San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Sunday, March 12, the 71st day of 2023. There are 294 days left in the year.
On March 12, 2009, disgraced financier Bernard Madoff pleaded guilty in New York to pulling off perhaps the biggest swindle in Wall Street history; he would be sentenced to 150 years behind bars. (Madoff died in prison in April 2021.)
On this date In 1864, Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant assumed command as general-in-chief of the Union armies.
In 1912, the Girl Scouts of the USA had its beginnings as Juliette Gordon Low of Savannah, Ga., founded the first American troop of the Girl Guides.
In 1925, Chinese revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen died in Beijing.
In 1947, President Harry S. Truman announced what became known as the “Truman Doctrine” to help Greece and Turkey resist Communism.
In 1955, legendary jazz musician Charlie “Bird” Parker died in New York at age 34.
In 1971, Hafez Assad was confirmed as president of Syria in a referendum.
In 1980, a Chicago jury found John Wayne Gacy Jr. guilty of the murders of 33 men and boys. (The next day, Gacy was sentenced to death; he was executed in May 1994.)
In 1987, the musical play “Les Misérables” opened on Broadway.
In 1994, the Church of England ordained its first women priests.
In 2003, Elizabeth Smart, the 15-year-old girl who vanished from her bedroom nine months earlier, was found alive in a Salt Lake City suburb with two drifters, Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Barzee. (Mitchell is serving a life sentence; Barzee was released from prison in September 2018.)
In 2020, the stock market had its biggest drop since the Black Monday crash of 1987 as fears of economic fallout from the coronavirus crisis deepened; the Dow industrials plunged more than 2,300 points, or 10 percent The NCAA canceled its basketball tournaments because of the coronavirus, after earlier planning to play in empty arenas. The NHL joined the NBA in suspending play. Major League Baseball delayed the start of its season by at least two weeks. (An abbreviated 60-game season would begin in July.)
Today’s birthdays
Politician, diplomat and civil rights activist Andrew Young is 91. Actor Barbara Feldon is 90. Liza Minnelli is 77. Sen. Mitt Romney, R-utah, is 76. Singer James Taylor is 75.Actor Jon Provost (“Lassie”) is 73.Singer Marlon Jackson (The Jackson Five) is 66. Actor Jason Beghe is 63. Actor Courtney B. Vance is 63. Actor Titus Welliver is 61. Former MLB star Darryl Strawberry is 61. Actor Aaron Eckhart is 55. Journalist Jake Tapper is 54.