TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY IS GOOD FRIDAY, MARCH 30, the 89th day of 2018. There are 276 days left in the year. The Jewish holiday Passover begins at sunset.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1981, President Ronald Reagan was shot and seriously injured outside a Washington, D.C., hotel by John W. Hinckley Jr.; also wounded were White House press secretary James Brady, Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy and a District of Columbia police officer, Thomas Delahanty.

In 1822, Florida became a United States territory.

In 1842,

Dr. Crawford W. Long of Jefferson, Ga., first used ether as an anesthetic during an operation to remove a patient’s neck tumor.

In 1867,

U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward reached agreement with Russia to purchase the territory of Alaska for $7.2 million, a deal ridiculed by critics as “Seward’s Folly.”

In 1870,

the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibited denying citizens the right to vote and hold office on the basis of race, was declared in effect by Secretary of State Hamilton Fish. Texas was readmitted to the Union.

In 1923,

the Cunard liner RMS Laconia became the first passenger ship to circle the globe when it arrived in New York.

In 1945,

during World War II, the Soviet Union invaded Austria with the goal of taking Vienna, which it accomplished two weeks later.

In 1959,

a narrowly divided U.S. Supreme Court, in Bartkus v. Illinois, ruled that a conviction in state court following an acquittal in federal court for the same crime did not constitute double jeopardy.

In 1964, John Glenn withdrew from the Ohio race for the U.S. Senate because of injuries suffered in a fall. The original version of the TV game show “Jeopardy!,” hosted by Art Fleming, premiered on NBC.

In 1975, as the Vietnam War neared its end, Communist forces occupied the city of Da Nang.

In 1991,

Patricia Bowman of Jupiter, Fla., told authorities she had been raped hours earlier by William Kennedy Smith, the nephew of Sen. Edward Kennedy, at the family’s Palm Beach estate. Smith was acquitted at trial.

In 2002,

Britain’s Queen Mother Elizabeth died at Royal Lodge, Windsor, outside London; she was 101 years old.

In 2006,

American reporter Jill Carroll, a freelancer for The Christian Science Monitor, was released after 82 days as a hostage in Iraq.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS:

Game show host Peter Marshall is 92. Actor John Astin is 88. Actor-director Warren Beatty is 81. Rock musician Graeme Edge (The Moody Blues) is 77. Rock musician Eric Clapton is 73. Actor Justin Deas is 70. Actor Paul Reiser is 62. Rap artist MC Hammer is 55. Singer Tracy Chapman and actor Ian Ziering are 54. TV personality Piers Morgan is 53. Rock musician Joey Castillo is 52. Actress Donna D’Errico and singer Celine Dion are 50. Actor Mark Consuelos is 47. Actress Bahar Soomekh is 43. Actress Jessica Cauffiel is 42. Singer Norah Jones is 39. Actress Fiona Gubelmann is 38. Actress Katy Mixon is 37. Actor Jason Dohring is 36. Country singer Justin Moore is 34. Actress Tessa Ferrer is 32. Country singer Thomas Rhett is 28. Rapper NF is 27.