TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Thursday, March 23, the 82nd day of 2023. There are 283 days left in the year.
Today’s highlight
On March 23, 1919, Benito Mussolini founded his Fascist political movement in Milan.
On this date
In 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!”
In 1806, explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, having reached the Pacific coast, began their journey back east.
In 1933, the German Reichstag adopted the Enabling Act, which effectively granted Adolf Hitler dictatorial powers.
In 1942, the first Japanese Americans arrived at the incarceration camp in Manzanar in California.
In 1965, America’s first twoperson 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 1981,
the U.S. Supreme
Court, in H.L. v. Matheson, ruled that states could require, with some exceptions, parental notification when teenage girls seek abortions.
In 1993, scientists announced they had found the renegade gene that causes Huntington’s disease.
In 1994, Aeroflot Flight 593, an Airbus A310, crashed in Siberia with the loss of all 75 people on board; it turned out that a pilot’s teenage son who was allowed to sit at the controls had accidentally disengaged the autopilot, causing loss of control.
In 1998, “Titanic” tied an Academy Awards record by winning 11 Oscars, including best picture, director (James
Cameron) and song (“My Heart Will Go On”).
In 2003, during the Iraq War, a U.S. Army maintenance convoy was ambushed in Nasiriyah; 11 soldiers were killed, including Pfc. Lori Ann Piestewa; six were captured, including Pfc. Jessica Lynch, who was rescued on April 1, 2003.
In 2010, claiming a historic triumph, President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act, a $938 billion health care overhaul.
In 2020, President Donald Trump said he wanted to reopen the country for business in weeks, not months; he asserted that continued closures could result in more deaths than the coronavirus itself. Britain became the latest European country to go into effective lockdown, as Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered the closure of most retail stores and banned public gatherings.
Ten years ago: President Barack Obama concluded a four-day visit to the Middle East as he marveled at the beauty of one of the region’s most stunning sites, the fabled ancient city of Petra in Jordan. Pope Francis traveled from the Vatican to Castel Gandolfo south of Rome to have lunch with his predecessor, Benedict XVI. Boris Berezovsky, 67, a self-exiled and outspoken Russian tycoon who’d had a bitter falling out with Russian President Vladimir Putin, was found dead at his home in Ascot, England.