Today In History
Today is Monday, March 12, the 71st day of 2018. There are 294 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT
› 1968: President Lyndon B. Johnson won the New Hampshire Democratic primary, with Sen. Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota placing a strong second. The African island of Mauritius became independent of British rule (on this date in 1992, Mauritius became a republic).
ON THIS DATE
› 1622: Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus, and Francis Xavier were canonized by Pope Gregory XV along with Teresa of Avila, Philip Neri and Isidore the Laborer.
› 1864: Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant assumed command as General-in-Chief of the Union armies in the Civil War.
› 1912: The Girl Scouts of the USA had its beginnings as Juliette Gordon Low of Savannah, Georgia, founded the first American troop of the Girl Guides.
› 1925: Chinese revolutionary leader Sun Yatsen died in Beijing.
› 1933: President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered the first of his 30 radio addresses that came to be known as “fireside chats,” telling Americans what was being done to deal with the nation’s economic crisis.
› 1938: The Anschluss merging Austria with Nazi Germany took place as German forces crossed the border between the two countries.
› 1947: President Harry S. Truman announced what became known as the “Truman Doctrine” to help Greece and Turkey resist Communism.
› 1951: “Dennis the Menace,” created by cartoonist Hank Ketcham, made its syndicated debut in 16 newspapers.
› 1971: Hafez Assad was confirmed as president of Syria in a referendum.
› 1980: A Chicago jury found John Wayne Gacy Jr. guilty of the murders of 33 men and boys. (The next day, Gacy was sentenced to death; he was executed in May 1994.)
› 1993: Janet Reno was sworn in as the first female U.S. attorney general. A three-day blizzard that came to be known as “The Storm of the Century” began inundating the eastern third of the U.S. A series of bombings in Mumbai, India, killed 257 people (the explosions were allegedly masterminded by India’s most wanted man, Dawood Ibrahim).
› 2003: Elizabeth Smart, the 15-year-old girl who vanished from her bedroom nine months earlier, was found alive in a Salt Lake City suburb with two drifters, Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Barzee, who are serving prison terms for kidnapping her.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS
Politician, diplomat and civil rights activist Andrew Young is 86. Actress Barbara Feldon is 85. Broadcast journalist Lloyd Dobyns is
82. Actress-singer Liza Minnelli is 72. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is 71. Singer-songwriter James Taylor is 70. Former Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., is
70. Rock singer-musician Bill Payne (Little Feat) is 69. Actor Jon Provost (TV: “Lassie”) is 68. Author Carl Hiaasen is 65. Rock musician Steve Harris (Iron Maiden) is 62. Actress Lesley Manville is
62. Actor Jerry Levine is
61. Singer Marlon Jackson (The Jackson Five) is 61. Actor Jason Beghe is 58. Actor Courtney B. Vance is 58. Actor Titus Welliver is 56. Former MLB AllStar Darryl Strawberry is
56. Actress Julia Campbell is 55. Actor Jake Weber is 55. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., is 50. Actor Aaron Eckhart is 50. CNN reporter Jake Tapper is
49. Rock musician Graham Coxon is 49. Country musician Tommy Bales (Flynnville Train) is 45.