On this day, March 20
1413 England’s King Henry IV died; he was succeeded by Henry V.
1815 Napoleon Bonaparte returned to Paris after escaping his exile on Elba, beginning his “Hundred Days” rule.
1852 Harriet Beecher Stowe’s influential novel about slavery, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” was first published in book form after being serialized.
1854 The Republican Party of the United States was founded by slavery opponents at a schoolhouse in Ripon, Wis.
1922 The decommissioned USS Jupiter, converted into the first U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, was recommissioned as the USS Langley.
1952 The U.S. Senate ratified, 66-10, a Security Treaty with Japan.
1969 John Lennon married Yoko Ono in Gibraltar.
1976 Kidnapped newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst was convicted of armed robbery for her part in a San Francisco bank holdup carried out by the Symbionese Liberation Army. (Hearst was sentenced to seven years in prison; she was released after serving 22 months, and was pardoned in 2001 by President Bill Clinton.)
1995 In Tokyo, 12 people were killed, more than 5,500 others sickened when packages containing the deadly chemical sarin were leaked on five separate subway trains by Aum Shinrikyo cult members.
1996 A jury in Los Angeles convicted Erik and Lyle Menendez of first-degree murder in the shotgun slayings of their wealthy parents. (They were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.)
2014 President Barack Obama ordered economic sanctions against nearly two dozen members of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle and a major bank that provided them support, raising the stakes in an East-West showdown over Ukraine.
Today’s birthdays: Actor Hal Linden, 92. Basketball Hall of Fame coach Pat Riley, 78. Country singer-musician Ranger Doug (Riders in the Sky), 77. Hockey Hall of Famer Bobby Orr, 75. Blues singer-musician Marcia Ball, 74. Rock musician Carl Palmer (Emerson, Lake and Palmer), 73. Rock musician Jimmie Vaughan, 72. Actor Amy Aquino, 66. Movie director Spike Lee, 66. Actor Theresa Russell, 66. Actor Vanessa Bell Calloway, 66. Actor Holly Hunter, 65. Rock musician Slim Jim Phantom (The Stray Cats), 62. Actor-model-designer Kathy Ireland, 60. Actor David Thewlis, 60. Rock musician Adrian Oxaal (James), 58. Actor Jessica Lundy, 57. Actor Liza Snyder, 55. Actor Michael Rapaport, 53. Actor Alexander Chaplin, 52. Actor Cedric Yarbrough, 50. Actor Paula Garcés, 49. Actor Bianca Lawson, 44. Comedian-actor Mikey Day, 43. Actor Nick Blood (TV: “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”), 41. Rock musician Nick Wheeler (The All-American Rejects), 41. Actor Michael Cassidy, 40. Actor-singer Christy Carlson Romano, 39. Actor Ruby Rose, 37. Actor Barrett Doss, 34.