A Day In History - March   

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Events and birthdays around the world on this day . . .

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1698 Elspeth McEwan is charged with witchcraft in New England, beginning a series of witch hunts throughout the area.
1781 The United States Articles of Confederation is ratified.
1790 The first U.S. Census is authorized.
1803 Ohio is admitted to the Union as the 17th state.
1867 Nebraska is admitted to the Union as the 37th state.
1920 The Supreme Court finds that the large corporation is not an illegal monopoly.
1931 The Cotton Carnival is first celebrated in Memphis, Tennessee, showing what life was like in the Old South.
1932 The Lindbergh baby is kidnapped.
1954 The U.S. explodes a hydrogen bomb in a test at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific.
1961 resident John F. Kennedy establishes the Peace Corp. of Young Americans for overseas service.
Birthdays: Writer William Dean Howells (1837), Actor, author David Niven (1910), Singer, actor Harry Belafonte (1927), Musician Lou Reed (1944), Director, producer Ron Howard (1954).

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1836 Texas declares its independence from Mexico.
1867 The first U.S. Board of Education is founded.
1863 U.S. Congress authorizes a track width of 4 feet 8 1/2 inches as standard for the Union Pacific Railroad.
1836 Fifty-nine citizens of Mexico found the Republic of Texas.
1876 U.S. Congress passes a resolution to impeach Secretary Belknap for selling places in the Navy Department; Belknap resigns.
1889 The first American electrocution is performed on dogs, calves and a horse and are declared successful.
1889 The National Zoological Park is established by Congress.
1899 Mt. Rainier National Park is established.
1992 The United States brings a move to freeze the assets of the law firm of Kaye, Scholer, Fierman, Hays & Handler and files a lawsuit against the firm for its involvement with convicted savings and loan criminal Charles Keating.
Birthdays: Actress Jennifer Jones (1919), Singer Karen Carpenter (1950), Actor Ricky Shroder (1970).

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1825 Congress authorizes a federal survey of the Santa Fe Trail.
1845 Florida is admitted to the Union as the 27th state.
1847 Adhesive postage stamps are approved by Congress.
1849 The Home Department is formed by Congress and later becomes the Department of the Interior.
1855 The U.S. Congress approved an appropriation of $30,000 to be placed at the disposal of the Secretary of War for the import of camels to be tested for military purposes.
1863 The Idaho Territory is formed.
1863 The National Academy of Sciences is incorporated by Congress.
1883 The U.S. develops a postal money order system.
1923 Four men are arrested for smoking in a Salt Lake City, Utah cafe.
1931 "The Star Spangled Banner" is officially declared the national anthem of the U.S.
1991 Television audiences are shocked by the airing of a home video of several Los Angeles Police Officers beating motorist Rodney King with billy clubs.
1992 President George Bush admits publicly that he is sorry that while he was President he raised taxes despite the fact that he had pledged during his election campaign that there would be "NO NEW TAXES!"
Birthdays: Actress Jean Harlow (1911), Heavy metal musician John "Ozzy" Osbourne (1946).

  1681 William Penn receives a charter from King Charles II, making him proprietor of a large land grant in the Pennsylvania area.
1791 Vermont is admitted to the Union as the 14th state.
1801 Thomas Jefferson becomes the first President of the U.S. to be sworn in to office in
Washington, D.C.
1825 John Quincy Adams becomes the 6th U.S. President.
1837 Martin Van Buren becomes the 8th U.S. President.
1841 William Henry Harrison is inaugurated as the 9th U.S. president.
1845 James K. Polk becomes the 11th U.S. president.
1865 President Lincoln is inaugurated to a second term as U.S. president.
1869 Ulysses S. Grant is inaugurated as 18th U.S. president.
1891 The International Copyright Act is passed by Congress.
1913 Woodrow Wilson is inaugurated as the 28th U.S. President.
1933 Franklin Roosevelt is inaugurated as the 32nd U.S. president.
1933 The first woman cabinet member, Francis Perkins, takes her post as Secretary of Labor.
1958 The U.S. nuclear submarine Nautilus travels under the North Pole ice cap.
1994 Four Arab defendants were found guilty of all counts against them in relation to the bombing of New York's World Trade Center Complex in February, 1993. The blast underneath the world famous Twin Towers caused six deaths and injured over one thousand.
Birthdays: Singer, musician Bobby Womack (1944), Musician Chris Squire (1948).

