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 1933, the German Reichstag adopted the Enabling Act, which effectively granted Adolf Hitler dictatorial powers.
In 1942, the first JapaneseAmericans evacuated by the U.S. Army during World War II arrived at the internment camp in Manzanar, 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 5-hour flight.
In 1973, before sentencing a group of Watergate breakin defendants, Chief U.S. District Judge John J. Sirica read aloud a letter he’d received from James W. McCord Jr. which said there was “political pressure” to “plead guilty and remain silent.”
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 15year odyssey with a planned fiery plunge into the South Pacific.
In 2003, during the Iraq War, a U.S. Army maintenance convoy was ambushed in Nasiriyah (nah-sih-REE’uh); 11 soldiers were killed, including Pfc. Lori Ann Piestewa (py-ES’-tuh-wah); six were captured, including Pfc. Jessica Lynch, who was rescued on April 1, 2003.
In 2004, a federal commission concluded that Clinton and Bush administration officials had engaged in lengthy, ultimately fruitless diplomatic efforts instead of military action to try to get Osama bin Laden before the 9/11 attacks; top Bush officials countered that the terror attacks would have occurred even if the United States had killed the al-Qaida leader.