Today in History

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Today in History

By Correspondent

 
YEARDAYEVENT
809Mar 24Harun al-Rashid (Arabic for The Rightly Guided), caliph of the Abbasid empire (786-809), died at age 44. His reign is immortalized in The Book of One Thousand and One Nights. His work included the construction of a House of Wisdom in Baghdad.
1208Mar 24King John of England opposed Innocent III on his nomination for archbishop of Canterbury.
1285Mar 24Lithuanian Grand Duke Daumantas (1281-1285) died.
1550Mar 24France and England signed the Peace of Boulogne. It ended the war of England with Scotland and France. France bought back Boulogne for 400,000 crowns.
1603Mar 24Tudor Queen Elizabeth I (69), the “Virgin Queen,” died. She had reigned from 1558-1603. Scottish King James VI, son of Mary, became King James I of England in the union of the crowns. Each country retained its own parliament until 1707. In 2006 Leanda de Lisle authored “After Elizabeth.”
1661Mar 24William Leddra became the last Quaker to be hanged in Boston. Quakers were last hanged on Boston Common. Charles II ordered the executions stopped.
1663Mar 24Charles II of England awarded lands known as Carolina in America to eight members of the nobility who assisted in his restoration.
1693Mar 24John Harrison (d.1776), Englishman who invented the chronometer, was born.
1720Mar 24In Paris, banking houses closed in the wake of financial crisis. The “Mississippi Bubble” burst as panicked investors withdrew their money from John Law’s bank and Mississippi Company [see South Sea Bubble, Jan, 1720].
1721Mar 24In Germany, the supremely talented Johann Sebastian Bach published the Six Brandenburg Concertos.
1755Mar 24Rufus King, framer of the U.S. Constitution, was born.
1765Mar 24Austrian Empress Maria Theresa issued a decree to establish a School for Healing Animal Diseases.
1794Mar 24In Cracow a revolutionary manifesto was proclaimed. The Lithuanian and Polish nobility under the leadership of Tadas Kasciuska revolted against Russian control.
1801Mar 24Aleksandr P. Romanov became emperor of Russia.
1802Mar 24Richard Trevithick was granted a patent in London for his steam locomotive.
1832Mar 24Mormon founder, martyr Joseph Smith was beaten, tarred and feathered in Ohio.
1834Mar 24William Morris, English craftsman, poet, socialist, was born.
1837Mar 24Canada gave blacks the right to vote.
1848Mar 24The First Schleswig War began. It was the first round of military conflict in southern Denmark and northern Germany rooted in the Schleswig-Holstein Question and contested the issue of who should control the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein. The 3-year war lasted from 1848”“1851.
1849Mar 24Johann Dobereiner (b.1780), German chemist, died. He is best known for work that foreshadowed the periodic law for the chemical elements.
1855Mar 24Manhattan, Kansas, was founded as New Boston, Kansas.
1862Mar 24Abolitionist Wendell Phillips spoke to a crowd about emancipation in Cincinnati, Ohio and was pelted by eggs.
1874Mar 24Harry Houdini (d.1926), magician, escape artist, was born as Erik Weisz (Ehrich Weiss) in Budapest. Young Ehrich Weiss emigrated with his parents to New York and then to Wisconsin (1878). Sometime around 1891 he and a partner in a magic act billed themselves as the Brothers Houdini, in homage to French magician Eugène Robert-Houdin. As Harry Houdini, Weiss became world-famous for his mind-boggling escapes. At age 43 he had a volcanic love affair with the widow of Jack London, Charmian. In 1996 Kenneth Silverman wrote the biography: “Houdini!!! The Career of Ehrich Weiss.”
1877Mar 24Walter Bagehot (b.1826), British economist and author of “The English Constitution” (1867), died. He edited the Economist Magazine from 1861 until his death.
1882Mar 24German scientist Robert Koch announced in Berlin that he had discovered the bacillus responsible for tuberculosis.
1883Mar 24Long-distance telephone service was inaugurated between Chicago and New York
1886Mar 24Edward Weston, photographer, was born.
1893Mar 24George Sisler, baseball player, was born.
