Today in History

Thursday, March 23, 2023

Today is Thursday, March 23, the 82nd day of 2023. There are 283 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History: On March 23, 1919, Benito Mussolini founded his Fascist political movement in Milan, Italy.

On this date:

In 1775, Patrick Henry delivered an address to the Virginia Provincial Convention in which he is said to have declared, “Give me liberty, or give me death!”

In 1806, explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, having reached the Pacific coast, began their journey back east.

In 1933, the German Reichstag adopted the Enabling Act, which effectively granted Adolf Hitler dictatorial powers.

In 1942, the first Japaneseamericans evacuated by the U.S. Army during World War II arrived at the internment camp in Manzanar, California.

In 1965, America’s first twoperson space mission took place as Gemini 3blasted off with astronauts Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom and John W. Young aboard for a nearly 5-hour flight.

In 1981, the U.S. Supreme Court, in H.L. v. Matheson, ruled that states could require, with some exceptions, parental notification when teenage girls seek abortions.

In 1993, scientists announced they’d found the renegade gene that causes Huntington’s disease.

In 1994, Aeroflot Flight 593, an Airbus A310, crashed in Siberia with the loss of all 75people on board; it turned out that a pilot’s teenage son who was allowed to sit at the controls had accidentally disengaged the autopilot, causing loss of control.

In 1998, “Titanic” tied an Academy Awards record by winning 11 Oscars, including best picture, director (James Cameron) and song (“My Heart Will Go On”). In 2003, during the Iraq War, a U.S. Army maintenance convoy was ambushed in Nasiriyah (nah-sih-ree’-uh); 11 soldiers were killed, including Pfc. Lori Ann Piestewa (py-es’-tuh-wah); six were captured, including Pfc. Jessica Lynch, who was rescued on April 1, 2003.

In 2010, claiming a historic triumph, President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act, a $938 billion health care overhaul. In 2020, President Donald Trump said he wanted to reopen the country for business in weeks, not months; he asserted that continued closures could result in more deaths than the coronavirus itself. Britain became the latest European country to go into effective lockdown, as Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered the closure of most retail stores and banned public gatherings. Ten years ago: President Barack Obama concluded a four-day visit to the Middle East as he marveled at the beauty of one of the region’s most stunning sites, the fabled ancient city of Petra in Jordan. Pope Francis traveled from the Vatican to Castel Gandolfo south of Rome to have lunch with his predecessor, Benedict XVI. Boris Berezovsky, 67, a self-exiled and outspoken Russian tycoon who’d had a bitter falling out with Russian President Vladimir Putin, was found dead at his home in Ascot, England.

Five years ago: A French-moroccan gunman killed four people before being killed by police in southern France who stormed a supermarket where he had taken hostages; the victims included a police officer who had swapped himself for a hostage being held in the supermarket. President Donald Trump released an order banning most transgender troops from serving in the military except under “limited circumstances.” The online classified ads site Craigslist removed its personals section; the action came after the U.S. Senate passed an anti-sextrafficking bill that could hold the website and others responsible for illegal activity.

One year ago: NATO estimated that 7,000to 15,000Russian soldiers were killed in four weeks of fighting in Ukraine, where the country’s defenders put up stiffer-than-expected resistance and denied Moscow the lightning victory it hoped for. Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson faced a barrage of Republican questioning about her sentencing of criminal defendants, as her history-making bid to join the Supreme Court veered from lofty constitutional questions to attacks on her motivations as a judge. Madeleine Albright, a child refugee from Nazi- and then Soviet-dominated eastern Europe who rose to become the first female U.S. secretary of state and a mentor to many current and former American statesmen and women, died of cancer at 84. Today’s Birthdays: Movie director Mark Rydell is 94. International Motorsports Hall of Famer Craig Breedlove is 86. Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is 71. Singer Chaka Khan is 70. Actor Amanda Plummer is 66. Actor Catherine Keener is 64. Actor Hope Davis is 59. Actor Richard Grieco is 58. Actor Marin Hinkle is 57. Rock singer-musician Damon Albarn (Blur) is 55. Actor Kelly Perine is 54. Actorsinger Melissa Errico is 53. Rock musician John Humphrey (The Nixons) is 53. Bandleader Reggie Watts (TV: “The Late Late Show With James Corden”) is 51. Actor Randall Park is 49. Actor Michelle Monaghan is 47. Actor Keri Russell is 47. Actor Anastasia Griffith is 45. Gossip columnist-blogger Perez Hilton is 45. Actor Nicholle Tom is 45. Actor Brandon Dirden is 45. Country singer Brett Young is 42. Actor Nicolas Wright is 41. Actor Ben Rappaport is 37. NBA point guard Kyrie Irving is 31.

