TODAY IN WORLD HISTORY
Today is Saturday, March 11, the 70th day of 2017. There are 295 days left in the year. The Jewish holiday Purim begins at sunset. Daylight saving time returns Sunday at 2 a.m. local time; clocks go forward one hour.
Today’s Highlight in History On March 11, 1942, as Japanese forces continued to advance in the Pacific during World War II, U.S. Army Gen. Douglas MacArthur left the Philippines for Australia, where he vowed on March 20, “I shall return” — a promise he kept more than 2 1/2 years later.
On this date • In 1861, the Constitution of the Confederate States of America was adopted by the Confederate Congress in Montgomery, Alabama.
• In 1888, the Blizzard of ‘88, also known as the “Great White Hurricane,” began inundating the northeastern United States, resulting in some 400 deaths.
• In 1957, Charles Van Doren’s 14week run on the rigged NBC game show “Twenty-One” ended as he was “defeated” by attorney Vivienne Nearing; Van Doren’s take was $129,000. American explorer Richard E. Byrd died in Boston at age 68.
• In 1977, more than 130 hostages held in Washington, D.C. by Hanafi Muslims were freed after ambassadors from three Islamic nations joined the negotiations.
• In 1986, the state of Georgia pardoned Leo Frank, a Jewish businessman lynched in 1915 for the murder of 13-year-old Mary Phagan.
• In 1997, rock star Paul McCartney was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.
• In 2011, a magnitude-9.0 earthquake and resulting tsunami struck Japan’s northeastern coast, killing nearly 20,000 people and severely damaging the Fukushima Dai-ichi (foo-koo-SHEE’-mah dyEE’-chee) nuclear power station.
On March 12 • In 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.
• In 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.
• In 1940, Finland and the Soviet Union concluded an armistice during World War II. (Fighting between the two countries flared again the following year.)
• In 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.)
In 1993, Janet Reno was sworn in as the first female U.S. attorney general.
• In 2003, Elizabeth Smart, the 15year-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.
On March 14 • In 1781, the seventh planet of the solar system, Uranus, was discovered by Sir William Herschel.
• In 1865, Confederate President Jefferson Davis signed a measure allowing black slaves to enlist in the Confederate States Army with the promise they would be set free.
• In 1901, the 23rd President of the United States, Benjamin Harrison, died in Indianapolis at age 67.
• In 1925, the Tennessee General Assembly approved a bill prohibiting the teaching of the theory of evolution. (Gov. Austin Peay (pee) signed the measure on March 21.)
• In 1964, bar manager Catherine “Kitty” Genovese, 28, was stabbed to death near her Queens, New York, home; the case gained notoriety over the supposed reluctance of Genovese’s neighbors to respond to her cries for help.
• In 1996, a gunman burst into an elementary school in Dunblane, Scotland, and opened fire, killing 16 children and one teacher before killing himself.
• In 2013, Jorge Bergoglio (HOHR’hay behr-GOHG’-lee-oh) of Argentina was elected pope, choosing the name Francis.