1894Mar 24Underwriters Laboratories (UL), an independent product safety certification organization, conducted its first test on non-combustible insulation material after founder William Henry Merrill opened the Electrical Bureau of the National Board of fire Underwriters.
1895Mar 24Arthur Murray, American dancer, was born.
1897Mar 24Wilhelm Reich (d.1957), Austrian-US psychoanalyst (character analysis), was born. In 1999 Farrar, Straus & Giroux published: “American Odyssey: Letters and Journals 1940-1947.”
1898Mar 24The 1st automobile was sold.
1900Mar 24Mayor Van Wyck of New York broke ground for the New York subway tunnel that would link Manhattan and Brooklyn.
1902Mar 24Thomas E. Dewey, a governor of New York (1943-1955) and two-time Republican presidential nominee, was born in Owosso, Mich.
1903Mar 24Adolf Butenandt, biochemist (Nobel 1939), was born.
1904Mar 24Vice Adm. Tojo sank seven Russian ships as the Japanese strengthened their blockade of Port Arthur.
1905Mar 24Jules Verne (b.1828), French sci-fi author (Around the World in 80 Days), died in Amiens.
1906Mar 24“Census of the British Empire” showed England ruled 1/5 of the world.
1909Mar 24John Millington Synge (b.1871), Irish dramatist and poet, died in Dublin. He is best known for his play “The Playboy of the Western World,” which caused riots during its opening run at the Abbey Theatre.
1911Mar 24Penal code reform abolished corporal punishment in Denmark.
1912Mar 24The “Bread and Roses” textile workers strike in Lawrence, Mass., ended. Mill owners, fearing that government intervention and investigation would jeopardize the high tariff on woolens, had finally agreed to bargain. Offers of pay increases from five to twenty-five percent, time-and-a-quarter for overtime, and no discrimination against strikers led to the end of the strike.
1919Mar 24Lawrence Ferlinghetti, ‘beat’ poet, was born. [see Mar 1]
1922Mar 24The Polish parliament endorsed the transfer of the Vilnius area to Lithuania.
1923Mar 24Edna Jo Hunter, expert on military families and prisoners of war, was born.
1924Mar 24Greece became a republic.
1926Mar 24Dario Fo, Italian actor and playwright, was born in Leggiuno Sangiano on the banks of Lake Maggiore. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1997.
1927Mar 24Chinese Communists seized Nanking and broke with Chiang Kai-shek over the Nationalist goals.
1930Mar 24The U.S. Senate passed a bill increasing tariffs.
1932Mar 24A New York radio station (WABC) broadcast a variety program from a moving train in Maryland.
1934Mar 24President Roosevelt signed a bill granting future independence to the Philippines.
1937Mar 24A bus blew a tire, went out of control and 18 people were killed in Salem, Illinois.
1938Mar 24The U.S. asked that all powers help refugees fleeing from the Nazis.
1941Mar 24Joseph H. Taylor, Jr., radio astronomer and physicist, was born.
1944Mar 24811 British bombers attacked Berlin.
1945Mar 24Gens. Eisenhower, Montgomery and Bradley discussed advance in Germany.
1947Mar 24Congress proposed the limitation of the presidency to two terms.
1948Mar 24Israel Galili, chief of the Haganah, sent orders reminding commanders of the policy to protect the “full rights, needs, and freedoms of the Arabs in the Hebrew state without discrimination.”
1949Mar 24At the Academy Awards, “Hamlet” won best picture of 1948 and its star, Laurence Olivier, best actor; Jane Wyman won best actress for “Johnny Belinda”; “Treasure of Sierra Madre” won best director for John Huston and best supporting actor for the director’s father, Walter Huston.
1951Mar 24MacArthur threatened the Chinese with an extension of the Korean War if the proposed truce was not accepted.
1952Mar 24Great demonstrations took place against apartheid in South Africa.
1953Mar 24Mary (85), queen of Great Britain and North Ireland, died.
1954Mar 24Britain opened trade talks with Hungary.
1955Mar 24The 1st seagoing oil drill rig was placed in service.
