The Almanac
Today is Saturday, March 25, the 84th day of 2017 with 281 to follow.
The moon is waning. Morning stars are Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and
Venus. Evening stars are Mercury, Venus, Uranus and Mars. Those born on
this date are under the sign of Aries. They include conductor Arturo
Toscanini in 1867; Mount Rushmore sculptor Gutzon Borglum in 1867;
composer Bela Bartok in 1881; actor Ed Begley Sr. in 1901; film
director/producer/writer David Lean (The Bridge On The River Kwai,
Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago) in 1908; Jack Ruby, who killed
presumed John F. Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, in 1911; sports
commentator Howard Cosell in 1918; actor Simone Signoret in 1921;
writer Flannery O'Connor in 1925; astronaut James Lovell in 1928 (age
89); feminist writer Gloria Steinem in 1934 (age 83); singer-songwriter
Hoyt Axton in 1938; singer Anita Bryant in 1940 (age 77); soul singer
Aretha Franklin in 1942 (age 75); actor/director Paul Michael Glaser in
1943 (age 74); pop star Elton John in 1947 (age 70); actor Bonnie
Bedelia in 1948 (age 69); actor Sarah Jessica Parker in 1965 (age 52);
champion figure skater Debi Thomas in 1967 (age 50); three-time Olympic
gold medalist in basketball Sheryl Swoopes in 1971 (age 46); race car
driver Danica Patrick in 1982 (age 35). On this date in history: In
1807, the English Parliament abolished the slave trade. In 1911, a fire
at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City killed 146 people,
mostly female immigrant workers. The tragedy led to the eventual
enactment of many state and national workplace safety laws. In 1947, a
mine explosion in Centralia, Ill., killed 111 men, most of them
asphyxiated by gas. In 1954, the Radio Corporation of America began
commercial production of color television sets. In 1957, Belgium,
France, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands and West Germany signed a treaty
in Rome establishing the European Economic Community, also known as the
common market. In 1965, white civil rights worker Viola Liuzzo of
Detroit, 39, was killed on a road near Selma, Ala. Three Ku Klux
Klansmen were convicted of violating Liuzzo's civil rights, but not for
murder. In 1975, King Faisal of Saudi Arabia was shot to death at his
palace in Riyadh by a mentally deranged nephew (who was later
executed). In 1990, an arson fire swept an overcrowded social club, the
Happy Land, in the Bronx borough of New York City, killing 87 people.
Cuban refugee Julio Gonzalez, the arsonist -- whose former girlfriend
worked at the club and survived the fire -- was convicted on multiple
counts of arson and murder. He died in prison in September 2016. In
1994, U.S. forces completed a withdrawal from Mogadishu, Somalia,
except for a small number of soldiers left behind to provide support
for U.N. peacekeepers. In 2006, an estimated 500,000 people protested
in Los Angeles against U.S. House-approved bill that would make it a
felony to be in the United States illegally. The legislation, which
also led to protests in other cities during this period, did not pass
in the Senate. In 2010, an explosion sank a South Korean warship on
patrol in the Yellow Sea, killing 46 sailors. North Korea denied
accusations it had torpedoed the ship. In 2013, Michel Djotodia, leader
of the rebel Seleka alliance, declared himself president of the
embattled Central African Republic. He resigned in early 2014. In 2014,
Ralph Wilson, owner of the Buffalo Bills, died at the age of 95. Wilson
purchased the NFL club -- then a member of the old American Football
League -- for $25,000 more than a half-century earlier. A thought for
the day: Mahatma Gandhi said, It has always been a mystery to me how
men can feel themselves honored by the humiliation of their fellow
beings. .
