This Day in History

[Gravdigr]

February 26

The 59th running of The Daytona 500 will held today. The Daytona 500 has been NASCAR's season-opening race since 1982.


Events

1616 – Galileo Galilei is formally banned by the Roman Catholic Church from teaching or defending the view that the earth orbits the sun.

1815 – Napoleon Bonaparte escapes from Elba.

1909 – Kinemacolor, the first successful color motion picture process, is first shown to the general public at the Palace Theatre in London.

1914 – HMHS (His Majesty's Hospital Ship) Britannic, sister to the RMS Titanic, is launched at Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast.

1919 – President Woodrow Wilson signs an act of Congress establishing the Grand Canyon National Park.

1929 – President Calvin Coolidge signs an executive order establishing the 96,000 acre Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.

1966 – Apollo program: Launch of AS-201, the first flight of the Saturn IB rocket.

1979 – The Superliner railcar enters revenue service with Amtrak.

1987 – Iran–Contra affair: The Tower Commission rebukes President Ronald Reagan for not controlling his national security staff.

1993 – World Trade Center bombing: In New York City, a truck bomb parked below the North Tower of the World Trade Center explodes, killing six and injuring over a thousand.

1995 – The UK's oldest investment banking institute, Barings Bank, collapses after a rogue securities broker Nick Leeson loses $1.4 billion by speculating on the Singapore International Monetary Exchange using futures contracts.

2008 – The New York Philharmonic performs in Pyongyang, North Korea in the first event of its kind to take place in North Korea.

2013 – A hot air balloon crashed near Luxor, Egypt, killing 19 people in history's deadliest ballooning disaster.

Births

1564 – Christopher Marlowe, 1802 – Victor Hugo, 1829 – Levi Strauss, 1846 – Buffalo Bill Cody, 1852 – John Harvey Kellogg, 1866 – Herbert Henry Dow, 1882 – Husband E. Kimmel, 1887 – William Frawley, 1908 – Tex Avery, 1914 – Robert Alda, 1916 – Jackie Gleason, 1920 – Tony Randall, 1928 – Fats Domino, 1928 – Ariel Sharon, 1931 – Robert Novak, 1932 – Johnny Cash, 1945 – Mitch Ryder, 1950 – Jonathan Cain, 1953 – Michael Bolton, 1954 – Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, 1958 – Tim Kaine, 1971 – Erykah Badu, 1979 – Corinne Bailey Rae

Deaths

1903 – Richard Jordan Gatling, 1997 – David Doyle

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February 27

1560 – The Treaty of Berwick, which would expel the French from Scotland, is signed by England and the Lords of the Congregation of Scotland.

1782 – American Revolutionary War: The House of Commons of Great Britain votes against further war in America.

1801 – Pursuant to the District of Columbia Organic Act of 1801, Washington, D.C. is placed under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Congress.

1812 – Poet Lord Byron gives his first address as a member of the House of Lords, in defense of Luddite violence against Industrialism in his home county of Nottinghamshire.

1860 – Abraham Lincoln makes a speech at Cooper Union in the city of New York that is largely responsible for his election to the Presidency.

1864 – American Civil War: The first Northern prisoners arrive at the Confederate prison at Andersonville, Georgia.

1870 – The current flag of Japan, , is first adopted as the national flag for Japanese merchant ships.

1900 – Second Boer War: In South Africa, British military leaders receive an unconditional notice of surrender from Boer General Piet Cronjé at the Battle of Paardeberg.

1900 – The British Labour Party is founded.

1902 – Second Boer War: Australian soldiers Harry "Breaker" Morant and Peter Handcock are executed in Pretoria after being convicted of war crimes.

1922 – A challenge to the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, allowing women the right to vote, is rebuffed by the Supreme Court of the United States in Leser v. Garnett.

1933 – Reichstag fire: Germany's parliament building in Berlin, the Reichstag, is set on fire; Marinus van der Lubbe, a young Dutch Communist claims responsibility. The Nazis used the fire to solidify their power and eliminate the communists as political rivals.

1940 – American biochemists Martin Kamen and Sam Ruben discovered carbon-14, which today is used extensively as the basis of the radiocarbon dating method to date archaeological and geological samples.