1958Mar 24Rock ‘n’ roll singer Elvis Presley was inducted into the Army in Memphis, Tenn. After nearly six months of basic training at Fort Hood, Texas, Presley was posted to Friedberg, West Germany; he was honorably discharged in 1960.
1959Mar 24Gen. Qasim pulled Iraq out of the Baghdad Pact after the United States signed bilateral cooperation agreements with Turkey, Iran and Pakistan. A number of assassination attempts on Qasim failed including an attempt that included Baath Socialist Party activist Saddam Hussein.
1960Mar 24US appeals court ruled the novel, “Lady Chatterly’s Lover” by D.H. Lawrence, to be not obscene.
 1962Mar 24Emile Griffith knocked out Benny Paret (b.1937) in the 12th round at Madison Square Garden. 10 days later on April 3 Paret died from the beating. Referee Ruby Goldstein was blamed by many for not stopping the fight soon enough.
1964Mar 24The first Kennedy half-dollar was issued.
1965Mar 24US Ranger 9 struck the Moon, 10 miles (16 km) NE of crater Alphonsus.
1966Mar 24Selective Service announced college deferments based on performance.
1967Mar 24In Vietnam B Battery was replaced at Gio Linh and returned to base camp at JJ Carroll. The entire battalion had been involved in Operation High Rise, the first Operation involving heavy artillery firing at targets in North Vietnam. The firing into North Vietnam proceeded with an intense rate in an effort to stifle the enemy supply channels from the North.
1970Mar 24The British harbor tug Eppleton Hall arrived in San Francisco. It was the last paddle-wheel steamer to cross the Atlantic Ocean under its own power.
1972Mar 24The US announces a boycott of the Paris peace talks as President Nixon accuses Hanoi of refusing to “negotiate seriously.”
1976Mar 24The coup in Argentina was triggered in part by the the violence of the Montoneros, a leftist-nationalist guerrilla group.
1977Mar 24Morarji Desai, head of the Janata Party, became prime minister of India.
1980Mar 24ABC’s nightly Iran Hostage crisis program was renamed “Nightline.”
1982Mar 24On the one-hundredth anniversary of a presentation on TB by Dr. Robert Koch, the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (IUATLD) proposed that March 24 be proclaimed an official World TB Day. In 1996, the World Health Organization (WHO) joined with the IUATLD and a wide range of other concerned organizations to increase the impact of World TB Day.
1982Mar 24In Bangladesh Hussein Mohammed Ershad overthrew Justice Abdus Sattar and seized power in a bloodless coup.
1985Mar 24Thousands demonstrated in Madrid against the NATO presence in Spain.
1986Mar 24A $15 billion contract between the Indian government and Swedish arms company AB Bofors was signed for supply of over 400 155mm Howitzer field guns.
1987Mar 24French Premier Jacques Chirac signed a contract with Walt Disney Productions for the creation of a Disneyland amusement park, the first in Europe.
1988Mar 24Former national security aides Oliver L. North and John M. Poindexter and businessmen Richard V. Secord and Albert Hakim pleaded innocent to Iran-Contra charges. North and Poindexter were convicted, but had their convictions thrown out; Secord and Hakim received probation after each pleaded guilty to a single count under a plea bargain.
1989Mar 24Good Friday. The nation’s worst oil spill occurred as the supertanker Exxon Valdez ran aground on a reef in Alaska’s Prince William Sound and began leaking 11 million gallons of crude. The Exxon Valdez struck ground in Alaska’s Prince William Sound and spilled 10.6 million gallons of oil. It was later renamed the Mediterranean and operated between Europe and the Middle East. Exxon then spent some $2.5 billion to clean up the spill and filed suit against Lloyd’s of London for reimbursement under a $210 million insurance policy. In 1996 a jury in Houston voted that Lloyd’s and some 250 other underwriters should compensate Exxon $250 million. The Exxon Valdez oil spill fouled approximately 1,000 miles of Alaska shoreline. The oil tanker ran aground in Prince William Sound, spilling some 11 million gallons of crude oil. An estimated 250,000 seabirds were killed. The Exxon Valdez spilled 240,000 barrels of oil in Alaska’s Prince William Sound.