Friday, March 24, 2023

Today is Friday, March 24, the 83rd day of 2023. There are 282 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History: On March 24, 1989, the supertanker Exxon Valdez (vahl-deez’) ran aground on a reef in Alaska’s Prince William Sound and began leaking an estimated 11 million gallons of crude oil.

On this date:

In 1765, Britain enacted the Quartering Act, requiring American colonists to provide temporary housing to British soldiers. In 1832, a mob in Hiram, Ohio, attacked, tarred and feathered Mormon leaders Joseph Smith Jr. and Sidney Rigdon.

In 1882, German scientist Robert Koch announced in Berlin that he had discovered the bacillus responsible for tuberculosis. In 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a bill granting future independence to the Philippines.

In 1976, the president of Argentina, Isabel Peron, was deposed by her country’s military.

In 1980, one of El Salvador’s most respected Roman Catholic Church leaders, Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero, was shot to death by a sniper as he celebrated Mass in San Salvador.

In 1995, after 20 years, British soldiers stopped routine patrols in Belfast, Northern Ireland. In 1999, NATO launched airstrikes against Yugoslavia, marking the first time in its 50year existence that it had ever attacked a sovereign country. Thirty-nine people were killed when fire erupted in the Mont Blanc tunnel in France and burned for two days.

In 2010, keeping a promise he’d made to anti-abortion Democratic lawmakers to assure passage of his historic health care legislation, President Barack Obama signed an executive order against using federal funds to pay for elective abortions covered by private insurance.

In 2015, Germanwings Flight 9525, an Airbus A320, crashed into the French Alps, killing all 150people on board; investigators said the jetliner was deliberately downed by the 27-year-old co-pilot, Andreas Lubitz.

In 2016, a U.N. war crimes court convicted former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic of genocide and nine other charges for orchestrating a campaign of terror that left 100,000 people dead during the 1992-95 war in Bosnia; Karadzic was sentenced to 40years in prison. (The sentence was later increased to life in prison.)

In 2020, the International Olympic Committee announced that the Summer Olympics in Tokyo would be postponed until 2021 because of the coronavirus.

Ten years ago: Just days after the 10th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, on a previously unannounced trip to Baghdad, confronted Iraqi officials for continuing to grant Iran access to its airspace and said Iraq’s behavior was raising questions about its reliability as a partner. Hundreds of thousands marched in Paris protesting the imminent legalization of same-sex marriage. (It would be signed into law just over two months later).

Five years ago: In the streets of the nation’s capital and in cities across the country, hundreds of thousands of teenagers and their supporters rallied against gun violence, spurred by a call to action from student survivors of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, that left 17people dead. An extreme right-wing group in Greece claimed responsibility for an arson attack on an Afghan community center in Athens. One year ago: Ukraine accused Moscow of forcibly taking hundreds of thousands of civilians from shattered Ukrainian cities to Russia, where some could be used as “hostages” to pressure Kyiv to give up. Senate Republican leader Mitch Mcconnell announced that he would vote against confirming Ketanji Brown Jackson, saying he “cannot and will not” support the groundbreaking nominee for a lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court. Stephen Wilhite, the inventor of the internet-popular short-video format, the GIF, died. Today’s Birthdays: Fashion and costume designer Bob Mackie is 84. Former Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire is 76. Rock musician Lee Oskar is 75. Singer Nick Lowe is 74. Rock musician Dougie Thomson (Supertramp) is

72. Fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger is 72. Actor Donna Pescow is 69. Actor Robert Carradine is

69. Sen. Mike Braun, R-indiana, is 69. Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is 67. Actor Kelly Lebrock is 63. TV personality Star Jones is 61. Country-rock musician Patterson Hood (Driveby Truckers) is 59. Actor Peter Jacobson is 58. Rock singermusician Sharon Corr (The Corrs) is 53. Actor Lauren Bowles is

53. Actor Lara Flynn Boyle is 53. Rapper Maceo (AKA P.A. Pasemaster Mase) is 53. Actor Megyn Price is 52. Actor Jim Parsons is

50. Christian rock musician Chad Butler (Switchfoot) is 49. Actor Alyson Hannigan is 49. Former NFL quarterback Peyton Manning is 47. Actor Amanda Brugel (TV: “The Handmaid’s Tale”) is

46. Actor Olivia Burnette is 46. Actor Jessica Chastain is 46. Actor Amir Arison is 45. Actor Lake Bell is 44. Rock musician Benj Gershman (O.A.R.) is 43. Neo-soul musician Jesse Phillips (St. Paul & the Broken Bones) is

43. Actor Philip Winchester (TV: “Strike Back”) is 42. Dancer Val Chmerkovskiy is 37. Actor Keisha Castle-hughes is 33.

Saturday, March 25, 2023 Today is Saturday, March 25, the 84th day of 2023. There are 281 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History:

On March 25, 1931, in the socalled “Scottsboro Boys” case, nine young Black men were taken off a train in Alabama, accused of raping two white women; after years of convictions, death sentences and imprisonment, the nine were eventually vindicated.

