Today in History
Today is Friday, March 3, the 62nd day of 2023. There are 303 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On March 3, 1974, a Turkish Airlines DC-10 crashed shortly after takeoff from Orly Airport in Paris, killing all 346 people on board. On this date:
■ In 1791, Congress passed a measure taxing distilled spirits; it was the first internal revenue act in U.S. history.
■ In 1849, the U.S. Department of the Interior was established.
■ In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln signed a measure creating the National Academy of Sciences.
■ In 1931, “The StarSpangled Banner” became the national anthem of the United States as President Herbert Hoover signed a congressional resolution.
■ In 1943, in London’s East End, 173 people died in a crush of bodies at the Bethnal Green tube station, which was being used as a wartime air raid shelter.
■ In 1945, the Allies fully secured the Philippine capital of Manila from Japanese forces during World War II.
■ In 1960, Lucille Ball filed for divorce from her husband, Desi Arnaz, a day after they had finished filming the last episode of “The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show.”
■ In 1966, death claimed actors William Frawley at age 79 and Alice Pearce at age 48 in Hollywood.
In 1969, Apollo 9 blasted off from Cape Kennedy on a mission to test the lunar module.
In 1991, motorist Rodney King was severely beaten by Los Angeles police officers in a scene captured on amateur video. Twenty-five people were killed when a United Airlines Boeing 737-200 crashed while approaching the Colorado Springs airport.
■ In 2017, The Nintendo Switch, a hybrid game machine that works as both a console at home and a portable tablet on the go, made its debut.
■ In 2020, in a surprise move, the Federal Reserve cut its benchmark interest rate by a half-point, its largest cut in more than a decade, to support the economy in the face of the spreading coronavirus.
Ten years ago: Vice President Joe Biden led civil rights leaders and national political figures in a ceremonial crossing of a Selma, Alabama, bridge where voting rights marchers were beaten by law enforcement officers in 1965. The SpaceX company’s Dragon capsule made good on its latest shipment to the International Space Station, overcoming earlier mechanical difficulty to deliver a ton of supplies. Bobby Rogers, a founding member of Motown group The Miracles and a songwriting collaborator with Smokey Robinson, died at his suburban Detroit home at age 73.
Five years ago: Actor David Ogden Stiers, best known for playing a surgeon on the “M.A.S.H.” television series, died at his Oregon home at the age of 75. Coastal communities in the northeastern United States saw damaging high tide flooding and the lingering effects of powerful, gusting winds in the aftermath of a vicious nor’easter. Roger Bannister, the British athlete who, while a medical student, became the first person to run a mile in under 4 minutes, died in Oxford, England at the age of 88.