TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS SATURDAY, MARCH 4, the 63rd day of 2023. There are 302 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY:
On this date in 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt took office as America’s 32nd president.
In 1789, the Constitution of the United States went into effect as the first Federal Congress met in New York. (The lawmakers then adjourned for lack of a quorum.)
In 1865, President Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated for a second term of office; with the end of the Civil War in sight, Lincoln declared: “With malice toward none, with charity for all.”
In 1917, Republican Jeannette Rankin of Montana took her seat as the first woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, the same day President Woodrow Wilson took his oath of office for a second term (it being a Sunday, a private ceremony was held inside the U.S. Capitol; a second, public swearing-in took place the next day).
In 1987, President Ronald Reagan addressed the nation on the Iran-Contra affair, acknowledging that his overtures to Iran had “deteriorated” into an arms-for-hostages deal.
In 1998, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that sexual harassment at work can be illegal even when the offender and victim are of the same gender.
In 2018, former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter were found unconscious on a bench in the southwestern English city of Salisbury; both survived what British authorities said was a murder attempt using a nerve agent.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Actor Paula Prentiss is 85. Actor Kay Lenz, musician Emilio Estefan and movie director Scott Hicks are 70. Actor Catherine O’Hara is 69. Actor Mykelti Williamson is 66. Actor Patricia Heaton and Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., are 65. Actor Steven Weber is 62. Rock musician Jason Newsted is 60. Actor Stacy Edwards is 58. Gay rights activist Chaz Bono is 54. Actors Andrea Bendewald and Nick Stabile are 53. Country singer Jason Sellers is 52. Jazz musician Jason Marsalis is 46. Actor Jessica Heap is 40. Actor Scott Michael Foster and TV personality Whitney Port are 38. Actors Audrey Esparza and Margo Harshman are 37. Actor Josh Bowman is 35. Actor Andrea Bowen is 33. Actor Jenna Boyd is 30.