1770 During a protest, the Boston Massacre occurs in which five persons are killed by British troops, and the governor agrees to withdraw troops from Boston.
1831 A four wheel locomotive makes the first trip on the South Carolina Railroad.
1842 The Florida legislature passes a resolution requesting their Congressional delegate to press for a law authorizing rewards for Indian scalps and Indians captured.
1849 Zachary Taylor is inaugurated as the 12th U.S. president.
1877 Rutherford B. Hayes is inaugurated as the 19th U.S. president.
1916 The Army Reorganization Act is passed by Congress.
1923 Montana and Nevada enact old-age pensions.
1934 The first Mother-in-Law Day is celebrated in Amarillo, Texas.
1946 Churchill makes a speech in the U.S. warning Western nations to beware of the U.S.S.R. and the Iron Curtain across Europe.
Birthdays: 7th president of the United States Andrew Jackson (1767), Actor Rex Harrison (1908).

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1836 Mexican General Antonio Santa Anna captures the Alamo in Texas.
1854 A block of marble, sent by Pope Pius IX to be used for the Washington Monument, is destroyed by persons unknown.
1902 The Bureau of the Census is formed.
1933 U.S. banks close for three days in hopes of stopping a panic run on the banks.
1938 Thomas Garson of Chicago, Illinois eats twenty-two hamburgers and two quarts of ice cream in twenty-five minutes to win a bet.
1944 U.S. Air Force begins daylight bombing attacks on Berlin.
1987 Georgia O'Keefe, famous American artist best known for her paintings of natural forms and objects, dies.
1992 The Cosby Show starring Bill Cosby, a staple of American television for most of the 1980's and one of the most popular T.V. programs of all time, tapes its last episode.
Birthdays: Actor, vaudevillian Lou Costello (1906), Director, actor Rob Reiner (1945).

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1825 Joel R. Poinsett is nominated as the first U.S. minister to Mexico.
1825 The U.S. Congress ratifies the first treaty with a South American country,the Republic of Colombia.
1876 Alexander Graham Bell receives a patent for his invention of the telephone.
1911 The first coin-operated locker is patented by W. S. Farnsworth.
1945 American forces cross the Rhine River into Germany.
Birthdays: Walt Disney Productions CEO Michael D. Eisner (1942), Actor John Heard (1946)

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1854 Commodore Perry, representing the U.S., and Japan sign a treaty ending Japan's isolation policy and opening two ports for trade with the U.S.
1911 New York City Police introduce a new tool, the latent-fingerprint evidence.
1954 The U.S. and Japan sign a mutual defense treaty.
1965 The U.S. lands 3,500 marines in South Vietnam.
1973 The Eisenhower Tunnel, the highest in the world and the longest in the U.S., is opened through the continental divide.
1994 The USS Eisenhower will be the first Navy combat ship to have women permanently assigned to the crew.
Birthdays: Actress, dancer Cyd Charisse (1921), Actress Lyn Redgrave (1943), Actor Aidan Quinn (1959)

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1822 C. M. Howard is granted a patent for his invention of artificial teeth.
1858 The street letter box is patented by Albert Potts of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1861 Confederate currency is authorized by the Confederate Government.
1862 The Monitor and the Virginia clash in the first battle of two ironclad ships.
1898 Congress appropriates $50 million for national defense.
1947 The end of the first U.S. strike to last longer than one year ends at J. I. Case Manufacturing in Racine, Wisconsin.
1976 The first female cadets are accepted for admission to West Point Military Academy.
1987 Hundreds of lost Broadway manuscripts by Gershwin, Richard Rodgers, Jerome Kern and Victor Herbert are found in a Warner Brothers warehouse.
Birthdays: Band leader Lloyd Price (1933), Actor Raul Julia (1940).

