TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Saturday, March 21.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT
On March 21, 1685, composer Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach, Germany.
ON THIS DATE
In 1871, journalist Henry M. Stanley began his famous expedition in Africa to locate the missing Scottish missionary David Livingstone. In 1918, during World War I, Germany launched its Spring Offensive on the Western Front, hoping to break through the Allied lines before American reinforcements could arrive. (Although successful at first, the Spring Offensive ultimately failed.)
In 1945, during World War II, Allied bombers began four days of raids over Germany.
In 1963, the Alcatraz federal prison island in San Francisco Bay was emptied of its last inmates and closed at the order of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.
In 1972, the Supreme Court, in Dunn v. Blumstein, ruled that states may not require at least a year’s residency for voting eligibility.
In 1981, Michael Donald, a black teenager in Mobile, Alabama, was abducted, tortured and killed by members of the Ku Klux
Klan. (A lawsuit brought by Donald’s mother, Beulah
Mae Donald, later resulted in a landmark judgment that bankrupted one Klan organization.)
In 1990, Namibia became an independent nation as the former colony marked the end of 75 years of South African rule.
In 2006, the social media website Twitter was established with the sending of the first“tweet”by cofounder Jack Dorsey, who wrote: “just setting up my twttr.”
In 2007, former Vice President Al Gore made an emotional return to Congress as he pleaded with House and Senate committees to fight global warming; skeptical Republicans questioned the science behind his climatechange documentary,“An Inconvenient Truth.”
In 2017, on the second day of his Senate confirmation hearing, Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch declared he’d made no promises to President
Donald Trump or anyone else about how he would vote on abortion or other issues.
Ten years ago: Frustrated with the pace of action to overhaul the country’s immigration system, thousands of immigrant rights supporters descended on the nation’s capital, waving American flags and holding homemade signs in English and Spanish.
Five years ago: President Barack Obama, in an interview with The Huffington Post, said he took Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu“at his word” for saying an independent Palestinian state would never co-exist with Israel as long as he was in office, yet another sign of the strained relations between longtime allies.
One year ago: President Donald Trump abruptly declared that the U.S. would recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the disputed Golan Heights, a major shift in American policy.
THOUGHT FOR TODAY
“Is it worse to be scared than to be bored, that is the question.” — Gertrude Stein, American writer (1874-1946). — ASSOCIATED PRESS