Today In History

Today is Thursday, March 23, the 82nd day of 2017. There are 283 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

› 1806: Explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, having reached the Pacific coast, began their journey back east.

ON THIS DATE

› 1775: Patrick Henry delivered an address to the Virginia Provincial Convention in which he is said to have declared, “Give me liberty, or give me death!”

› 1956: Pakistan became an Islamic republic.

› 1965: America’s first two-person space mission took place as Gemini 3 blasted off with astronauts Virgil I. Grissom and John W. Young aboard for a nearly 5-hour flight.

› 1983: President Ronald Reagan first proposed developing technology to intercept incoming enemy missiles — an idea that came to be known as the Strategic Defense Initiative. Dr. Barney Clark, recipient of a Jarvik permanent artificial heart, died at the University of Utah Medical Center after 112 days with the device.

› 2001: Russia’s orbiting Mir space station ended its 15-year odyssey with a planned fiery plunge into the South Pacific.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Comedian Marty Allen is 95. Sir Roger Bannister (the runner who broke the 4-minute mile in 1954) is 88. Movie director Mark Rydell is 88. International Motorsports Hall of Famer Craig Breedlove is 80. Singer-producer Ric Ocasek is 68. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is 65. Singer Chaka Khan is 64. Actress Amanda Plummer is 60. Actress Catherine Keener is 58. Actress Hope Davis is 53. Actor Richard Grieco is 52. Country musician Kevin Griffin (Yankee Grey) is 52. Actress Marin Hinkle is 51. Rock singer-musician Damon Albarn (Blur) is 49. Actress-singer Melissa Errico is 47. Rock musician John Humphrey (The Nixons) is 47. Bandleader Reggie Watts (TV: “The Late Late Show With James Corden”) is 45. Actor Randall Park is 43. Actress Michelle Monaghan is 41. Actress Keri Russell is 41. Actress Anastasia Griffith is 39. Gossip columnist-blogger Perez Hilton is 39. Actress Nicholle Tom is 39. Country singer Paul Martin (Marshall Dyllon) is 39. Actor Nicolas Wright is 35.