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1660 The Maryland Assembly declares itself independent of the control of Lord Baltimore.
1775 The Transylvania Company sends Daniel Boone out to cut the Wilderness Road in Kentucky.
1797 The capital of New York State is moved from New York to Albany.
1876 The first complete, intelligible sentence is transmitted over the telephone as Alexander Graham Bell said to his assistant: "Mr. Watson, come here, I want you."
1892 Citizens of McLean County, Illinois make up a train of twenty-eight cars loaded with shelled corn for the famine sufferers in Russia.
1969 James Earl Ray pleads guilty to the shooting death of Martin Luther King Jr. and is
sentenced to 99 years in prison.
1971 The U.S. Senate approves voting for 18 year olds.
1992 The so-called "Super Tuesday" presidential primaries held in more than ten states establish Bill Clinton and George Bush as the clear favorites to become their parties' presidential nominees.
1994 The first all-women crew is formed to compete in the Americas Cup yachting competition.
Birthdays: Musician Andy Gibb (1958)

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1676 Native Americans attack Plymouth, Massachusetts.
1789 The first U.S. Post Office is opened.
1802 The first non-Native American child is born in North Dakota.
1864 Grant is made commander in chief of all Union armies.
1888 A blizzard hits the Northeast U.S. and is responsible for great loss of life and widespread destruction.
1893 Three male burglars aged ten, twelve and thirteen are the youngest ever to engage in this lawlessness and are arrested in New York City.
1912 The Girl Scouts of America is founded by Juliette Low.
1947 President Truman requests aid for Turkey and Greece and sets forth the Truman Doctrine for the containment of Communism.
1991 Exxon Corporation is ordered to pay $1.1 Billion settlement including civil and criminal damages as a result of the Valdez oil spill.
Birthdays: Playwright Edward Albee (1928), Actress, singer Liza Minelli (1946), Singer, songwriter James Taylor (1948).

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1639 Harvard University is founded as the first university in the U.S.
1656 Jews are now permitted to worship in their own houses in New Amsterdam, but not publicly in synagogues.
1677 The province of Maine is purchased by John Usher for $1,677 dollars.
1852 Uncle Sam first appears in a weekly comic publication.
1868 President Andrew Johnson's impeachment trial begins; he is later acquitted.
1877 Earmuffs are invented by Chester Greenwood of Farmington, Maine.
1884 Standard Time is established in the U.S.
1987 Goldsboro Christian School in North Carolina is ordered to re-admit Machelle Outlaw who was expelled for modeling swimsuits.
1994 An artificial element, known as Element 106, is named seaborgium in honor of U.S. Nobel Laureate Dr. Glenn Seaborg.
Birthdays: Singer, songwriter Neil Sedaka (1939)

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1794 Eli Whitney is granted a patent for his cotton gin.
1812 The first U.S. war bonds are sold.
1900 The U.S. adopts the gold standard.
1950 The FBI's "Most Wanted List" is established.
1964 Jack Ruby is convicted in Dallas, Texas of the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald, alleged assassin of John F. Kennedy.
1987 International leaders meet in the first Eleanor Roosevelt International Caucus of Women Political Leaders in San Francisco, California.
1988 Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North is indicted on Iran-Contra related charges.
1991 A twenty week strike which had crippled the New York Daily News is finally ended when British publisher Robert Maxwell agrees to buy the paper and settle disputes with the Union.
Birthdays: Musician Quincy Jones (1933), Actor, comedian Billy Crystal (1947)

