Today in History
Today is Wednesday, March 15, the 74th day of 2017. There are 291 days
left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On March 15, 1767, the
seventh president of the United States, Andrew Jackson, was born in the
Waxhaw settlement along the North Carolina-South Carolina border. On
this date: In 44 B.C., Roman dictator Julius Caesar was assassinated by
a group of nobles that included Brutus and Cassius. In 1820, Maine
became the 23rd state. In 1917, Czar Nicholas II abdicated in favor of
his brother, Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich, who declined the crown,
marking the end of imperial rule in Russia. In 1922, Sultan Fuad I
proclaimed himself the first king of modern Egypt. In 1937, America's
first hospital blood bank was opened at Cook County Hospital in
Illinois. In 1944, during World War II, Allied bombers again raided
German-held Monte Cassino. In 1956, the Lerner and Loewe musical play
"My Fair Lady," based on Bernard Shaw's "Pygmalion," opened on
Broadway. In 1964, actress Elizabeth Taylor married actor Richard
Burton in Montreal; it was her fifth marriage, his second. (They
divorced in 1974, remarried in 1975, then divorced again in 1976.) In
1977, the U.S. House of Representatives began a 90-day closed-circuit
test to determine the feasibility of showing its sessions on
television. The situation comedy "Three's Company," starring John
Ritter, Joyce DeWitt and Suzanne Somers, premiered on ABC-TV. In 1985,
the first internet domain name, symbolics.com, was registered by the
Symbolics Computer Corp. of Massachusetts. In 1999, an Amtrak train
slammed into a steel-filled truck at a crossing in Bourbonnais,
Illinois, killing 11 people. In 2011, the Syrian civil war had its
beginnings with Arab Spring protests across the region that turned into
an armed insurgency and eventually became a full-blown conflict. Ten
years ago: Senate Republicans easily turned back Democratic legislation
requiring a troop withdrawal from Iraq to begin within 120 days.
Actress Angelina Jolie adopted a 3-year-old boy from an orphanage in
Vietnam (Pax Thien was her fourth child with Brad Pitt). Former
baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn (BOO'-ee kyoon) died in Jacksonville,
Florida, at age 80. Five years ago: Convicted former Illinois Gov. Rod
Blagojevich (blah-GOY'-uh-vich) walked into a federal prison in
Colorado, where the 55-year-old Democrat began serving a 14-year
sentence for corruption. The American campaign in Afghanistan suffered
a double blow as the Taliban broke off talks with the U.S., and
President Hamid Karzai (HAH'-mihd KAHR'-zeye) said NATO should pull out
of rural areas and speed up the transfer of security responsibilities
to Afghan forces nationwide. One year ago: Democrat Hillary Clinton
triumphed in the Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, Illinois and Missouri
presidential primaries; Donald Trump strengthened his hand in the
Republican race, winning in Florida, North Carolina, Illinois and
Missouri, but falling in Ohio to that state's governor, John Kasich
(KAY'-sihk), while Florida Sen. Marco Rubio ended his campaign after
his home-state loss. In a major reversal, the Obama administration
barred offshore drilling off the Atlantic Coast. Dallas Seavey won his
third straight Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in a record time of 8 days,
11 hours, 20 minutes, 16 seconds. Sylvia Anderson, 88, co-creator of
the cult classic science fiction TV puppet show "Thunderbirds," died in
Bray, Berkshire, England. Today's Birthdays: Musician DJ Fontana is 86.
Former astronaut Alan L. Bean is 85. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader
Ginsburg is 84. Actor Judd Hirsch is 82. Jazz musician Charles Lloyd is
79. Rock musician Phil Lesh is 77. Singer Mike Love (The Beach Boys) is
76. Rock singer-musician Sly Stone is 74. Rock singer-musician Howard
Scott (War; Lowrider Band) is 71. Rock singer Ry Cooder is 70. Actor
Craig Wasson is 63. Rock singer Dee Snider (Twisted Sister) is 62.
Actor Joaquim de Almeida is 60. Actress Park Overall is 60. Movie
director Renny Harlin is 58. Model Fabio is 56. Singer Terence Trent
D'Arby (AKA Sananda Maitreya) is 55. Rock singer Bret Michaels (Poison)
is 54. Rhythm-and-blues singer Rockwell is 53. Actor Chris Bruno is 51.
Rock singer Mark McGrath (Sugar Ray) is 49. Actress Kim Raver is 48.
Rock musician Mark Hoppus is 45. Country singer-musician Matt Thomas
(Parmalee) is 43. Actress Eva Longoria is 42. Rapper-musician will.i.am
(Black Eyed Peas) is 42. Rock DJ Joseph Hahn (Linkin Park) is 40.
Rapper Young Buck is 36. Actor Sean Biggerstaff is 34. Rock musician
Ethan Mentzer is 34. Actor Kellan Lutz is 32. Actress Caitlin Wachs is
28. Thought for Today: "The wisdom of man never yet contrived a system
of taxation that would operate with perfect equality. President Andrew
Jackson (1767-1845).