1943 – The Smith Mine #3 in Bearcreek, Montana, explodes, killing 74 men.

1951 – The Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution, limiting Presidents to two terms, is ratified.

1964 – The Government of Italy asks for help to keep the Leaning Tower of Pisa from toppling over.

1991 – Gulf War: U.S. President George H. W. Bush announces that "Kuwait is liberated".

1991 - James Brown was paroled after spending two years of a six-year prison sentence, imposed for resisting arrest after a car chase across two States.

2010 – An earthquake measuring 8.8 on the moment magnitude scale strikes central parts of Chile leaving over 500 victims, and thousands injured. The quake triggered a tsunami which struck Hawaii shortly after.

Births

272 – Constantine the Great, 1622 – Carel Fabritius, 1807 – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1891 – David Sarnoff (founded RCA), 1892 – William Demarest, 1902 – John Steinbeck, 1905 – Franchot Tone♪ ♫, 1910 – Kelly Johnson (co-founded Lockheed's Skunk Works), 1930 – Joanne Woodward, 1932 – Elizabeth Taylor, 1934 – Ralph Nader, 1938 – Jake Thackray♪ ♫, 1940 – Howard Hesseman, 1943 – Mary Frann, 1951 – Lee Atwater, 1954 – Neal Schon♪ ♫(Journey), 1957 – Timothy Spall, 1959 – Johnny Van Zant♪ ♫(Lynyrd Skynyrd), 1962 – Adam Baldwin, 1966 – Donal Logue, 1971 – Sara Blakely (founded Spanx), 1971 – Rozonda 'Chilli' Thomas♪ ♫(TLC), 1980 – Chelsea Clinton, 1981 – Josh Groban♪ ♫, 1992 – Ty Dillon

Deaths

1892 – Louis Vuitton, 1902 – Harry 'Breaker' Morant, 1936 – Ivan Pavlov, 1968 – Frankie Lymon♪ ♫(The Teenagers), 1977 – John Dickson Carr, 1980 – George Tobias (neighbor 'Abner Kravitz' on Bewitched), 1985 – Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., 1993 – Lillian Gish, 2002 – Spike Milligan, 2003 – Fred Rogers (Mister Rogers' Neighborhood), 2008 – William F. Buckley, Jr. (founded the National Review), 2011 – Frank Buckles (was the last surviving American WWI veteran), 2013 – Van Cliburn, 2013 – Dale Robertson, 2014 – Aaron Allston (game designer), 2015 – Leonard Nimoy

[xoxoxoBruce]

1782 – American Revolutionary War: The House of Commons of Great Britain votes against further war in America.

The lying bastards were just waiting for us to relax, until 1812.

[Carruthers]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

The lying bastards were just waiting for us to relax, until 1812.

I don't like it, sir. It's too quiet.

[DanaC]

1992 – The Michelangelo computer virus begins to affect computers.

I remember vaguely hearing about that - I wasn't online yet, so it kind of passed me by. Cool story.

[DanaC]

Ahhh - my dad used to sing that.

[Gravdigr]

March 8

Today is International Women's Day.


Events

1618 – Johannes Kepler discovers the third law of planetary motion.

1655 – John Casor becomes the first legally-recognized slave in England's North American colonies where a crime was not committed.

1702 – Queen Anne, the younger sister of Mary II, becomes Queen regnant of England, Scotland, and Ireland.

1775 – An anonymous writer, thought by some to be Thomas Paine, publishes "African Slavery in America", the first article in the American colonies calling for the emancipation of slaves and the abolition of slavery.

1782 – Gnadenhutten massacre: Ninety-six Native Americans in Gnadenhutten, Ohio, who had converted to Christianity are killed by Pennsylvania militiamen in retaliation for raids carried out by other Indian tribes.

1817 – The New York Stock Exchange is founded.

1910 – French aviator Raymonde de Laroche becomes the first woman to receive a pilot's license.

1917 – International Women's Day protests in St. Petersburg mark the beginning of the February Revolution (February 23rd in the Julian calendar).

1924 – A mine disaster kills 172 coal miners near Castle Gate, Utah.

1936 – Daytona Beach and Road Course holds its first oval stock car race.

