Today in history
Today is Thursday, March 29, the 88th day of 2018. There are 277 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On March 29, 1943, World War II rationing of meat, fats and cheese began, limiting consumers to store purchases of an average of about two pounds a week for beef, pork, lamb and mutton using a coupon system. (The Associated Press noted, “From the customer viewpoint, the unrationed oasis of food will be the restaurant or other public eating place.”)
On this date:
In 1638, Swedish colonists settled in presentday Delaware.
In 1790, the tenth president of the United States, John Tyler, was born in Charles City County, Virginia.
In 1792, Sweden’s King Gustav III died, nearly two weeks after he had been shot and mortally wounded by an assassin during a masquerade party.
In 1867, Britain’s Parliament passed, and Queen Victoria signed, the British North America Act creating the Dominion of Canada, which came into being the following July.
In 1912, British explorer Robert Falcon Scott, his doomed expedition stranded in an Antarctic blizzard after failing to be the first to reach the South Pole, wrote the last words of his journal: “For Gods sake look after our people.”
In 1936, German Chancellor Adolf Hitler claimed overwhelming victory in a plebiscite on his policies.
In 1951, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were convicted in New York of conspiracy to commit espionage for the Soviet Union. (They were executed in June 1953.) The Rodgers and Hammerstein musical “The King and I” opened on Broadway.
In 1962, Jack Paar hosted NBC’s “Tonight” show for the final time. (Johnny Carson debuted as host the following October.)
In 1971, Army Lt. William L. Calley Jr. was convicted of murdering 22 Vietnamese civilians in the 1968 My Lai (mee ly) massacre. (Calley ended up serving three years under house arrest.) A jury in Los Angeles recommended the death penalty for Charles Manson and three female followers for the 1969 Tate-La Bianca murders. (The sentences were later commuted.)
In 1973, the last United States combat troops left South Vietnam, ending America’s direct military involvement in the Vietnam War.
In 1984, under cover of early morning darkness, the Baltimore Colts football team left its home city of three decades and moved to Indianapolis.
In 1992, Democratic presidential front-runner Bill Clinton acknowledged experimenting with marijuana “a time or two” while attending Oxford University, adding, “I didn’t inhale and I didn’t try it again.”
Ten years ago: AntiAmerican Shiite militia leader Muqtada al-Sadr (mook-TAH’-duh ahl SAH’-dur) ordered his followers to defy orders from the Iraqi government to surrender their weapons. Zimbabweans voted in an election seen as the biggest test of Robert Mugabe’s 28-year rule. (Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai (SVAHNG’-ureye) claimed victory, but the Election Commission ordered a runoff; Mugabe claimed victory in that contest, which was widely denounced as a sham.)
Five years ago: President Barack Obama promoted a plan to create construction and other jobs by attracting private money to help rebuild roads, bridges and other public works projects during a visit to a Miami port that was undergoing $2 billion in upgrades paid for with government and private dollars.
One year ago: Britain filed for divorce from the European Union as Prime Minister Theresa May sent a six-page letter to EU Council President Donald Tusk.