/1957
Austrian psychologist


68 Thomas E. Dewey
3/24/1902 - 3/16/1971
Governor of New York (1943-55); and unsuccessful presidential contender (1944,48)


25 Clyde Barrow
3/24/1909 - 5/23/1934
American small-time robber

 

[minidog]

0421 - The city of Venice was founded.

0708 - Constantine began his reign as Catholic Pope.

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.

1668 - The first horse race in America took place.

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.

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

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.

Current Birthdays


Sarah Jessica Parker turns 44 years old today


81 Jim Lovell
Astronaut


75 Gloria Steinem
Feminist author


69 Anita Bryant
Singer


67 Aretha Franklin
R&B singer


66 Paul Michael Glaser
Actor ("Starsky and Hutch")


62 Elton John
Rock singer-musician


61 Bonnie Bedelia
Actress


56 Mary Gross
Actress, comedian


51 John Ensign
U.S. senator, R-Nev.


51 James McDaniel
Actor


49 Steve Norman
Rock musician (Spandau Ballet)


49 Brenda Strong
Actress ("Desperate Housewives")


48 Fred Goss
Actor


48 John Stockwell
Actor, writer, director


47 Marcia Cross
Actress ("Desperate Housewives")


45 Kate DiCamillo
Author ("Because of Winn-Dixie")


45 Lisa Gay Hamilton
Actress


43 Tom Glavine
Baseball player


38 Sheryl Swoopes
Basketball player


34 Melanie Blatt
Singer (All Saints)


30 Lee Pace
Actor ("Pushing Daisies")


27 Sean Faris
Actor


27 Danica Patrick
Auto racer


25 Katherine McPhee
Singer ("American Idol")


22 Jason Castro
Singer ("American Idol")


20 Aly Michalka
Actress, singer ("Aly and AJ")


Historic Birthdays


Bela Bartok

3/25/1881 - 9/26/1945
Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist and teacher

33 Saint Catherine of Siena
3/25/1347 - 4/29/1380
Italian Dominican tertiary, mystic and patron Saint of Italy


71 Matilda Gage
3/25/1826 - 3/18/1898
American women's rights advocate


90 Stephen Luce
3/25/1827 - 7/28/1917
American founder and first president of the Naval War College


89 Arturo Toscanini
3/25/1867 - 1/16/1957
Italian conductor


69 William Knudsen
3/25/1879 - 4/27/1948
Danish-born American industrialist; president of General Motors (1937-1940)


76 Gerald Murphy
3/25/1888 - 10/17/1964
American expatriate; befriended, with wife, writers and artists in Paris in the 1920's


83 Sir David Lean
3/25/1908 - 4/16/1991
English film director


64 Simone Signoret
3/25/1921 - 9/30/1985
French stage and motion picture actress


39 Flannery O'Connor
3/25/1925 - 8/3/1964
American writer


61 Penelope Gilliatt
3/25/1932 - 5/9/1993
English writer of essays, short stories, screenplays and novels

 

[minidog]

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.

1982 - Ground breaking ceremonies were held in Washington, DC, for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

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.

Current Birthdays


Nancy Pelosi turns 69 years old today

84 Pierre Boulez
Conductor, composer


84 James Moody
Jazz saxophonist


79 Sandra Day O'Connor
Former Supreme Court justice


78 Leonard Nimoy
Actor ("Star Trek")


75 Alan Arkin
Actor


69 James Caan
Actor


67 Erica Jong
Author


66 Bob Woodward
Journalist


65 Diana Ross
Singer


63 Johnny Crawford
Actor


61 Steven Tyler
Rock singer (Aerosmith)


60 Vicki Lawrence
Singer, actress


60 Ernest Thomas
Actor


59 Ronnie McDowell
Country singer


59 Teddy Pendergrass
R&B singer


59 Martin Short
Actor, comedian


59 Alan Silvestri
Film composer


57 Monte Yoho
Rock musician (Outlaws)


56 Lincoln Chafee
Former U.S. senator, R-R.I.


56 Elaine Chao
Former secretary of labor


54 Dean Dillon
Country singer


53 Charly McClain
Country singer


52 Leeza Gibbons
TV personality


49 Marcus Allen
Football Hall of Famer


49 Jennifer Grey
Actress ("Dirty Dancing")


49 Jon Huntsman Jr.
Governor of Utah


47 John Stockton
Basketball player


43 Michael Imperioli
Actor ("The Sopranos", "Life on Mars")


41 Kenny Chesney
Country singer


41 James Iha
Rock musician (Smashing Pumpkins)


36 T.R. Knight
Actor ("Grey's Anatomy")


34 Juvenile
Rapper


33 Amy Smart
Actress


32 Bianca Kajlich
Actress


24 Keira Knightley
Actress


23 J-Kwon
Rapper

Historic Birthdays


Robert Frost

3/26/1874 - 1/29/1963
American poet known for his depictions of New England rural life