1949 – Mildred Gillars ("Axis Sally") is condemned to prison for treason.

1965 – Thirty-five hundred United States Marines are the first American land combat forces committed during the Vietnam War.

1966 – Nelson's Pillar in Dublin, Ireland, destroyed by a bomb.

1971 – The Fight of the Century between Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali commences. Frazier wins in 15 rounds via unanimous decision.

1974 – Charles de Gaulle Airport opens in Paris, France.

1978 – The first radio episode of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams, is transmitted on BBC Radio 4.

1979 – Philips demonstrates the compact disc publicly for the first time.

2014 – Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, carrying a total of 239 people, disappears en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

2017 – The Azure Window in Gozo, Malta, collapses after a severe storm.

Births

1495 – John of God, 1841 – Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., 1848 – LaMarcus Adna Thompson (developed the roller coaster), 1865 – Frederic Goudy (created fonts Copperplate Gothic and Goudy Old Style), 1899 – Elmer Keith, 1910 – Claire Trevor, 1921 – Alan Hale, Jr., 1922 – Ralph H. Baer (Magnavox Odyssey), 1922 – Cyd Charisse, 1927 – Dick Hyman, 1940 – Susan Clark (Webster), 1943 – Lynn Redgrave, 1945 – Micky Dolenz(The Monkees), 1946 – Randy Meisner(Poco, The Eagles), 1947 – Carole Bayer Sager♪ ♫, 1958 – Gary Numan♪ ♫, 1959 – Aidan Quinn, 1961 – Camryn Manheim, 1976 – Freddie Prinze, Jr., 1977 – James Van Der Beek

Deaths

1550 – John of God, 1723 – Christopher Wren, 1874 – Millard Fillmore (13th POTUS), 1887 – Henry Ward Beecher (Beecher's Bibles), 1917 – Ferdinand von Zeppelin, 1930 – William Howard Taft (27th POTUS), 1971 – Harold Lloyd, 1973 – Ron "Pigpen" McKernan (The Grateful Dead), 1999 – Peggy Cass (game show panelist To Tell The Truth, Match Game), 1999 – Joltin' Joe DiMaggio, 2001 – Edward Winter (M*A*S*H series), 2009 – Hank Locklin♪ ♫, 2011 – Mike Starr(Alice In Chains), 2016 – George Martin

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March 9

1009 – First known mention of Lithuania, in the annals of the monastery of Quedlinburg.

1765 – After a campaign by the writer Voltaire, judges in Paris posthumously exonerate Jean Calas of murdering his son. Calas had been tortured and executed in 1762 on the charge, though his son may have actually committed suicide.

1796 – Napoléon Bonaparte marries his first wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais.

1815 – Francis Ronalds describes the first battery-operated clock in the Philosophical Magazine.

1841 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules in the United States v. The Amistad case that captive Africans who had seized control of the ship carrying them had been taken into slavery illegally.

1842 – The first documented discovery of gold in California occurs at Rancho San Francisco, six years before the California Gold Rush.

1847 – Mexican–American War: The first large-scale amphibious assault in U.S. history is launched in the Siege of Veracruz.

1862 – American Civil War: The USS Monitor and CSS Virginia fight to a draw in the Battle of Hampton Roads, the first battle between two ironclad warships.

1916 – Mexican Revolution: Pancho Villa leads nearly 500 Mexican raiders in an attack against the border town of Columbus, New Mexico.

1944 – World War II: Soviet Army planes attack Tallinn, Estonia.

1945 – World War II: The first nocturnal incendiary attack on Tokyo inflicts damage comparable to that inflicted on both Hiroshima and Nagasaki five months later.

1946 – Bolton Wanderers stadium disaster at Burnden Park, Bolton, England, kills 33 and injures hundreds more.

1957 – The 8.6 Mw Andreanof Islands earthquake shakes the Aleutian Islands with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), causing $5 million in damage from ground movement and a destructive tsunami that affected Hawaii, where two people were killed in a plane crash while documenting its arrival.

1959 – The Barbie doll makes its debut at the American International Toy Fair in New York.

1975 - Actor Telly Savalas was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with his version of the David Gates (from Bread) song 'If'.

1976 – Forty-two people died in the 1976 Cavalese cable car disaster, the worst cable-car accident to date.

