TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is Tuesday, March 23, the 82nd day of 2021. There are 283 days left in the year. 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 1792, Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 94 in G Major (the “Surprise” symphony) had its first public performance in London.

■ 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 1942, the first Japanese-Americans evacuated by the U.S. Army during World War II arrived at the internment camp in Manzanar, California.

■ In 1993, scientists announced they’d found the renegade gene that causes Huntington’s disease.

■ In 2001, Russia’s orbiting Mir space station ended its 15-year odyssey with a planned fiery plunge into the South Pacific.

■ In 2010, claiming a historic triumph, President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act, a $938 billion health care overhaul.

Ten years ago: NATO ships began patrolling off Libya’s coast as airstrikes, missiles and energized rebels forced Moammar Gadhafi’s tanks to roll back from two key western cities.

Five years ago: President Barack Obama, on a fence-mending state visit to Buenos Aires, held up Argentina as an emerging world leader worthy of U.S. support, as he and President Mauricio Macri broke with years of tensions between their countries.

One year ago: 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.

Today’s Birthdays: Movie 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 Hope Davis is 57. Actor Randall Park is

47. Actor Michelle Monaghan is 45. Actor Keri Russell is 45. Actor Nicholle Tom is 43. Actor Nicolas Wright is 39. Actor Ben Rappaport is 35.