Today in History, 3/31

1204: Eleanor of Aquitaine, wife of King Henry II, dies. She is played by Katherine Hepburn in The Lion in Winter.
1854: Commodore Matthew Perry signs the Treaty of Kanagawa with the Japanese government, opening the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate to American trade.1889: The Eiffel Tower opens.1916: Lucille Bliss is born. She provided the voice of Smurfette.
1917: The US takes possession of the Danish West Indies for $25 million and renames them the US Virgin Islands.
1918: Daylight Savings Time goes into effect in the US of for the first time.
1927: William Daniels is born. He provided the voice of KITT in Knight Rider.
1928: Gordie Howe is born.1930: The Motion Pictures Production Code goes into effect, regulating the treatment of sex, violence, religion and crime for the next 38 years.
1933: The Civilian Conservation Corps is established to relieve unemployment.1934: Richard Chamberlain is born.1940: Senator Pat Leahy is born.1943: Christopher Walken is born. Here he is in the Fat Boy Slim video for Weapon of Choice.

1945: Gabe Kaplan is born. He played Mr. Kotter on Welcome Back, Kotter.

1945: Anne Frank dies of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.1948: Al Gore is born.1948: Rhea Perlman is born.1951: The first commercial US computer, the UNIVAC-1 is delivered to the US Census Bureau.1955: Angus Young, guitarist for AC/DC is born.

1957: Marc McClure is born. He played Jimmy Olsen in all four original Superman movies and the Supergirl movie, too.
1968: Lyndon Johnson announces he will not run for re-election.
1992: The USS Missouri, the last active US battleship, is decommissioned in Long Beach, CA.Today in History elements mostly cribbed from The History Channel, Wikipedia, The New York Times, The Jewish World Review, The Writer's Almanac and anything else I can dig up.

Today in History, 3/30

240 BC: The first recorded passage of Halley's Comet by Chinese astronomers.
1296: King Edward I of England sacks Berwick-on-Tweed, during one of the wars between England and Scotland.
1492: Ferdinand and Isabella sign the Alhambra decree, expelling all Jews from Spain unless the convert to Roman Catholicism.
1822: The Florida Territory is created.
1842: Anesthesia is used for the first time in an operation by Dr. Crawford Long.
1853: Vincent Van Gogh is born.
1855: The Bleeding Kansas Incident: "Border Ruffians" from Missouri invaded Kansas and force the election of a pro-slavery legislature.
1858: Hymen Lipman patents a pencil with an attached eraser.
1867: Alaska is purchased $7.2 million (about 2 cents per acre) by Secretary of State William H. Seward.
1909: The Queensboro Bridge opens, linking Manhattan and Queens.1929: Richard Dysart is born. He played the doctor in John Carpenter's The Thing.
1930: John Astin is born. He played Gomez on the old Addams Family TV show but he's made a good living playing eccentric guys in all kinds of shows.1937: Warren Beatty is born. It is alleged that the song "You're So Vain" is about him.1945: A defecting German pilot delivers a Messerschmidt 262 to the Allies.1945: Eric Clapton is born.

1950: Robbie Coltrane is born. He played Hagrid in the Harry Potter movies.1964: Jeopardy! premieres on NBC.

1981: President Reagan is shot in the chest by John Hinckley, Jr.
Today in History elements mostly cribbed from The History Channel, Wikipedia, The New York Times, The Jewish World Review, The Writer's Almanac and anything else I can dig up.

Today in History, 3/29

1461: During the Wars of the Roses, Edward of York defeats Queen Margaret to become King Edward IV of England.
1790: John Tyler, 10th President of the United States, is born.1799: New York passes a law aimed at gradually abolishing slavery in the state.
1801: Construction is authorized on the Cumberland Road, which is the first US federal highway.
1849: The United Kingdom annexes the Punjab.
1857: The Sepoy Mutiny (aka The War of Independence of 1857) begins as the 34th Regiment of the Bengal Native Infantry revolts against British rule of India.1865: During the Civil War, the Battle of Appomattox Court House begins.
1867: Queen Victoria gives Royal Assent to the British North America Act, which establishes the Dominion of Canada.
1867: Cy Young is born.1871: The Royal Albert Hall is opened by Queen Victoria.1879: During the Anglo-Zulu War, British forces defeat 20,000 Zulus at the Battle of Kambula.
1886: Dr. John Pemberton brews the first batch of Coca-Cola in a backyard in Atlanta, GA.1937: Billy Carter is born.1943: Eric Idle is born.

1943: Rationing of meat and cheese begins in the US.
1944: Terry Jacks is born. He wrote "Seasons in the Sun," a really terrible song.

1948: Bud Cort is born. He was in the move Harold and Maude.
1951: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage.1955: Marina Sirtis is born. She played Counselor Deanna Troi in Star Trek: The Next Generation. She was easy on the eyes, but she didn't get to do much.1957: Christopher Lambert is born. He played the titular character in the 80's classic Highlander1961: The Twenty-Third Amendment is ratified, allowing residents of Washington, DC to vote in presidential elections.
1961: Amy Sedaris is born. She was great as Jeri Blank in Strangers With Candy.

1962: Jack Paar hosts the Tonight Show for the last time.1964: Elle Macpherson is born.1968: Lucy Lawless is born.1971: Lt. William Calley is convicted of premeditated murder in the My Lai Massacre and sentenced to life in prison.1973: The last United States soldiers leave South Vietnam.