1977 – The Hanafi Siege: In a thirty-nine-hour standoff, armed Hanafi Muslims seize three Washington, D.C., buildings, killing two and taking 149 hostage.

1982 – "Krononauts" hosted an event in Baltimore, Maryland asking time-travelers to meet and demonstrate future science methods of time travel.

1997 – Comet Hale–Bopp: Observers in China, Mongolia and eastern Siberia are treated to a rare double feature as an eclipse permits Hale-Bopp to be seen during the day.

2011 – Space Shuttle Discovery makes its final landing after 39 flights.

Births

1454 – Amerigo Vespucci (namesake of the Americas), 1568 – Aloysius Gonzaga (namesake of Gonzaga University), 1824 – Amasa Leland Stanford (founded Stanford University), 1856 – Eddie Foy, Sr., 1890 – Vyacheslav Molotov (namesake of the Molotov Cocktail), 1902 – Will Geer ('Grandpa Walton' on The Waltons, 'Bear Claw Chris Lapp' in Jeremiah Johnson), 1918 – Mickey Spillane, 1926 – Joe Franklin (I can't remember what Joe Franklin looks like, all I can see is Billy Crystal's impersonation), 1930 – Ornette Coleman♪ ♫, 1934 – Yuri Gagarin (1st man in space), 1934 – Joyce Van Patten, 1936 – Mickey Gilley♪ ♫, 1936 – Marty Ingels, 1940 – Raúl Juliá, 1942 – Mark Lindsay♪ ♫(Paul Revere & The Raiders), 1943 – Bobby Fischer, 1943 – Charles Gibson, 1945 – Robin Trower♪ ♫, 1948 – Jeffrey Osborne♪ ♫, 1950 – Danny Sullivan, 1955 – Teo Fabi, 1958 – Linda Fiorentino, 1958 – Martin Fry♪ ♫, 1963 – David Pogue, 1964 – Juliette Binoche, 1965 – Brian Bosworth, 1971 – Emmanuel Lewis

Deaths

1989 – Robert Mapplethorpe, 1994 – Charles Bukowski, 1994 – Fernando Rey, 1996 – George Burns, 1997 – Terry Nation (tv writer DR. Who, created the Daleks and 'Davros'), 1997 – Notorious B.I.G.♪ ♫, 2005 – Chris LeDoux♪ ♫, 2005 - Danny Joe Brown♪ ♫(Molly Hatchet), 2006 – John Profumo (notable for the Profumo Affair), 2007 – Brad Delp♪ ♫(Boston)

[DanaC]

1946 – Bolton Wanderers stadium disaster at Burnden Park, Bolton, England, kills 33 and injures hundreds more.

Jude and I had a bedsit flat near Burnden Park in 1990 - it was still the home of the wanderers then - except for one stand which had been sold off to a shitty discount supermarket (for the life of me I can't recall which one - something really tacky though) as part of a chunk of land - where the stand had previously stood there was now the end-on wall of a discount store building.

Best pie bakers evah were based on the same road. It was a large bakery that made for stores and catering, but also had a little pie shop attached that sold the most amazing cheese and onion pies I've ever tasted. The steak and ale was pretty spectacular as well.


J's dad has had season tickets for the wanderers for years. He used to go with his dad , J's granddad,when he was a kid. J broke his heart and became a Man Utd supporter :p

At the grounds at half time, there were a few food vans to buy pies - the menu was:

Hot
Cold

[DanaC]

Funny - in my memory of it it took up that entire end - but it actually took up half of it




* also - just managed to find the name of the store on wiki:

Normid - fucking Normid.

[Gravdigr]

March 10

241 BC – First Punic War: Battle of the Aegates Islands: The Romans sink the Carthaginian fleet bringing the First Punic War to an end.

1629 – Charles I of England dissolves Parliament, beginning the eleven-year period known as the Personal Rule.

1804 – Louisiana Purchase: In St. Louis, Missouri, a formal ceremony is conducted to transfer ownership of the Louisiana Territory from France to the United States.

1891 – Almon Strowger, an undertaker in Topeka, Kansas, patents the Strowger switch, a device which led to the automation of telephone circuit switching.

