TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is Sunday, March 6, the 65th day of 2022. There are 300 days left in the year. Today’s highlight in history

On March 6, 1944, U.S. heavy bombers staged the first full-scale American raid on Berlin. On this date In 1834, the city of York in Upper Canada was incorporated as Toronto.

In 1836, the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, fell as Mexican forces led by Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna stormed the fortress after a 13-day siege; the battle claimed the lives of all the Texan defenders, nearly 200 strong, including William Travis, James Bowie and Davy Crockett.

In 1857, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Dred Scott v. Sandford, ruled 7-2 that Scott, a slave, was not an American citizen and therefore could not sue for his freedom in federal court.

In 1912, Oreo sandwich cookies were first introduced by the National Biscuit Co.

In 1933, a national bank holiday declared by President Franklin D. Roosevelt aimed at calming panicked depositors went into effect.

In 1964, heavyweight boxing champion Cassius Clay officially changed his name to Muhammad Ali.

In 1970, a bomb being built inside a Greenwich Village townhouse in New York by the radical Weathermen accidentally went off, destroying the house and killing three group members. In 1973, Nobel Prize-winning author Pearl S. Buck, 80, died in Danby, Vt. In 1981, Walter Cronkite signed off for the last time as principal anchorman of “The CBS Evening News.”

In 1998, the Army honored three Americans who’d risked their lives and turned their weapons on fellow soldiers to stop the slaughter of Vietnamese villagers at My Lai in 1968.

In 2002, Independent Counsel Robert Ray issued his final report in which he wrote that former President Bill Clinton could have been indicted and probably would have been convicted in the scandal involving former White House intern Monica Lewinsky. In 2016, former first lady Nancy Reagan died in Los Angeles at age 94.

Ten years ago: In Super Tuesday contests, Republican Mitt Romney narrowly won in pivotal Ohio, seized a homestate victory in Massachusetts, triumphed in Idaho, Vermont and Alaska, and won easily in Virginia, where neither Rick Santorum nor Newt Gingrich was on the ballot; Santorum won contests in Oklahoma, Tennessee and North Dakota, while Gingrich won at home in Georgia. Former Texas tycoon R. Allen Stanford was convicted in Houston of bilking his investors out of more than $7 billion through a Ponzi scheme. (Stanford was sentenced to 110 years in prison.)

Five years ago: Without fanfare, President Donald Trump signed a scaled-back version of his controversial ban on many foreign travelers, one that still barred new visas for people from six Muslim-majority countries and temporarily shut down America’s refugee program.

Today’s birthdays

Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan is 96. Actor Ben Murphy is 80. Musician David Gilmour (Pink Floyd) is 76. Actor-director Rob Reiner is 75. Singer Kiki Dee is 75. TV reporter John Stossel is 75. Actor Tom Arnold is 63. Actor D.L. Hughley is 59. Actor Moira Kelly is 54. Basketball Hall of Famer Shaquille O’neal is 50.