On this date:

In 1634, English colonists sent by Lord Baltimore arrived in presentday Maryland.

In 1894, Jacob S. Coxey began leading an “army” of unemployed from Massillon (Ma’-sih-luhn), Ohio, to Washington D.C., to demand help from the federal government.

In 1911, 146people, mostly young female immigrants, were killed when fire broke out at the Triangle Shirtwaist Co. in New York. In 1915, the U.S. Navy lost its first commissioned submarine as the USS F-4sank off Hawaii, claiming the lives of all 21crew members.

In 1947, a coal-dust explosion inside the Centralia Coal Co. Mine No. 5in Washington County, Illinois, claimed 111lives; 31men survived.

In 1954, RCA announced it had begun producing color television sets at its plant in Bloomington, Indiana.

In 1960, Ray Charles recorded “Georgia on My Mind” as part of his “The Genius Hits the Road” album in New York.

In 1965, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. led 25,000 people to the Alabama state capitol in Montgomery after a five-day march from Selma to protest the denial of voting rights to Blacks. Later that day, civil rights activist Viola Liuzzo, a white Detroit homemaker, was shot and killed by Ku Klux Klansmen.

In 1987, the Supreme Court, in Johnson v. Transportation Agency, ruled 6-3 that an employer could promote a woman over an arguably more-qualified man to help get women into higherranking jobs.

In 1990, 87people, most of them Honduran and Dominican immigrants, were killed when fire raced through an illegal social club in New York City. (An arsonist set the fire after being thrown out of the club following an argument with his girlfriend; Julio Gonzalez died in prison in 2016.) In 1996, an 81-day standoff by the anti-government Freemen began at a ranch near Jordan, Montana.

Ten years ago: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Afghan President Hamid Karzai made a show of unusual unity between their two nations in Kabul as the U.S. military ceded control of its last detention facility in Afghanistan, ending a long-standing irritant in relations.

Five years ago: In an interview with “60Minutes,” adult film star Stormy Daniels said she had been threatened and warned to keep silent about an alleged sexual encounter with Donald Trump in 2006. A fire at a shopping mall in a Siberian city in Russia killed more than 60 people, including 41 children. Gun manufacturer Remington filed for bankruptcy reorganization amid years of slumping sales and legal and financial pressure from the Sandy Hook school massacre in Connecticut. Linda Brown, who as a young girl in Kansas became embroiled in a landmark 1954Supreme Court case that challenged segregation in public schools, died at the age of 75.

One year ago: Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin announced his intention to support the nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson to serve on the Supreme Court, pushing her one step closer to confirmation. Sheriff’s officials in Florida said a 14-year-old boy fell to his death from a ride at an Orlando amusement park. New Orleans’ school board unanimously reversed a little known but century-old ban on jazz.

Today’s Birthdays:

Film critic Gene Shalit is 97.

Former astronaut James Lovell is 95.

Feminist activist and author Gloria Steinem is 89.

Singer Anita Bryant is 83.

Actor Paul Michael Glaser is 80.

Singer Sir Elton John is 76.

Actor Bonnie Bedelia is 75.

Actor-comedian Mary Gross is 70.

Actor James Mcdaniel is 65.

Movie producer Amy Pascal is 65.

Rock musician Steve Norman (Spandau Ballet) is 63.

Actor Brenda Strong is 63.

Actor Fred Goss is 62.

Actorwriter-director John Stockwell is 62.

Actor Marcia Cross is 61.

Author Kate Dicamillo is 59.

Actor Lisa Gay Hamilton is 59.

Actor Sarah Jessica Parker is 58.

Baseball Hall of Famer Tom Glavine is 57.

TV personality Ben Mankiewicz is 56.

Olympic bronze medal figure skater Debi Thomas is 56.

Actor Laz Alonso is 52.

Singer Melanie Blatt (All Saints) is 48.

Actor Domenick Lombardozzi is 47.

Actor Lee Pace is 44.

Actor Sean Faris is 41.

Comedian-actor Alex Moffat (TV: “Saturday Night Live”) is 41.

Former auto racer Danica Patrick is 41.

Actor-singer Katharine Mcphee is 39.

Comedian-actor Chris Redd (TV: “Saturday Night Live”) is 38.

Singer Jason Castro is 36.

Rapper Big Sean is 35.

Rap Dj-producer Ryan Lewis is 35.

Actor Matthew Beard is 34.