Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Today in history
On March 30, 1822 Florida became a U.S. territory.
In 1842 Dr. Crawford Long of Jefferson, Ga., first used ether as an anesthetic during a minor operation.
In 1858 a pencil equipped with an eraser was patented by Hyman Lipman of Philadelphia.
In 1867 U.S. Secretary of State William Seward reached agreement with Russia to purchase the territory of Alaska for $7.2 million, a deal roundly ridiculed as “Seward’s Folly.”
In 1870 the 15th Amendment to the Constitution, giving black men the right to vote, was declared in effect. Also in 1870, Texas was readmitted to the Union.
In 1945 the Soviet Union invaded Austrian territory in World War II.
In 1964 John Glenn withdrew from the Ohio race for U.S. Senate because of injuries suffered in a fall.
In 1979 Airey Neave, a leading member of the British Parliament, was killed by a bomb planted by the Irish National Liberation Army.
In 1981 President Ronald Reagan was shot and seriously injured outside a Washington hotel by John Hinckley Jr. (Also wounded were White House press secretary James Brady, a Secret Service agent and a District of Columbia police officer.)
In 1994 Serbs and Croats signed a cease-fire to end their war in Croatia while Bosnian Muslims and Serbs continued to battle each other. Also in 1994 the Clinton administration announced it was lifting virtually all export controls on nonmilitary products to China and the former Soviet bloc.
In 1995 Pope John Paul II issued the 11th encyclical of his papacy, “Evangelium Vitae,” in which he condemned abortion and euthanasia as crimes that no human laws can legitimize.
In 1996 the space shuttle Atlantis narrowly avoided having to make an emergency landing when its cargobay doors wouldn’t open at first to release built-up heat.
In 1999 a jury in Portland, Ore., ordered Philip Morris to pay $81 million to the family of a man who died of lung cancer after smoking Marlboros for four decades. (The Supreme Court threw out the verdict in October 2003, saying it should be reviewed by lower courts to ensure it was not unconstitutionally excessive.)
In 2000, in the midst of the 2000 presidential campaign, Vice President Al Gore broke with the Clinton administration, saying he supported legislation to allow 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez to remain in the country while the courts resolved his custody case. In 2002 England’s Queen Mother Elizabeth died in her sleep at Royal Lodge, Windsor, outside London; she was 101.
In 2003 a Palestinian suicide bomber wounded about 30 people outside a packed cafe in northern Israel, an attack the Islamic Jihad called “Palestine’s gift to the heroic people of Iraq.”
In 2010 President Barack Obama signed the final changes to sweeping legislation overhauling the nation’s health care industry and services; in addition, the legislation also drastically changed the way college loans are administered, cutting private banks out, easing repayment terms and expanding grants.