88 Herman Haupt
3/26/1817 - 12/14/1905
American civil engineer and inventor


48 Edward Bellamy
3/26/1850 - 5/22/1898
American writer


77 A. E. Housman
3/26/1859 - 4/30/1936
English scholar and poet


90 Syngman Rhee
3/26/1875 - 7/19/1965
First president of the Republic of Korea (South Korea)


86 Othmar Ammann
3/26/1879 - 9/22/1965
Swiss-born American engineer and designer of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge


71 Palmiro Togliatti
3/26/1893 - 8/21/1964
Italian politician who led the Italian Communist Party for nearly40 years


84 James Conant
3/26/1893 - 2/11/1978
American educator and scientist


83 Joseph Campbell
3/26/1904 - 10/31/1987
American editor and author of many works on mythology


71 Tennessee Williams
3/26/1911 - 2/25/1983
American dramatist and author

 

[LeftysPorn]

It is a little known fact that Arbuckle E. Byrd, second cousin twice removed by marriage to the famed American explorer, was assigned to walk the family terrier on the unseasonably warm afternoon of March 27, 1901. A task he only agreed to do after realizing that the occasion might present him with the opportunity of catching a glimpse of a bare female ankle as some some careless young lady, eager to cool her feet in the large pond at the west end of the park, might not notice him in her haste to find comfort.

He further theorized that the late day sun could even give him a suitable opportunity to put to use his new camera, a recently released Browning which actually made an exposure in a fraction of a second. Although he would not have admitted it even to himself, the thought of capturing a bare ankle on film... well, the very idea was scandalous!

He leashed the terrier, much to the dog's irritation, picked up his camera and tripod and quickly made his way to the park. It is unclear whether the dog or the master tugged his respective end of the leash with greater purpose. What was clear is that neither was particularly fond of the animal at the other end of the tether.

Upon reaching the pond, Mr. Byrd was disappointed to find no gaggle of of giggling women. An old man sat alone at the edge of the water, enjoying the solace of a spring afternoon, feeding the ducks who passed his way.

Byrd yanked the leash and proceeded to look for a vista that might, at least, provide a suitable landscape photograph. The dog was more interested in a suitable location for other purposes, but his human companion seemed unaware of his needs.

As Byrd calculated exposure, aperture and composition he was also unaware of two graceful young ladies who were approaching him from the pond. At first they were simply going to pass by on their way to the pond, but the energetic little terrier caught the attention of the younger of the pair.

"My what an adorable little thing you are!"

The voice startled Byrd who spun around to receive the compliment. He quickly realized that he was not the intended recipient of the remark as he saw a very-well developed young woman leaning over to pet the dog. He would have warned her of the animal's ill temperament, but at the moment he was completely distracted by the perfect complexion and fullness of herample cleavage.

The dog was rarely fond of strangers but now, desperate for relief, he was unusually surly and snapped at the poor girl's fingers. She retreated quickly, unharmed. Byrd, aggravated that the view had been stolen from him, cursed and kicked the dog, causing the animal to dart behind him, under a leg of the wooden tripod and in the general direction of the second woman. As she cried out in fear of the small beast, the dog made an aggressive move in her direction, upsetting the tripod and causing the camera to fall towards her. She leaped gracefully to avoid the falling instrument, nearly landing on top of it. In fact, a bit of lace on the hem of her suitably modest dress was actually caught up in its mechanism.

Byrd cursed a second time, not only out of concern for his expensive camera, but the dog had run off to find a place to relieve itself. Byrd knew that he would not be getting home soon.

Later that night, in his makeshift darkroom, he removed the film from the broken camera. He hoped perhaps he could save the landscape photos that he had taken. He did indeed. He also discovered an additional exposure, taken after the landscape pictures. It took him a moment to work it out, but once he did he could hardly believe his good fortune.

Apparently, as the camera fell to the ground, the impact caused the shutter to open at the precise instant that the woman jumped to avoid being hit. She must have gotten dressed in a rush that morning. As fate would have it, the lens was pointed precisely at her uncovered womanly parts. Yes. Uncovered. Not a stitch to hide her hair covered slit from the probing eye of the lense.

Hence, March 27 will forever be known as the day upon which two significant concepts entered our consciousness. The upskirt picture, and the phrase "A Byrd's Eye View"

Bet you never learned THAT in history class!