TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

March 15, 1493

Italian explorer Christopher Columbus arrived back in the Spanish harbor of Palos de la Frontera, two months after concluding his first voyage to the Western Hemisphere. ALSO ON THIS DATE

1767

The seventh president of the United States, Andrew Jackson, was born in the Waxhaw settlement along the North Carolina-South Carolina border.

1820

Maine became the 23rd state.

1917

Czar Nicholas II abdicated in favor of his brother, Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich, who declined the crown, marking the end of imperial rule in Russia.

1922

Sultan Fuad I proclaimed himself the first king of modern Egypt.

1937

America’s first hospital blood bank was opened at Cook County Hospital in Illinois.

1944

During World War II, Allied bombers again raided German-held Monte Cassino.

1956

The Lerner and Loewe musical play “My Fair Lady,” based on Bernard Shaw’s “Pygmalion,” opened on Broadway.

1964

Actress Elizabeth Taylor married actor Richard Burton in Montreal; it was her fifth marriage, his second.