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1781 British military leader Cornwallis suffers heavy losses and abandons plans to control the Carolinas.
1820 Maine is admitted to the Union as the 23rd state.
1875 Archbishop John McCloskey becomes the first U.S. cardinal.
1917 U.S. government recognizes the new government formed in Russia by Aleksandr Kerensky.
1956 The longest-running musical in the history of Broadway theater, My Fair Lady, is first performed in New York City.
1992 Investigators report that pieces of an old airplane have been found on a remote Pacific Island which are believed to be associated with the mysterious disappearance of American aviator Amelia Earhart.
Birthdays: 22nd and 24th president of the United States, Grover Cleveland (1837), Actor Michael Caine (1933), Singer, songwriter Terence Trent D'Arby (1962)

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1621 The colony of Plymouth, Massachusetts is paid the first visit by a Native American chief.
1641 A general court declares Rhode Island a democracy and adopts a new constitution granting freedom of religion to all citizens and changing the name of the Island to Rhode Island.
1802 The United States Military Academy is established at West Point, New York.
1830 The New York Stock Exchange experiences its slowest day ever, with just thirty-one shares being traded.
1987 The U.S. is ranked the fifth most desirable place to live, according to a study by the
Population Crisis Committee.
1991 Seven country musicians who are members of Reba McIntire's band along with a road manager and two pilots are killed when their chartered plane crashes in the California mountains.
Birthdays: 4th president of the United States James Madison (1751), Composer John Addison (1920), actor and comedian Jerry Lewis (1926), Director, screenwriter Bernardo Bertolucci (1940), Actress Kate Nelligan (1951).

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St. Patrick's Day

1763 The first St. Patrick's Day Parade is held in New York City.
1884 John Montgomery becomes the first man to fly a glider when he traveled approximately 600 feet across a California valley.
1898 The first practical submarine made by John P. Holland is submerged off Staten Island, New York and remains underwater for a little longer than an hour.
1912 The Camp Fire Girls is founded by Mrs. Luther Halsey Gulick at Lake Sebago, Maine.
1912 The first cherry tree is planted in Washington, D.C., by Mrs. William Howard Taft.
1941 The National Gallery of Art opens in Washington, D.C.
1950 The heaviest element, Californium, is discovered by researchers at the University of
California at Berkeley.
1963 The second American to be beatified by the Pope is Mother Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton.
Birthdays: Composer, conductor Alfred Newman (1901), Actor Kurt Russell (1951), Actor Rob Lowe (1964)

1673 Lord Berkley sells his half of New Jersey to the Quakers.
1870 The first U.S. National Wildlife Preserve is Lake Meritt in Oakland, California.
1931 The first electric shavers go on sale in the U.S..
1944 Approximately 2,500 women trample guards and floorwalkers in their panic to buy 1,500 alarm clocks announced for sale in a Chicago, Illinois department store.
1966 Gemini 8 is launched by NASA, with astronauts Neil A. Armstrong and Captain David R. Scott, and becomes the first U.S. spacecraft to dock in space.
1974 Arab oil-producing nations agree to end the embargo against the U.S.
1987 A Gerber Company survey finds the most popular names for newborns are Jessica and Matthew.
1989 The largest robbery in the history of art occurs at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, where twelve paintings valued at $100 million are stolen.
Birthdays: Novelist John Updike (1932), Singer, songwriter Wilson Pickett (1941).

1760 A severe fire rages out of control throughout Boston.
1852 Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin is published.
1899 The first woman executed by electrocution is M.M. Place in Ossining, New York.
1954 The first newspaper vending machine is used in Columbia, Pennsylvania.
1967 The first U.S. Army General to die in Vietnam is A. J. F. Moody.
1987 Soviet filmmakers arrive in Hollywood, California for an entertainment summit to limit Cold War stereotypes in films.
1991 The Supreme Court Rules unanimously that employers cannot exclude women from jobs in which exposure to toxic chemicals could potentially cause damage to a developing fetus.
Birthdays: Writer Heinrich Ibsen (1828), Actor, screenwriter Carl Reiner (1923), Actor William Hurt (1950)

