TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Wednesday,
March 31, the 90th day of 2021. There are 275 days left in the year.
ON THIS DATE IN HISTORY
On March 31, 1931, Notre Dame college football coach Knute Rockne, 43, was killed in the crash of a TWA plane in Bazaar, Kansas.
1814 — Paris was occupied by a coalition of Russian, Prussian and Austrian forces; the surrender of the French capital forced the abdication of Emperor Napoleon.
1917 — The United States took formal possession of the Virgin Islands from Denmark.
1933 — President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Emergency Conservation Work Act, which created the Civilian Conservation Corps.
1943 — “Oklahoma!,” the first musical play by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, opened on Broadway.
1968 — At the conclusion of a nationally broadcast address on Vietnam, President Lyndon B. Johnson stunned listeners by declaring, “I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President.”
1976 — The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that Karen Ann Quinlan, a young woman in a persistent vegetative state, could be disconnected from her respirator. (Quinlan, who remained unconscious, died in 1985.)
1991 — The Warsaw Pact military alliance came to an end.
2004 — Tour American civilian contractors were killed in Fallujah, Iraq; frenzied crowds dragged the burned, mutilated bodies and strung two of them from a bridge.
2019 — Rapper Nipsey Hussle was fatally shot outside the clothing store he had founded to help rebuild his troubled South Los Angeles neighborhood; he was 33.
Ten years ago — Moammar Gadhafi struck a defiant stance after two high-profile defections from his regime, saying the Western leaders who had decimated his military with airstrikes should resign immediately — not him. (Gadhafi’s message was in the form of a scroll across the bottom of state TV as he remained out of sight.)
Five years ago — An overpass collapsed onto a crowded Kolkata, India, neighborhood, killing 26 people.
One year ago — The
White House released new projections that the number of Coronavirus deaths in the US could range from 100,000 to 240,000 even if current social distancing guidelines were maintained. TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS Richard Chamberlain is
87. Actor Shirley Jones is
87. Musician Herb Alpert is 86. Actor Christopher Walken is 78. Comedian Gabe Kaplan is 77. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, is 77. Rock musician Mick Ralphs (Bad Company; Mott the Hoople) is 77. Former Vice President Al Gore is 74. Actor Rhea Perlman is
73. Actor Ed Marinaro is
71. Rock musician Angus Young (AC/DC) is 66. Actor William McNamara is
56. Actor Ewan McGregor is 50. Actor Erica Tazel is
46. Actor Judi Shekoni is
43. Rapper Tony Yayo is 43. Actor Kate Micucci is 41. Actor Brian Tyree Henry (TV: “Atlanta” Stage: “Book of Mormon”) is 39. Actor Melissa Ordway is 38. Jazz musician Christian Scott is
38. Pop musician Jack Antonoff (fun.) is 37. Actor Jessica Szohr is 36.