TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS SUNDAY, MARCH 12, the 71st day of 2023. There are 294 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY:
On this date in 2009, disgraced financier Bernard Madoff pleaded guilty in New York to pulling off perhaps the biggest swindle in Wall Street history; he would be sentenced to 150 years behind bars. (Madoff died in prison in April 2021.)
In 1864, Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant assumed command as General-in-Chief of the Union armies in the Civil War.
In 1912, the Girl Scouts of the USA had its beginnings as Juliette Gordon Low of Savannah, Georgia, founded the first American troop of the Girl Guides.
In 1955, legendary jazz musician Charlie “Bird” Parker died in New York at age 34.
In 1980, a Chicago jury found John Wayne Gacy Jr. guilty of the murders of 33 men and boys. (The next day, Gacy was sentenced to death; he was executed in May 1994.)
In 1987, the musical play “Les Miserables” opened on Broadway.
In 1994, the Church of England ordained its first women priests.
In 2003, Elizabeth Smart, the 15-yearold girl who vanished from her bedroom nine months earlier, was found alive in a Salt Lake City suburb with two drifters, Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Barzee. (Mitchell is serving a life sentence; Barzee was released from prison in September 2018.)
In 2020, The NCAA canceled its basketball tournaments because of the coronavirus after earlier planning to play in empty arenas. The NHL joined the NBA in suspending play. Major League Baseball delayed the start of its season by at least two weeks. (An abbreviated 60-game season would begin in July.)
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Actor-singer Liza Minnelli is 77. Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, is 76. Singer-songwriter James Taylor and former Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., are 75. Rock singer-musician Bill Payne (Little Feat) is 74. Actor Jon Provost (TV: “Lassie”) is 73. Author Carl Hiaasen is 70. Rock musician Steve Harris (Iron Maiden) and actor Lesley Manville are 67. Actor Jerry Levine and singer Marlon Jackson (The Jackson Five) are 66. Actors Jason Beghe and Courtney B. Vance are 63. Actor Titus Welliver and former MLB All-Star Darryl Strawberry are 61. Actors Julia Campbell and Jake Weber are 60. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., and actor Aaron Eckhart are 55. CNN reporter Jake Tapper and rock musician Graham Coxon are 54. Actor Samm Levine is 40. Actor Jaimie Alexander is 39.