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1891 The long standing Hatfield-McCoy feud of West Virginia ends when a son and a daughter, one from each faction, announce their engagement.
1917 The first female U.S. Navy Petty Officer is Loretta Walsh.
1965 Martin Luther King, Jr. heads a procession of 4,000 civil rights demonstrators from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.
1991 Twenty-seven men are lost at sea when two U.S. Navy anti-submarine planes collide over Pacific Ocean near San Diego, California.
1994 Anne Phipps Sidamon-Eristoff is named chairwoman of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, making her the second woman to be named to a top post at the Museum.
Birthdays: Actor Timothy Dalton (1944), Actor Gary Oldman (1958)

1621 The Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indians reach a treaty.
1765 The Stamp Act is passed by the English Parliament and is the first direct tax on the American colonies.
1794 A bill banning slave trade with foreign nations is passed by Congress.
1861 The first U.S. nursing school is chartered.
1960 The first patent for lasers is granted to Arthur Schawlow and Charles Townes.
1991 Federal, state, and local law enforcement officers raid fraternities at the University of Virginia seizing bags of drugs and arresting eleven students.
1992 Twenty-seven people are killed and fourteen are injured when a Dutch airliner runs off the runway and into the bay at New York's LaGuardia Airport.
1994 Netherlands Ambassador to the U.S. christens a new tulip the Hillary Clinton, named after the first lady.
Birthdays: Actor, comedian Chico Marx (1887), Composer, screenwriter Stephen Sondheim (1930), Actor William Shatner (1931), Actor Matthew Modine (1959).

1775 Patrick Henry proclaims: "Give me liberty or give me death."
1794 The rivet is patented by J. G. Pierson.
1858 The streetcar is patented by E. A. Gardner of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1868 The University of California is founded in Oakland, California.
1922 The first airplane lands at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.
1987 The U.S. offers military protection to Kuwaiti ships in the Persian Gulf.
Birthdays: Director, screenwriter Akiri Kurosawa (1910), Composer Vangelis (1943), Singer, songwriter Chaka Khan (1953), Actress Amanda Plummer (1957), Actress Joan Crawford (1904).

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1923 The Twin Cities are the first cities in the world to have the noiseless roller-bearing street cars.
1934 The U.S. Act declares that the Philippines will be independent, starting in 1945.
1965 Robert F. Kennedy reaches the top of Mt. Kennedy in the Yukon Territory, becoming the first person to scale the highest unclimbed mountain in America. The mountain had been named by the Canadian government in honor of the Senator's brother, the late President John F. Kennedy.
1989 The Exxon Valdez oil tanker causes a major oil spill in Prince William Sound, off the coast of Alaska.
1994 A 36-inch underground natural gas pipeline ruptured and exploded in Edison, New Jersey, sending shock waves throughout the area. The disaster left a crater over 120 feet wide and 40 feet deep. One hundred were injured and one related death was reported.
Birthdays: Actor, director, screenwriter "Fatty" Arbuckle (1887), Actor Steve McQueen (1930)

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1584 Sir Walter Raleigh renews Sir Humphrey Gilbert's patent to explore and settle North
America.
1609 Henry Hudson sets out on the seven-month exploration for the Dutch East India Company that takes him to America.
1668 The first recorded horse race in the U.S. takes place at Hemstead, New York.
1687 Governor Andros orders that the Old South Meeting House be converted into an Anglican Church.
1882 The first public demonstration of pancake making is held in a New York City department store.
1992 In Washington D.C. members of the U.S. Senate meet with exiled author Salman Rushdie despite a warning from the state department that meeting with him could potentially bring revenge from Muslim extremists.
Birthdays: Actor Ed Begley (1901), Singer, songwriter Elton John (1947), Actress Bonnie Bedelia (1952)

