QUOTE UNQUOTE Today’s highlight in history
“And because these daft and dewy-eyed dopes / keep building up impossible hopes, / Impossible things are happening every day.” On March 31, 1917, the United States took formal possession of the Virgin Islands from Denmark.
In 1492, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain issued an edict expelling Jews from Spanish soil, except those willing to convert to Christianity.
In 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Emergency Conservation Work Act, which created the Civilian Conservation Corps.
In 1943, “Oklahoma!,” the first musical play by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, opened on Broadway.
In 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson stunned the country by announcing during a televised address that he would not seek re-election.
In 1976, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that Karen Ann Quinlan, a young woman in a persistent vegetative state, could be disconnected from her respirator. (Quinlan, who remained unconscious, died in 1985.)
In 1993, actor Brandon Lee, 28, was accidentally shot to death during the filming of the movie “The Crow” in Wilmington, N.C., when he was hit by a bullet fragment that had become lodged inside a prop gun.
In 1995, Mexican-American singer Selena QuintanillaPerez, 23, was shot to death in Corpus Christi, Texas, by the founder of her fan club, Yolanda Saldivar, who was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. Ten years
ago: The first “Earth Hour” took place as Sydney, Australia, plunged itself into near-darkness for an hour to promote awareness of climate change. (The event went global the following year.)
Five years ago: Brittney Griner was named The Associated Press’ women’s college basketball Player of the Year, the first Baylor player to win the award.
One year ago: A Maryland man accused of fatally beating his girlfriend’s 9-year-old son over a missing piece of birthday cake pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 30 years in prison.