1906 – The Courrières mine disaster, Europe's worst ever, kills 1099 miners in northern France.

1915 – The Battle of Neuve Chapelle begins. This is the first large-scale operation by the British Army in WWI.

1922 – Mahatma Gandhi is arrested in India, tried for sedition, and sentenced to six years in prison, only to be released after nearly two years for an appendicitis operation.

1945 – The U.S. Army Air Force firebombs Tokyo, and the resulting conflagration kills more than 100,000 people, mostly civilians.

1959 – Tibetan uprising: Fearing an abduction attempt by China, thousands of Tibetans surround the Dalai Lama's palace to prevent his removal.

1969 – In Memphis, Tennessee, James Earl Ray pleads guilty to assassinating Martin Luther King, Jr. He later unsuccessfully attempts to recant.

1970 – Vietnam War: Captain Ernest Medina is charged by the U.S. military with My Lai war crimes.

1977 – Astronomers discover the rings of Uranus.

2006 – The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter arrives at Mars.

Births

1845 – Alexander III of Russia, 1888 – Barry Fitzgerald, 1891 – Sam Jaffe, 1903 – Bix Beiderbecke, 1903 – Clare Boothe Luce, 1920 – Kenneth C. "Jethro" Burns, 1928 – James Earl Ray, 1933 – Ralph Emery, 1936 – Sepp Blatter, 1938 – Norman Blake, 1940 – Chuck Norris, 1940 – David Rabe, 1946 – Jim Valvano, 1949 – Barbara Corcoran, 1952 – Johanna Lindsey, 1953 – Paul Haggis, 1957 – Osama bin Laden, 1958 – Sharon Stone, 1962 – Jasmine Guy, 1963 – Jeff Ament, 1963 – Rick Rubin, 1964 – Neneh Cherry, 1966 – Edie Brickell, 1969 – Paget Brewster, 1971 – Jon Hamm, 1974 – Biz Stone, 1977 – Robin Thicke, 1983 – Carrie Underwood, 1984 – Olivia Wilde

Deaths

1913 – Harriet Tubman, 1942 – Wilbur Scoville, 1973 – Bull Connor, 1986 – Ray Milland, 1988 – Andy Gibb, 1998 – Lloyd Bridges, 2005 – Dave Allen, 2010 – Corey Haim, 2016 – Keith Emerson

[Gravdigr]

March 11

Today is Johnny Appleseed Day in the United States.


Events

1818 – Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's novel, Frankenstein; or The modern Prometheus, is published.

1845 – Flagstaff War: Unhappy with translational differences regarding the Treaty of Waitangi, chiefs Hone Heke, Kawiti and Māori tribe members chop down the British flagpole for a fourth time and drive settlers out of Kororareka, New Zealand.

1851 – The first performance of Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi takes place in Venice.

1864 – The Great Sheffield Flood kills 238 people in Sheffield, England.

1867 – The first performance of Don Carlos by Giuseppe Verdi takes place in Paris.

1872 – Construction of the Seven Sisters Colliery, South Wales, begins; located on one of the richest coal sources in Britain.

1888 – The Great Blizzard of 1888 begins along the eastern seaboard of the United States, shutting down commerce and killing more than 400.

1918 – The first case of Spanish flu occurs, the start of a devastating worldwide pandemic, infecting 500,000,000 people, and killing and estimated 50 - 100,000,000 people (3 - 5% of the world population).

1927 – In New York City, Samuel Roxy Rothafel opens the Roxy Theatre.

1946 – Rudolf Höss, the first commandant of Auschwitz concentration camp, is captured by British troops.

1977 – The 1977 Hanafi Siege: More than 130 hostages held in Washington, D.C., by Hanafi Muslims are set free after ambassadors from three Islamic nations join negotiations.

1993 – Janet Reno is confirmed by the United States Senate and sworn in the next day, becoming the first female Attorney General of the United States.

2011 – An earthquake measuring 9.0 in magnitude strikes 130 km (81 mi) east of Sendai, Japan, triggering a tsunami killing thousands of people. This event also triggered the second largest nuclear accident in history, and one of only two events to be classified as a Level 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale.

