TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is Sunday, March 14, the 73rd day of 2021. There are 292 days left in the year.

Today’s highlight in history

On March 14, 1964, a jury in Dallas found Jack Ruby guilty of murdering Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy, and sentenced him to death. (Both the conviction and death sentence were overturned, but Ruby died before he could be retried.)

On this date

In 1794, Eli Whitney received a patent for his cotton gin, an invention that revolutionized America’s cotton industry.

In 1883, German political philosopher Karl Marx died in London at age 64.

In 1900, Congress ratified the Gold Standard Act.

In 1951, during the Korean War, United Nations forces recaptured Seoul.

In 1962, Democrat Edward M. Kennedy officially launched in

Boston his successful candidacy for the U.S. Senate seat from Massachusetts once held by his brother, President John F. Kennedy. (Edward Kennedy served in the Senate for nearly 47 years.)

In 1965, Israel’s cabinet formally approved establishment of diplomatic relations with West Germany.

In 1967, the body of President John F. Kennedy was moved from a temporary grave to a permanent memorial site at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

In 1980, a LOT Polish Airlines jet crashed while attempting to

land in Warsaw, killing all 87 people aboard, including 22 members of a U.S. amateur boxing team.

In 1990, the Soviet Congress of People’s Deputies held a secret ballot that elected Mikhail S. Gorbachev to a new, powerful presidency.

In 1991, a British court overturned the convictions of the “Birmingham Six,” who had spent 16 years in prison for a 1974 Irish Republican Army bombing, and ordered them released.

In 2001, inspectors tightened U.S. defenses against footand-mouth disease a day after

a case was confirmed in France.

In 2015, Robert Durst, a wealthy eccentric linked to two killings and his wife’s disappearance, was arrested by the FBI in New Orleans on a murder warrant a day before HBO aired the final episode of a serial documentary about his life. (Durst’s murder trial in Los Angeles was paused in July 2020 because of the coronavirus; it has yet to resume.)

Today’s birthdays

Former astronaut Frank Borman is 93. Actor Michael Caine is 88. Composer-producer

Quincy Jones is 88. Actor Raymond J. Barry is 82. Actor Steve Kanaly is 75. Actor-comedian Billy Crystal is

73. Actor-writer-comedianradio personality Rick Dees is

70. Actor Adrian Zmed is 67. Prince Albert II, the ruler of Monaco, is 63. Actor Laila Robins is 62. Actor Tamara Tunie is 62. Actor Penny Johnson Jerald is 61. Actor Elise Neal is 55. Actor Megan Follows is 53. Actor Grace Park is

47. Rep. Dan Crenshaw, Rtexas, is 37. Actor Jamie Bell is

35. NBA star Stephen Curry is

33. Olympic gold medal gymnast Simone Biles is 24.