Today in History
Today is Wednesday, March 22, the 81st day of 2017. There are 284 days
left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On March 22, 1765, the
British Parliament passed the Stamp Act to raise money from the
American colonies, which fiercely resisted the tax. (The Stamp Act was
repealed a year later.) On this date: In 1638, religious dissident Anne
Hutchinson was expelled from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for defying
Puritan orthodoxy. In 1894, hockey's first Stanley Cup championship
game was played; home team Montreal defeated Ottawa, 3-1. In 1929, a
U.S. Coast Guard vessel sank a Canadian-registered schooner, the I'm
Alone, which was suspected of carrying bootleg liquor, in the Gulf of
Mexico. In 1933, during Prohibition, President Franklin D. Roosevelt
signed a measure to make wine and beer containing up to 3.2 percent
alcohol legal. In 1941, the Grand Coulee hydroelectric dam in
Washington state officially went into operation. In 1958, movie
producer Mike Todd, the husband of actress Elizabeth Taylor, and three
other people, were killed in the crash of Todd's private plane near
Grants, New Mexico. In 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson named Gen.
William C. Westmoreland to be the U.S. Army's new Chief of Staff. In
1978, Karl Wallenda, the 73-year-old patriarch of "The Flying
Wallendas" high-wire act, fell to his death while attempting to walk a
cable strung between two hotel towers in San Juan, Puerto Rico. In
1987, a garbage barge, carrying 3,200 tons of refuse, left Islip, New
York, on a six-month journey in search of a place to unload. (The barge
was turned away by several states and three other countries until space
was found back in Islip.) In 1991, high school instructor Pamela Smart,
accused of recruiting her teenage lover and his friends to kill her
husband, Gregory, was convicted in Exeter, New Hampshire, of
murder-conspiracy and being an accomplice to murder and was sentenced
to life in prison without parole. In 1992, 27 people were killed when a
USAir Fokker F-28 jetliner bound for Cleveland crashed on takeoff from
New York's LaGuardia Airport; 24 people survived. In 1997, Tara
Lipinski, at age 14 years and 10 months, became the youngest ladies'
world figure skating champion in Lausanne, Switzerland. Ten years ago:
John and Elizabeth Edwards announced that her cancer had returned, but
that the North Carolina Democrat planned to continue his presidential
campaign. A rocket exploded 50 yards from U.N. Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon during a news conference in Baghdad's Green Zone just minutes
after Iraq's prime minister said the visit showed the city was "on the
road to stability. Brian Joubert became the first Frenchman in 42 years
to win the world title by taking the men's event at the World Figure
Skating Championships in Tokyo. Five years ago: Coroner's officials
ruled singer Whitney Houston died by drowning the previous February,
but that heart disease and cocaine use were contributing factors. In a
dramatic end to a 32-hour standoff, a French SWAT team slipped into the
Toulouse apartment of an Islamic extremist suspected of seven killings,
sparking a firefight that ended with the suspect jumping out the window
and being fatally shot in the head. One year ago: Capping a remarkable
visit to Cuba, President Barack Obama sat beside President Raul Castro
at a baseball game between Cuba's national team and the Tampa Bay Rays
(the Rays won, 4-1); Obama left the game early to fly to Argentina for
a state visit there. Suicide bombers attacked the Brussels airport and
subway system, killing 32 people. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton
padded their delegate troves with victories in Arizona; Democratic
challenger Bernie Sanders won caucuses in Utah and Idaho and Republican
Ted Cruz claimed his party's caucuses in Utah. Death claimed Rob Ford,
the troubled former mayor of Toronto, at age 46; actress Rita Gam at
age 88; and rapper Phife Dawg at age 45. Today's Birthdays:
Composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim is 87. Evangelist broadcaster Pat
Robertson is 87. Actor William Shatner is 86. Senate President Pro
Tempore Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, is 83. Actor M. Emmet Walsh is 82.
Actor-singer Jeremy Clyde is 76. Singer-guitarist George Benson is 74.
Writer James Patterson is 70. CNN newscaster Wolf Blitzer is 69.
Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber is 69. Actress Fanny Ardant is 68.
Sportscaster Bob Costas is 65. Country singer James House is 62.
Actress Lena Olin is 62. Singer-actress Stephanie Mills is 60. Actor
Matthew Modine is 58. Country musician Tim Beeler is 49. Actor-comedian
Keegan-Michael Key is 46. Actor Will Yun Lee ("Hawaii Five-0") is 46.
Olympic silver medal figure skater Elvis Stokjo is 45. Actor Guillermo
Diaz is 42. Actress Anne Dudek is 42. Actor Cole Hauser is 42. Actress
Kellie Williams is 41. Actress Reese Witherspoon is 41. Rock musician
John Otto (Limp Bizkit) is 40. Actress Tiffany Dupont is 36. Rapper
Mims is 36. Actress Constance Wu is 35. Actor James Wolk is 32. Rock
musician Lincoln Parish (Cage the Elephant) is 27. Thought for Today:
"Kindness consists in loving people more than they deserve. Joseph
Joubert, French moralist (1754-1824).
