HISTORY FOR TODAY MARCH 19

Today in History
March 19

1687		The French explorer La Salle is murdered in by his own men while searching for the mouth of the Mississippi, along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.
1702		On the death of William III of Orange, Anne Stuart, sister of Mary, succeeds to the throne of England, Scotland and Ireland.
1822		Boston is incorporated as a city.
1879		Jim Currie opens fire on the actors Maurice Barrymore and Ben Porter near Marshall, Texas. His shots wound Barrymore and kill Porter.
1903		The U.S. Senate ratifies the Cuban treaty, gaining naval bases in Guantanamo and Bahia Honda.
1916		The First Aero Squadron takes off from Columbus, NM to join Gen. John J. Pershing and his Punitive Expedition against Pancho Villa in Mexico.
1917		The Adamson Act, eight hour day for railroad workers, is ruled constitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court.
1918		Congress authorizes Daylight Savings Time.
1920		The U.S. Senate rejects the Versailles Treaty for the second time.
1924		U.S. troops are rushed to Tegucigalpa as rebel forces take the Honduran capital.
1931		The state of Nevada legalizes gambling.
1935		The British fire on 20,000 Muslims in India, killing 23.
1936		The Soviet Union signs a pact of assistance with Mongolia against Japan.
1944		The German 352nd Infantry Division deploys along the coast of France.
1945		Adolf Hitler orders a scorched-earth policy for his retreating German armies in the west and east.
1947		Chiang Kai-Shek's government forces take control of Yenan, the former headquarters of the Chinese Communist Party.
1949		The Soviet People's Council signs the constitution of the German Democratic Republic, and declares that the North Atlantic Treaty is merely a war weapon.
1963		In Costa Rica, President John F. Kennedy and six Latin American presidents pledge to fight Communism.
1977		Congo President Marien Ngouabi is killed by a suicide commando.
1981		One technician is killed and two others are injured during a routine test on space shuttle Columbia.
Born on March 19
1589		William Bradford, governor of Plymouth colony for 30 years.
1721		Tobias George Smollett, satirical author and physician (Roderick Random, Humphrey Clinker).
1813		David Livingston, explorer found by Arthur Stanley in Africa.
1821		Sir Richard Burton, English explorer.
1848		Wyatt Earp, U.S. marshal.
1849		Alfred von Tirpitz, Prussian admiral who commanded the German fleet in early World War I.
1860		William Jennings Bryan, orator, statesman, known as "The Great Communicator."
1889		Sarah Gertrude Millina, South African writer (The Dark River, God's Stepchildren).
1891		Earl Warren, governor of California, later 14th Supreme Court Chief Justice.
1904		John J. Sirica, U.S. Federal Judge who ruled on Watergate issues.
1906		Adolf Eichman, Nazi Gestapo officer.
1912		Adolf Galland, German Luftwaffe pilot.
1925		Brent Scrowcroft, Lt. Gen. (USAF), National Security Advisor to President George H.W. Bush.
1933		Phillip Roth, American novelist and short-story writer (Portnoy's Complaint).

HISTORY FOR TODAY MARCH 18

Today in History
March 18

37		The Roman Senate annuls Tiberius' will and proclaims Caligula emperor.
1692		William Penn is deprived of his governing powers.
1863		Confederate women riot in Salisbury, N.C. to protest the lack of flour and salt in the South.
1865		The Congress of the Confederate States of America adjourns for the last time.
1874		Hawaii signs a treaty giving exclusive trading rights with the islands to the United States.
1881		Barnum and Bailey's Greatest Show on Earth opens in Madison Square Gardens.
1911		Theodore Roosevelt opens the Roosevelt Dam in Phoenix, Ariz., the largest dam in the United States to date.
1913		Greek King George I is killed by an assassin. Constantine I is to succeed.
1916		On the Eastern Front, the Russians counter the Verdun assault with an attack at Lake Naroch. The Russians lose 100,000 men and the Germans lose 20,000.
1917		The Germans sink the U.S. ships, City of Memphis, Vigilante and the Illinois, without any type of warning.
1922		Mahatma Gandhi is sentenced to six years in prison for civil disobedience in India.
1939		Georgia finally ratifies the Bill of Rights, 150 years after the birth of the federal government. Connecticut and Massachusetts, the only other states to hold out, also ratify the Bill of Rights in this year.
1942		The third military draft begins in the United States.
1943		Adolf Hitler calls off the offensive in the Caucasus.
1943		American forces take Gafsa in Tunisia.
1944		The Russians reach the Rumanian border.
1950		Nationalist troops land on the mainland of China and capture Communist-held Sungmen.
1953		The Braves baseball team announces that they are moving from Boston to Milwaukee.
1965		Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov becomes the first man to spacewalk when he exits his Voskhod 2 space capsule while in orbit around the Earth.
1969		President Richard M. Nixon authorizes Operation Menue, the'secret' bombing of Cambodia.
1970		The U.S. Postal Service is paralyzed by the first postal strike.
1971		U.S. helicopters airlift 1,000 South Vietnamese soldiers out of Laos.
1975		South Vietnam abandons most of the Central Highlands to North Vietnamese forces.
1981		The United States discloses biological weapons tests in Texas in 1966.
1986		Buckingham Palace announces the engagement of Prince Andrew to Sarah Ferguson.
Born on March 18
1782		John C. Calhoun, U.S. statesman.
1837		Stephen Grover Cleveland, 22nd and 24th President of the United States (1885-1889 and 1893-1897), the only U.S. president elected for two nonconsecutive terms.
1842		Stephane Mallarme, French symbolist poet.
1858		Rudolf Diesel, German engineer who designed the compression-ignition engine.
1869		Neville Chamberlin, British Prime Minister (1937-40).
1893		Wilfred Owen, World War I poet.
1932		John Updike, American poet and novelist.
1936		Frederik W. deKlerk, President of the Republic of South Africa.