Today In History
Today is Saturday, March 23, the 83rd day of 2024. There are 283 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT
On March 23, 1998, “Titanic” tied an Academy Awards record by winning 11 Oscars, including best picture, best director for James Cameron and best original song for “My Heart Will Go On.”
ON THIS DATE
› 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!”
› 1806: Explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, having reached the Pacific coast, began their journey back east.
› 1919: Benito Mussolini founded his Fascist political movement in Milan, Italy.
› 1933: The German Reichstag adopted the Enabling Act, which effectively granted Adolf Hitler dictatorial powers.
› 1965: America’s first two-person 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.
› 1981: The U.S. Supreme Court, in H.L. v. Matheson, ruled that states could require, with some exceptions, parental notification when teenage girls seek abortions.
› 1994: Aeroflot Flight 593, an Airbus A310, crashed in Siberia with the loss of all 75 people on board; it turned out that a pilot’s teenage son who was allowed to sit at the controls had accidentally disengaged the autopilot, causing loss of control.
› 2010: Claiming a historic triumph, President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act, a $938 billion health care overhaul.
› 2012: Urging Americans to “do some soul searching,” President Barack Obama injected himself into the emotional debate over the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin in Florida, saying, “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon.”
› 2021: A cargo ship the size of a skyscraper ran aground and became wedged in the Suez Canal; hundreds of ships would be prevented from passing through the canal until the vessel was freed six days later.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS
Movie director Mark Rydell is 95. Singer Chaka Khan is 71. Actor Amanda Plummer is 67. Actor Richard Grieco is 59. Actor Marin Hinkle is 58. Actor-singer Melissa Errico is 54. Rock musician John Humphrey (The Nixons) is 54. Bandleader Reggie Watts (TV: “The Late Late Show With James Corden”) is
52. Actor Randall Park is 50. Actor Michelle Monaghan is 48. Actor Keri Russell is 48. Actor Anastasia Griffith is 46. Actor Nicholle Tom is 46. Actor Brandon Dirden is
46. Country singer Brett Young is 43. Actor Nicolas Wright is 42. Actor Ben Rappaport is 38. NBA point guard Kyrie Irving is 32.