Today in history
Tuesday, March 22, the 82nd day of 2016. There are 284 days left in the year.
On this date in the SCV: In 1989, Eugene Borgia said he feels lucky to be alive after he and a companion survived a 400-foot plunge down an SCV cliff in his pickup truck. He and Lisa Beaton, both of Santa Clarita, survived the fall from Lake Hughes Road about two miles north of Castaic Lake. “I took my eyes off the road for a quick second to adjust my seat belt,” said Borgia, 29. He added that when Beaton, 26, screamed, he looked up only to find that Lake Hughes Road was no longer there. “The truck immediately flipped. I think it slid down the hill inverted. I think the last 30 feet is where it flipped again,” Borgia said. For Borgia, the brush with death was followed by a tortuous climb up the steep face of rock so he could summon help for himself and Beaton, who sat injured in the truck. Borgia was treated and released from Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital for cuts and bruises, but Beaton suffered more serious injuries.
Today’s Highlight in History: On March 22, 1941, the Grand Coulee hydroelectric dam in Washington state officially went into operation. Ten years ago: More than 125,000 hourly workers of General Motors Corp. and auto supplier Delphi Corp. were offered buyouts to help cut the companies’ huge labor costs. The Basque separatist group ETA announced a permanent cease-fire with Spain. A Gabon-bound ferry sank off the coast of Cameroon; more than 120 people are believed to have died. A bus carrying cruise ship tourists plunged off a highway in northern Chile and tumbled down a mountainside, killing 12 Americans.
Five years ago: Yemen’s U.S.-backed president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, his support crumbling among political allies and the army, warned that the country could slide into civil war as the opposition rejected his offer to step down by the end of the year. NFL owners meeting in New Orleans voted to make all scoring plays reviewable by the replay official and referee; also, kickoffs would be moved up 5 yards to the 35-yard line. One year ago: CIA Director John Brennan, in an interview on Fox News Sunday, said the leader of Iran’s elite Quds Force was contributing to instability in Iraq and complicating the U.S. mission against terrorism. The U.N. special envoy for Yemen, Jamal Benomar, warned an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council in a video briefing from Qatar that events were pushing the Arab country “to the edge of civil war.”
On this date: In 1638, religious dissident Anne Hutchinson was expelled from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for defying Puritan orthodoxy.