Today in History elements mostly cribbed from The History Channel, Wikipedia, The New York Times, The Jewish World Review, The Writer's Almanac and anything else I can dig up.

Today in History, 3/28

845: Paris is sacked by Viking raiders.
1776: Juan Bautista de Anza finds the site for the Presidio of San Francisco.1834: The US Senate censures President Andrew Jackson for his actions in defunding the Second Bank of the United States.
1854: France declares war on Russia and the Crimean War really gets rolling.
1862: During the Civil War, the Union halts the Confederate invasion of the New Mexico territory at the Battle of Glorieta Pass.
1898: The Supreme Court rules that a child born in the US to Chinese immigrants is an American citizen and cannot be deported under the Chinese Exclusion Act.
1910: Henri Fabre becomes the first person to pilot a seaplane, the Fabre Hydravion off the coast of Matigues, France.1914: Senator Edmund Muskie is born.1928: Zbigniew Brzezinski, National Security Adviser under Jimmy Carter, is born.1930: Constantinople becomes Istanbul.

1939: During the Spanish Civil War, General Francisco Franco conquerers Madrid.1941: Alf Clausen is born. He does all the music for The Simpsons.
1960: Chris Barrie is born. He played the smegheaded goit hologram Arnold Judas Rimmer on the classic British show Red Dwarf.

1979: A pump in the reactor cooling system at Three Mile Island fails, causing the evaporation of some contaminated water and a subsequent meltdown.Today in History elements mostly cribbed from The History Channel, Wikipedia, The New York Times, The Jewish World Review, The Writer's Almanac and anything else I can dig up.

Today in History, 3/27

1513: Ponce de Leon lands in Florida.
1625: Charles I becomes King of England, Scotland and Ireland as well as claiming the throne of France.
1794: The United States establishes a permanent navy.
1851: First reported case of Europeans seeing Yosemite Valley.1854: During the Crimean War, the United Kingdom declares war on Russia.
1912: Japanese cherry trees are planted along the Potomac.1935: Julian Glover is born. He played William Donovan in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and also was the wicked Count Scarlioni in the Doctor Who episode City of Death.1942: Michael York is born. He is most famous for playing Logan-5 in the terminally goofy Logan's Run.1958: Nikita Khrushchev becomes premier of the Soviet Union.
1963: Quentin Tarantino is born. Here's his views about Top Gun.

1964: The Good Friday Earthquake strikes south-central Alaska. At a magnitude of 9.2, it is the strongest earthquake ever measured in the US and kills 125 people.
1967: Talisa Soto is born. She played Vampirella in the dreadful Roger Corman version.1970: The Concorde makes its first supersonic flight.
1970: Mariah Carey is born.1971: Nathan Fillion is born. He played the anti-hero Mal Reynolds in the cult sci-fi show Firefly.


Today in History elements mostly cribbed from The History Channel, Wikipedia, The New York Times, The Jewish World Review, The Writer's Almanac and anything else I can dig up.

Today in History, 3/26

1874: Robert Frost is born.
1904: Joseph Campbell is born. His writing on the power of myth (especially in The Hero With A Thousand Faces) has influenced more movies than I can shake a stick at.1911: Tennessee Williams is born.1916: Sterling Hayden is born. He played General Jack D. Ripper in Dr Strangelove.
1914: William Westmoreland, architect of the Vietnam War, is born.1919: Strother Martin is born. He played the prison commander in Cool Hand Luke.

1923: Bob Elliott is born. He was a member of the Bob & Ray comedy team and is the father of Chris Elliott. They were both in the tragically underrated sitcom Get A Life.1930: Sandra Day O'Connor, Supreme Court Justice, is born.
1931: Leonard Nimoy is born.

1934: Alan Arkin is born.1940: James Caan is born.1940: Nancy Pelosi is born.
1944: Diana Ross is born.1945: US forces announce that Iwo Jima is secure
1946: Johnny Crawford is born. He played the son of worry-faced vixen Peggy Webber in the MST3K episode The Space Children.
1948: Steven Tyler, singer for Aerosmith, is born.
1949: Vicki Lawrence is born. She sang The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia.1950: Martin Short is born. Ed Grimley was always one of my favorite SCTV characters.

1953: Jonas Salk announces his polio vaccine. It's difficult for us in the modern age to realize just how horrific a disease polio was.1957: Leeza Gibbons is born. She got her big break playing one of the news announcers in the greatest movie ever made, Robocop.
1960: Jennifer Grey is born. She played the conniving sister in Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Baby in Dirty Dancing. I liked her better with her old nose.1966: Michael Imperioli is born. He played the ill-fated Spider in Goodfellas and Christopher Moltisanti on The Sopranos.1967: Ten thousand people gather for the Central Park Be-In.
1971: East Pakistan declares its independence from Pakistan to form the People's Republic of Bangladesh.
1975: The Biological Weapons Convention enters into force.
1976: Queen Elizabeth II sends the first royal e-mail, from the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment. Its contents are unknown, but I bet it had to do with how much more she liked Sarah Jane Smith as a Doctor Who companion than Romana.
1979: Anwar al-Sadat, Menachem Begin and Jimmy Carter sign the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty in Washington, DC.
1982: A ground breaking ceremony is held for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC.1997: The Heaven's Gate cult commits mass suicide.


Today in History elements mostly cribbed from The History Channel, Wikipedia, The New York Times, The Jewish World Review, The Writer's Almanac and anything else I can dig up.