Births

1885 – Malcolm Campbell, 1887 – Raoul Walsh, 1895 – Shemp Howard, 1898 – Dorothy Gish, 1903 – Lawrence Welk♪ ♫, 1928 – Albert Salmi, 1931 – Rupert Murdoch, 1932 – Leroy Jenkins, 1934 – Sam Donaldson, 1936 – Antonin Scalia, 1945 – Dock Ellis (MLB pitcher who pitched a no-hitter whilst tripping balls on LSD), 1945 – Harvey Mandel♪ ♫, 1946 – Mark Metcalf ('Neidermeyer' in Animal House), 1947 – Mark Stein♪ ♫(Vanilla Fudge), 1950 – Bobby McFerrin♪ ♫, 1950 – Jerry Zucker, 1952 – Douglas Adams, 1953 – Derek Daly, 1953 – Jimmy Iovine (co-founded Interscope Records and Beats Electronics), 1961 – Elias Koteas, 1964 – Peter Berg, 1964 – Vinnie Paul(Pantera), 1965 – Jesse Jackson, Jr., 1967 – Renzo Gracie(MMA fighter), 1968 – Lisa Loeb♪ ♫, 1969 – Terrence Howard, 1971 – Johnny Knoxville, 1982 – Thora Birch

Deaths

1955 – Alexander Fleming, 1955 – Oscar F. Mayer, 1957 – Richard E. Byrd, 1958 – Ole Kirk Christiansen, 1967 – Geraldine Farrar, 1970 – Erle Stanley Gardner, 1971 – Philo Farnsworth, 1996 – Vince Edwards, 2007 – Betty Hutton, 2010 – Merlin Olsen

[xoxoxoBruce]

1922 – Mahatma Gandhi is arrested in India, tried for sedition, and sentenced to six years in prison, only to be released after nearly two years for an appendicitis operation.

He gave a piece of himself for the cause.

1977 – The 1977 Hanafi Siege: More than 130 hostages held in Washington, D.C., by Hanafi Muslims are set free after ambassadors from three Islamic nations join negotiations.

Lucky we don't have to worry anymore.

[Gravdigr]

March 12

Today, our Aztec Dwellers celebrate the New Year.

Today is the Girl Scouts' Birthday, marking the founding of the first Girl Scout troop in the USA.


Events

1550 – Several hundred Spanish and indigenous troops under the command of Pedro de Valdivia defeat an army of 60,000 Mapuche at the Battle of Penco during the Arauco War in present-day Chile.

1864 – American Civil War: The Red River Campaign begins as a US Navy fleet of 13 Ironclads and 7 Gunboats and other support ships enter the Red River.

1894 – Coca-Cola is bottled and sold for the first time in Vicksburg, Mississippi, by local soda fountain operator Joseph A. Biedenharn.

1912 – The Girl Guides (later renamed the Girl Scouts of the USA) are founded in the United States.

1913 – Canberra Day: The future capital of Australia is officially named Canberra. (Melbourne remains temporary capital until 1927 while the new capital is still under construction.)

1918 – Moscow becomes the capital of Russia again after Saint Petersburg held this status for 215 years.

1928 – In California, the St. Francis Dam fails; the resulting floods kill over 600 people.

1930 – Mahatma Gandhi begins the Salt March, a 200-mile march to the sea to protest the British monopoly on salt in India.

1933 – Great Depression: Franklin D. Roosevelt addresses the nation for the first time as President of the United States. This is also the first of his "fireside chats".

1947 – The Truman Doctrine is proclaimed to help stem the spread of Communism.

1950 – The Llandow air disaster occurs near Sigingstone, Wales, in which 80 people die when their aircraft crashed, making it the world's deadliest air disaster at the time.

1961 – First winter ascent of the North Face of the Eiger.

1993 – The 1993 Storm of the Century: Snow begins to fall across the eastern portion of the US with tornadoes, thunder snow storms, high winds and record low temperatures. The storm lasts for 30 hours.

2003 – WHO officially released global warning on pandemic SARS disease.

2009 – Financier Bernard Madoff pleads guilty in New York to scamming $18 billion, the largest in Wall Street's history.

2011 – A reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant melts and explodes and releases radioactivity into the atmosphere a day after Japan's earthquake.

