TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Wednesday, March 14, the 73rd day of 2018. There are 292 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History
On March 14, 1923, President Warren G. Harding became the first chief executive to file an income tax return, paying a levy of $17,990 on his $75,000 salary.
On this date
1794 — Eli Whitney received a patent for his cotton gin, an invention that revolutionized America’s cotton industry. 1885 — The Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera “The Mikado” premiered at the Savoy Theatre in London. 1900 — Congress ratified the Gold Standard Act. 1907 — President Theodore Roosevelt signed an executive order designed to prevent Japanese laborers from immigrating to the United States as part of a “gentlemen’s agreement” with Japan. 1939 — The republic of Czechoslovakia was dissolved, opening the way for Nazi occupation of Czech areas and the separation of Slovakia. 1951 — During the Korean War, United Nations forces recaptured Seoul. 1964 — A jury in Dallas found Jack Ruby guilty of murdering Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy, and sentenced him to death. (Both the conviction and death sentence were overturned, but Ruby died before he could be retried.) 1967 — The body of President John F. Kennedy was moved from a temporary grave to a permanent memorial site at Arlington National Cemetery. 1975 — “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” a sendup of the legend of King Arthur, had its world premiere in Los Angeles. 1980 — A LOT Polish Airlines jet crashed while attempting to land in Warsaw, killing all 87 people aboard, including 22 members of a U.S. amateur boxing team. 1990 — The Soviet Congress of People’s Deputies held a secret ballot that elected Mikhail S. Gorbachev to a new, powerful presidency. 1998 — India’s Congress party picked Sonia Gandhi, the Italian-born widow of assassinated Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, as its new president. 2010 — The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provided more than $58 million in direct aid to Floyd County institutions and businesses.
Today’s Birthdays
Singer Phil Phillips (Song: “Sea of Love”) is 92. Actor Michael Caine is 85. Composer-conductor Quincy Jones is 85. Country singer Michael Martin Murphey is 73. Rock musician Walt Parazaider (Chicago) is 73. Comedian Billy Crystal is 70. Actor-writer-comedian-radio personality Rick Dees is 67. Actor Adrian Zmed is 64. Prince Albert II, the ruler of Monaco, is 60. Actress Penny Johnson Jerald is 58. Actress Megan Follows is 50. Rock musician Michael Bland is 49. Actor Corey Stoll is 42. Actor Chris Klein is 39. Singer-musician Taylor Hanson (Hanson) is 35. Actor Jamie Bell is 32. Olympic gold medal gymnast Simone Biles is 21. Actor James Freedson-Jackson (Film: “The Strange Ones”) is 16.
Thought for today ‘The avoidance of taxes is the only intellectual pursuit that still carries any reward.’ John Maynard Keynes British economist (1883-1946)