TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

March 18, 1937

In America’s worst school disaster, nearly 300 people, most of them children, were killed in a natural gas explosion at the New London Consolidated School in Rusk County, Texas.

ALSO ON THIS DATE 1766

Britain repealed the Stamp Act of 1765.

1837

The 22nd and 24th president of the United States, Grover Cleveland, was born in Caldwell, New Jersey.

1917

The Mexican newspaper Excelsior published its first edition.

1925

The Tri-State Tornado struck southeastern Missouri, southern Illinois and southwestern Indiana, resulting in some 700 deaths.

1940

Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini met at the Brenner Pass, where the Italian dictator agreed to join Germany’s war against France and Britain.

1942

President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order authorizing the War Relocation Authority, which was put in charge of evacuating “persons whose removal is necessary in the interests of national security,” with Milton S. Eisenhower as its director.

1959

President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Hawaii statehood bill.

1962

France and Algerian rebels signed the Evian Accords, a cease-fire agreement which took effect the next day, ending the Algerian War.