HISTORY AT A GLANCE
TODAY is Monday, March 20, the 79th day of 2017. There are 286 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1942 – World War II: General Douglas MacArthur, at Terowie, South Australia, makes his famous speech regarding the fall of the Philippines, in which he says: “I came out of Bataan and I shall return”. 1956 – Tunisia gains independence from France. 1972 – The Troubles: The first Provisional IRA car bombing in Belfast kills seven people and injures 148 others in Northern Ireland. 1974 – An unsuccessful attempt is made by a lone perpetrator to kidnap Her Royal Highness Princess Anne and her husband Captain Mark Phillips in The Mall, outside Buckingham Palace, London. 1985 – Canadian paraplegic athlete and humanitarian Rick Hansen begins his circumnavigation of the globe in a wheelchair in the name of spinal cord injury medical research. 1987 – The Food and Drug Administration approves the anti
AIDS drug, AZT. 1990 – Ferdinand Marcos’s widow, Imelda Marcos, goes on
trial for bribery, embezzlement, and racketeering. 1993 – The Troubles: A Provisional IRA bomb kills two children in Warrington, England. It leads to mass protests in both Britain and Ireland. 1995 – A sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway kills 13 and
wounds 1,300 people. 1999 – Legoland California, the first Legoland outside of
Europe, opens in Carlsbad, California. 2000 – Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, a former Black Panther once known as H. Rap Brown, is captured after murdering Georgia sheriff’s deputy Ricky Kinchen and critically wounding Deputy Aldranon English. 2003 – Invasion of Iraq: In the early hours of the morning, the United States and three other countries (the UK, Australia and Poland) begin military operations in Iraq. 2006 – Over 150 Chadian soldiers are killed in eastern Chad by members of the rebel UFDC. The rebel movement sought to overthrow Chadian president Idriss Déby. 2012 – At least 52 people are killed and more than 250 injured
in a wave of terror attacks across ten cities in Iraq. 2014 – Four suspected Taliban members attack the luxurious
Kabul Serena Hotel, killing at least nine people. 2015 – A Solar eclipse, equinox, and a Supermoon all occur
on the same day.