1990Mar 24Soviet military vehicles rumbled through the heart of the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius as lawmakers in the breakaway Baltic republic voted to transfer their power to foreign soil if they were attacked or arrested.
1991Mar 24General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, the American commander of Operation Desert Storm, told reporters in Saudi Arabia the United States was closer to establishing a permanent military headquarters on Arab soil.
1992Mar 24Democrat Jerry Brown upset front-runner Bill Clinton in the Connecticut presidential primary.
1993Mar 24Mahmoud Abouhalima, a cab driver implicated in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, was flown back to the United States from Egypt. Abouhalima was later convicted of conspiracy and sentenced to life in prison.
1994Mar 24President Clinton held a news conference in which he acknowledged he had significantly overstated the loss in his Whitewater land investment and promised to release late 1970’s tax returns to answer questions on the land deal.
1995Mar 24The House of Representatives passed, 234-to-199, a welfare reform package calling for the most profound changes in social programs since the New Deal; President Clinton criticized the bill, saying it was “weak on work and tough on children.”
1996Mar 24NASA astronaut Shannon Lucid transferred from the space shuttle Atlantis to the Russian space station Mir, beginning a five-month stay.
1997Mar 24At the 69th Annual Hollywood Academy Awards, “The English Patient” won best picture and director (Anthony Minghella) and 7 other Oscars; Geoffrey Rush won best actor for “Shine,” and Frances McDormand best actress for “Fargo.”
1998Mar 24The Clinton administration announced a $56 million food and medical supply donation to Indonesia.
1999Mar 24The US Supreme Court ruled to uphold an 1837 treaty with the Chippewa Indians for hunting and fishing on 13 million acres of public land in Minnesota.
2000Mar 24The US agreed to double the amount of money Iraq was allowed to spend to repair its oil industry and lifted holds on over $100 million in equipment.
2001Mar 24U.S. skater Michelle Kwan won her fourth World Figure Skating title; Irina Slutskaya of Russia was second, and American Sarah Hughes earned the bronze.
2002Mar 24Pres. Bush, during a 6-hour visit to El Salvador, held out the promise of expanded trade to Central American nations.
2003Mar 24In the 6th day of Operation Iraqi Freedom US forces began strikes against the Medina Division of the Republican Guard guarding Baghdad. Hussein appeared on Iraqi TV as coalition forces held over 3,000 prisoners. 10 Marines were killed in combat around Nasiriya.
2004Mar 24Former top terrorism adviser Richard Clarke, testifying before the federal 9-11 Commission, accused the Bush administration of scaling back the campaign against Osama bin Laden before the attacks and undermining the fight against terrorism by invading Iraq.
2005Mar 24Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld announced the US will  release $3.2 million in aid to Guatemala for its progress in overhauling a military once blamed for human rights abuses.
2006Mar 24Thousands of people across the US protested against legislation cracking down on illegal immigrants.
2007Mar 24Marshall Rogers, artist, died in Freemont, Ca. He drew the Batman comics in the 1970s with a mix of new detail and noirish fantasy.
2008Mar 24The US National Association of Realtors said sales of previously occupied homes rose 2.9% in February with a median price drop of 8.2%. Foreclosed properties represented about one in nine or currently listed homes for sale.
2009Mar 24Pres. Obama in his 2nd prime time news conference made the case for his $3.6 trillion budget plan.
2010Mar 24President Barack Obama’s administration named 54 alleged Mexican drug cartel lieutenants and enforcers as drug kingpins under a law that allows the US government to freeze their bank accounts and penalize their business associates.
2011Mar 24The Book of Mormon, a new musical collaboration between South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone and Avenue Q composer Robert Lopez, premiered on Broadway.
2012Mar 24Rick Santorum won Louisiana’s Republican primary. He walked away with at least eight of the 20 delegates up for grabs, while Mitt Romney came in second. While Louisiana has a total of 46 delegates at stake, just 20 were in play. The rest will be determined at the state convention in June.
2013Mar 24Central African Republic’s President Francois Bozize fled the capital, hours after hundreds of armed rebels threatening to overthrow him invaded Bangui.
   
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