This day in history
today is friday, March 29, the 89th day of 2024. there are 277 days left in the year.
Birthdays: Author Judith Guest is 88. former british prime minister John Major is 81. Comedian Eric Idle is 81. basketball Hall of famer Walt frazier is 79. singer Bobby Kimball of toto is 77. Actor Bud Cort is 76. Actor Brendan Gleeson is 69. football Hall of famer Earl Campbell is 69. Rock singer Perry Farrell of Jane’s Addiction is 65. Comedian-actor Amy Sedaris is 63. Model Elle Macpherson is 61. senator Catherine Cortez Masto, Democrat of nevada, is 60. Actor Annabella Sciorra is 60. Movie director Michel Hazanavicius is 57. Rock singer-musician John Popper of blues traveler is 57. Actor Lucy Lawless is 56. tennis Hall of famer Jennifer Capriati is 48. R&b singer PJ Morton is 43.
▶ In 1867, britain’s parliament passed, and Queen victoria signed, the british north America Act, creating the Dominion of Canada.
▶ In 1943, World War II rationing of meat, fats, and cheese began, limiting consumers to store purchases of an average of about two pounds a week for beef, pork, lamb, and mutton using a coupon system.
▶ In 1951, Julius and ethel
Rosenberg were convicted in new York of conspiracy to commit espionage for the soviet Union. (they were executed in June 1953.)
▶ In 1971, Army lieutenant William l. Calley Jr. was convicted of murdering 22 vietnamese civilians in the 1968 My lai massacre. (Calley would serve three years under house arrest.) A jury in Los Angeles recommended the death penalty for Charles Manson and three female followers for the 1969 tate-la bianca murders. (the sentences were commuted when the California supreme Court struck down the death penalty in 1972.)
▶ In 1973, the last United states combat troops left South Vietnam, ending America’s direct military involvement in the vietnam War.
▶ In 1974, eight Ohio National Guardsmen were indicted on federal charges stemming from the shooting deaths of four students at Kent State University. (the charges were later dismissed.)
▶ In 1984, under cover of early morning darkness, the Baltimore Colts football team left its home city of three decades and moved to Indianapolis.
▶ In 2002, Israeli troops stormed Yasser Arafat’s headquarters complex in the West bank in a raid that was launched in response to anti-Israeli attacks that had killed 30 people in three days.
▶ In 2004, president George W. Bush welcomed seven former Soviet-bloc nations (Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Latvia, and Estonia) into NATO during a White House ceremony.
▶ In 2010, two female suicide bombers blew themselves up in twin attacks on Moscow subway stations jam-packed with rushhour passengers, killing at least 40 people and wounding more than 100.
▶ In 2018, Russia announced the expulsion of more than 150 diplomats, including 60 Americans, and said it was closing a US consulate in retaliation for Western expulsions of Russian diplomats over the poisoning of an ex-spy and his daughter in Britain.
▶ In 2021, the former Minneapolis police officer charged with killing George Floyd went on trial with prosecutors showing the jury video of Derek Chauvin pressing his knee on the black man’s neck for several minutes as onlookers yelled at him repeatedly to get off and floyd gasped for breaths. (Chauvin would be convicted of murder and manslaughter and sentenced to 22 1/2 years in prison.)