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1790 The Naturalization Act is passed by Congress and requires a two-year residency for new citizens.
1856 The first trolley line in the U.S. is opened between Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts.
1937 A statue of Popeye, the cartoon character, is dedicated in Crystal, Texas during a local spinach festival, immortalizing the popular icon.
1943 Elsie S. Ott is the first woman awarded the U.S. Air Force Medal at Bowman Field, Kentucky.
1979 President Anwar Sadat of Egypt and Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel sign a peace treaty in Washington, D.C.
1991 The Supreme Court rules that use of a coerced statement during a trial does not
automatically void a conviction.
1992 Former heavyweight boxing champion of the world Mike Tyson is sentenced to six years in prison for raping an Indiana beauty pageant contestant.
Birthdays: Playwright Tennessee Williams (1926), Actor Leonard Nimoy (1931), Actor, director Alan Arkin (1934), Actor, director James Caan (1939), Singer, actress Diana Ross (1944), musician Steven Tyler (1948).

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1614 The Netherlands passes the Ordinance of 1614 to encourage exploration and colonization efforts by the Dutch.
1794 The U.S. Navy is established by Congress.
1804 The U.S. Navy Yard is established in Washington, D.C.
1955 The first U.S. coast-to-coast color television broadcast is shown from New York to California.
1964 A severe earthquake occurs in Alaska, killing 66 and causing damages of close to $500 million.
1987 President Reagan announces he will place a 100% duty on a wide range of Japanese
electronic products.
1992 A Philadelphia man is arrested and charged with maliciously spreading AIDS to over 100 other people.
Birthdays: Actor, director James Cruze (1884), Actor Julian Glover (1935)

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  1797 The first washing machine is patented in the U.S.
1886 Apache Indian leader Geronimo escapes after one day of surrender.
1944 Singing commercials are banned by radio station WQXR in New York City.
1979 The Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania nuclear power plant suffers a major accident, and clouds of radioactive steam pour into the atmosphere.
Birthdays: Actress Dianne Wiest (1948)

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1638 The first Swedish expedition to the New World lands in Delaware.
1676 Native Americans attack Providence, Rhode Island.
1848 Niagara Falls stops flowing for 30 hours due to an ice jam blocking the Niagara River in Buffalo, New York.
1867 The Lincoln Memorial is approved by Congress.
1961 The 23rd Constitutional Amendment is passed giving voting privileges to citizens of the District of Columbia.
1973 The last American ground troops leave Vietnam.
1991 Former President Ronald Reagan reverses his position by coming out in favor of seven day waiting periods for purchases of handguns.
Birthdays: 10th president of the United States John Tyler (1790)

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1791 Maryland cedes the District of Columbia to the federal government.
1822 Congressional legislation combines East and West Florida into the Florida Territory.
1858 Hyman L. Lipman receives a patent for a pencil with a rubber eraser.
1867 The U.S. purchases Alaska from Russia for $7 million dollars.
1870 The 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution goes into effect and gives the right to vote to all U.S. citizens.
1920 The Julliard Music Foundation is established.
1923 The Laconia, the first passenger ship to sail around the world, returns to New York after 130 days at sea.
1942 A directive from Washington, D.C. decrees that men's suits be manufactured without trouser cuffs, pleats and patch pockets for the duration of the war.
1981 John W. Hinckley shoots and wounds President Ronald Reagan.
1991 Heavy rain storms rage across the southeastern United States killing at least twenty-three.
Birthdays: Actor Warren Beatty (1937), Musician Eric Clapton (1945)

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1820 The first U.S. missionaries arrive in Hawaii.
1840 A ten-hour work day for federal employees in public works jobs is established by executive order.
1870 The first African American votes in a municipal election in Perth Amboy, New Jersey.
1885 Women's College, later called Goucher College, is founded in Baltimore, Maryland.
1917 The U.S. purchases the Virgin Islands from Denmark.
1918 Daylight Savings Time is first used in the U.S.
1925 Mt. Rushmore National Memorial is authorized by Congress with sculptor Gutzon Borgium to carve Presidents George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson and Theodore Roosevelt.
1932 The V-8 engine is introduced by Ford.
1948 The Cold War begins.
Birthdays: Actor Richard Chamberlain (1935), Writer William Lederer (1912), Band leader Herb Alpert (1935).

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