TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is Wednesday, March 31, the 90th day of 2021. There are 275 days left in the year.

Today’s highlight

On March 31, 1995, MexicanAmerican singer Selena Quintanilla-Perez, 23, was shot to death in Corpus Christi, Texas, by the founder of her fan club, Yolanda Saldivar, who was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.

On this date

In 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Emergency Conservation Work Act, which created the Civilian Conservation Corps.

In 1968, at the conclusion of a nationally broadcast address on Vietnam, President Lyndon B. Johnson stunned listeners by declaring, “I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President.”

In 1976, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that Karen Ann Quinlan, a young woman in a persistent vegetative state, could be disconnected from her respirator. (Quinlan, who remained unconscious, died in 1985.)

In 1991, the Warsaw Pact military alliance ended.

In 2004, four American civilian contractors were killed in Fallujah, Iraq; frenzied crowds dragged the burned, mutilated bodies and strung two of them from a bridge.

In 2005, Terri Schiavo, 41, died at a hospice in Pinellas Park, Fla., 13 days after her feeding tube was removed in a wrenching right-to-die court fight.

Today’s birthdays

Actor William Daniels is 94. Actor Richard Chamberlain is

87. Actor Shirley Jones is 87. Musician Herb Alpert is 86. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., is 81. Former U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., is 81. Actor Christopher Walken is 78. Comedian Gabe Kaplan is 77. Former Vice President Al Gore is 74. Author David Eisenhower is 73. Actor Rhea Perlman is

73. Actor Ed Marinaro is 71. Musician Angus Young (AC/ DC) is 66. Actor Ewan McGregor is 50.