2014 – A gas explosion in the New York City neighborhood of East Harlem kills eight and injures 70 others.

Births

1806 – Jane Pierce (15th FLOTUS), 1831 – Clement Studebaker (yeah, that one), 1913 – Agathe von Trapp (of The Sound of Music von Trapps), 1921 – Gordon MacRae, 1922 – Jack Kerouac, 1928 – Edward Albee, 1933 – Barbara Feldon, 1938 – Johnny Rutherford, 1940 – Al Jarreau♪ ♫, 1942 – Ratko Mladić, 1945 – Sammy 'The Bull' Gravano (mobster), 1946 – Liza Minnelli♪ ♫, 1947 – Mitt Romney, 1948 – James Taylor, 1949 – Mike Gibbins(Badfinger), 1956 – Steve Harris(Iron Maiden), 1960 – Courtney B. Vance, 1962 – Darryl Strawberry, 1969 – Jake Tapper, 1978 – Casey Mears, 1979 – Pete Doherty♪ ♫

Deaths

1628 – John Bull, 1820 – Alexander Mackenzie, 1914 – George Westinghouse, 1929 – Asa Griggs Candler, 1942 – Robert Bosch, 1955 – Charlie 'Yardbird' Parker♪ ♫, 1978 – John Cazale, 1987 – Woody Hayes, 1999 – Yehudi Menuhin, 2001 – Morton Downey, Jr., 2001 – Robert Ludlum, 2003 – Lynne Thigpen, 2005 – Bill Cameron, 2012 – Samuel Glazer (co-founded Mr. Coffee), 2012 – Michael Hossack(The Doobie Bros), 2013 – Clive Burr(Iron Maiden), 2015 – Terry Pratchett

[Gravdigr]

March 13

1639 – Harvard College is named after clergyman John Harvard.

1781 – William Herschel discovers Uranus. [I didn't even know he was back there.]

1845 – Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto receives its première performance in Leipzig with Ferdinand David as soloist.

1862 – American Civil War: The U.S. federal government forbids all Union army officers from returning fugitive slaves, thus effectively annulling the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 and setting the stage for the Emancipation Proclamation.

1881 – Alexander II of Russia is killed near his palace when a bomb is thrown at him. (Gregorian date: it was March 1 in the Julian calendar then in use in Russia.)

1897 – San Diego State University is founded.

1943 – The Holocaust: German forces liquidate the Jewish ghetto in Kraków.

1985 – The Kenilworth Road riot takes place at an association football match at Kenilworth Road in Luton, England with disturbances before, during and after an FA Cup 6th Round tie between Luton Town F.C. and Millwall F.C..

1991 – The United States Department of Justice announces that Exxon has agreed to pay $1 billion for the clean-up of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska.

1996 – Dunblane school massacre: in Dunblane, Scotland, 16 primary school children and one teacher are shot dead by spree killer Thomas Watt Hamilton who then committed suicide.

1997 – The Phoenix Lights are seen over Phoenix, Arizona by hundreds of people, and by millions on television.

2003 – The journal Nature reports that 350,000-year-old footprints have been found in Italy.

2008 – Gold prices on the New York Mercantile Exchange hit $1,000 per ounce for the first time.

2013 – Pope Francis is elected, in the papal conclave, as the 266th Pope of the Catholic Church.

Births

1798 – Abigail Fillmore (14th FLOTUS), 1855 – Percival Lowell, 1898 – Henry Hathaway, 1910 – Sammy Kaye, 1911 – L. Ron Hubbard, 1913 – William J. Casey, 1914 – Edward 'Butch' O'Hare, 1920 – Ralph J. Roberts, 1932 – Jan Howard, 1933 – Mike Stoller, 1939 – Neil Sedaka, 1947 – Lyn St. James, 1950 – Danny Kirwan, 1950 – Charles Krauthammer, 1950 – William H. Macy, 1951 – Charo, 1954 – Robin Duke, 1971 – Annabeth Gish, 1976 – Danny Masterson

Deaths

1842 – Henry Shrapnel, 1881 – Alexander II of Russia, 1901 – Benjamin Harrison 923rd POTUS), 1906 – Susan B. Anthony, 1938 – Clarence Darrow, 1943 – Stephen Vincent Benét