HISTORY AT A GLANCE

TODAY is Wednesday, March 22, the 81st day of 2017. There are 284 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:

1945 – The Arab League is founded when a charter is adopted in Cairo, Egypt.

1954 – Closed since 1939, the London bullion market reopens.

1960 – Arthur Leonard Schawlow and Charles Hard Townes receive the first patent for a laser

1963 – The Beatles’ first album, Please Please Me, is released in the United Kingdom.

1975 – A fire at the Browns Ferry Nuclear Power Plant in Decatur, Alabama causes a dangerous reduction in cooling water levels.

1982 – NASA’s Space Shuttle Columbia, is launched from the Kennedy Space Center on its third mission, STS-3.

1984 – Teachers at the McMartin preschool in Manhattan Beach, California are charged with satanic ritual abuse of the children in the school. The charges are later dropped as completely unfounded.

1989 – Clint Malarchuk of the Buffalo Sabres suffers a nearfatal injury when another player’s skate accidentally slits his throat.

1992 – USAir Flight 405 crashes shortly after takeoff from New York City’s LaGuardia Airport, leading to a number of studies into the effect that ice has on aircraft.

1992 – Fall of communism in Albania: The Democratic Party of Albania wins a decisive majority in the parliamentary election.

1993 – The Intel Corporation ships the first Pentium chips (80586), featuring a 60 MHz clock speed, 100+ MIPS, and a 64 bit data path.

1995 – Cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov returns to earth after setting a record of 438 days in space.

1997 – The Comet Hale–Bopp has its closest approach to Earth.

2004 – Ahmed Yassin, co-founder and leader of the Palestinian Sunni Islamist group Hamas, two bodyguards, and nine civilian bystanders are killed in the Gaza Strip when hit by Israeli Air Force AH-64 Apache fired Hellfire missiles.

2006 – Three Christian Peacemaker Team hostages are freed by British forces in Baghdad after 118 days of captivity and the murder of their colleague, American Tom Fox.

2013 – At least 37 people are killed and 200 are injured after a fire destroys a camp containing Burmese refugees near Ban Mae, Thailand.