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
› 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.
ON THIS DATE
› 1822: Florida became a United States territory.
› 1842: Dr. Crawford W. Long of Jefferson, Georgia, first used ether as an anesthetic during an operation to remove a patient’s neck tumor.
› 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.”
› 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.
› 1923: The Cunard liner RMS Laconia became the first passenger ship to circle the globe as it arrived in New York.
› 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.
› 1964: The original version of the TV game show “Jeopardy!,” hosted by Art Fleming, premiered on NBC.
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 is 54. TV personality Piers Morgan is 53. Rock musician Joey Castillo is 52. Actress Donna D’Errico is 50. Singer Celine Dion is 50. 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.