TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is Saturday, March 20, the 79th day of 2021. There are 286 days left in the year. Spring arrives at 2:37 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time.

Today’s highlight in history

On March 20, 1995, in Tokyo, 12 people were killed, more than 5,500 others sickened when packages containing the deadly chemical sarin were leaked on five separate subway trains by Aum Shinrikyo cult members.

On this date

In 1413, England’s King Henry IV died; he was succeeded by Henry V.

In 1727, physicist, mathematician and astronomer Sir Isaac Newton died in London.

In 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte returned to Paris after escaping his exile on Elba, beginning his “Hundred Days” rule.

In 1854, the Republican Party of the United States was founded by slavery opponents at a schoolhouse in Ripon, Wis.

In 1933, the state of Florida electrocuted Giuseppe Zangara for shooting to death Chicago Mayor Anton J. Cermak at a Miami event attended by President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt, the presumed target, the previous February.

In 1976, kidnapped newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst was convicted of armed robbery for her part in a San Francisco bank holdup carried out by the Symbionese Liberation Army. (Hearst was sentenced to seven years in prison; she was released after serving 22 months, and was pardoned in 2001 by President Bill Clinton.)

In 1996, a jury in Los Angeles convicted Erik and Lyle Menendez of first-degree murder in the shotgun slayings of their wealthy parents. (They were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.)

Today’s birthdays

Actor Hal Linden is 90. Former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney is 82. Basketball Hall of Fame coach Pat Riley is 76. Hockey Hall of Famer Bobby Orr is 73. Actor William Hurt is 71. Musician Carl Palmer (Emerson, Lake and Palmer) is 71. Director Spike Lee is 64. Actor Theresa Russell is 64. Actor Holly Hunter is 63. Musician Slim Jim Phantom (The Stray Cats) is 60. Actor-model Kathy Ireland is 58. Actor Michael Rapaport is 51.