TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Tuesday, March 23, the 82nd day of 2021.
Today’s highlight in history
On March 23, 1775, Patrick Henry delivered an address to the Virginia Provincial Convention in which he is said to have declared, “Give me liberty, or give me death!”
On this date
In 1806, explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, having reached the Pacific coast, began their journey back east.
In 1919, Benito Mussolini founded his Fascist political movement in Milan, Italy.
In 1933, the German Reichstag adopted the Enabling Act, which effectively granted Adolf Hitler dictatorial powers.
In 1942, the first JapaneseAmericans removed by the U.S. Army arrived at the internment camp in Manzanar.
In 1965, America’s first two-person space mission took place as Gemini 3 blasted off with astronauts Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom and John W. Young aboard for a nearly five-hour flight.
In 1973, before sentencing a group of Watergate break-in defendants, Chief U.S. District Judge John J. Sirica read aloud a letter he’d received from James W. McCord Jr. which said there was “political pressure” to “plead guilty and remain silent.”
In 1993, scientists announced they’d found the renegade gene that causes Huntington’s disease.
In 2003, during the Iraq War, a U.S. Army maintenance convoy was ambushed in Nasiriyah; 11 soldiers were killed; six were captured, including Pfc. Jessica Lynch, who was rescued on April 1, 2003.
In 2010, President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act, a $938 billion health care overhaul.
Ten years ago: Actor Elizabeth Taylor died at age 79.
Today’s birthdays
Director Mark Rydell is 92. International Motorsports Hall of Famer Craig Breedlove is 84. Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is 69. Singer Chaka Khan is 68. Actor Amanda Plummer is
64. Actor Catherine Keener is
62. Actor Richard Grieco is
56. Actor Marin Hinkle is 55. Actor Randall Park is 47. Actor Michelle Monaghan is
45. Actor Keri Russell is 45. Actor Nicholle Tom is 43. NBA player Kyrie Irving is 29.