MARCH

March 1

–  birthdays:  1904 – Glenn Miller (big band leader – “Moonlight Serenade”)  /  1914 –  Ralph Ellison (author – “The Invisible Man”;  first African-American to win the National Book Award)  /  1924 –  Deke Slayton (astronaut who went into space three times)  /  1927 – Harry Belafonte (calypso singer –  “The Banana Boat Song”)  /  1935 –  Robert Conrad (actor –  Wild Wild West)  /  1944 –  Roger Daltrey (singer for The Who –  biggest hit =  “I Can See For Miles”)  /  1954 –  Ron Howard (actor/director  –  “Happy Days”/”Apollo 13”)  /  1987 – Kesha (singer – biggest hit =  “TiK ToK”)  /  1994 – Justin Bieber (singer – biggest hit = “Sorry”) 

–  1692 –  Salem Witch Trials begin

–  1781 –  Articles of Confederation are ratified

–  1845 –  U.S. annexes the Texas Republic

–  1864 –  Rebecca Lee becomes first African-American to get a medical degree

–  1864 –  U.S. Grant promoted to Lieutenant General (first since Washington) and made commanding general

–  1872 –  Yellowstone becomes the first national park

–  1917  –  the Zimmerman Note is published in American newspapers

–  1932 –  Lindbergh baby kidnapped

–  1941 –  Captain America makes his first appearance in comics

–  1949 –  boxer Joe Louis retires with a 66-3-0 record

–  1961 –  Pres. Kennedy establishes the Peace Corps

–  1973 –  Pink Floyd release Dark Side of the Moon album

Quote:  Join the union, girls, and together say Equal Pay for Equal Work.  –  Susan B. Anthony 1869

March 2

–  birthdays:  1793 –  Sam Houston (President of the Texas Republic)  /  1904 –  Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss)  /  1917 –  Desi Arnaz (actor- I Love Lucy)  /  1931 – Mikhail Gorbachev  (Soviet leader 1985-91)  /  1931 –  Tom Wolfe  (author – “The Right Stuff”)  /  1942 – John Irving (author – “The World According to Garp”)  /  1950 –  Karen Carpenter (singer for The Carpenters –  biggest hit =  “Top of the World”)  /  1960 –  Jon Bon Jovi (rock singer – biggest hit =  “You Give Love a Bad Name”)  /  1977 – Chris Martin (singer for Coldplay –  biggest hit =  “Viva La Vida”)  /  1982 –  Ben Roethlisberger (NFL quarterback)

–  1807 –  Congress outlaws the importation of slaves

–  1877 –  in the Compromise of 1877, an electoral commission declares Rutherford Hayes the winner of the 1876 Election

–  1933 –  movie King Kong premieres

–  1946 –  Ho Chi Minh elected President of North Vietnam

–  1949 –  B-50 crew completes the first round the world nonstop flight

–  1962 –  Wilt Chamberlain scores 100 points in an NBA game

–  1965 – The Sound of Music is released 

Quote:  I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.  –  Martin Luther King, Jr.

March 3

–  birthdays:  1831 – George Pullman (inventor of the railway sleeping car)  /  1847 –  Alexander Graham Bell  /  1895 – Matthew Ridgway (commanding general in Korea)  /  1920 – James Doohan (Scotty on “Star Trek”)  /  1962 – Herschel Walker (football player)  /  1962 –  Jackie Joyner-Kersee (track athlete and gold medal winner)  /  1982 – Jessica Biel (actress –  “7th Heaven”)

–  1837 –  Congress increases the number of Supreme Court justices from 7 to 9

–  1845 –  Florida becomes the 27^th state

–  1859  –  largest slave auction –  400 men, women, and children

–  1863 –  Congress passes the first draft act to rope in 20-45 year olds

–  1865 –  Freedmen’s Bureau created

–  1887 –  Anne Sullivan begins teaching Helen Keller

–  1900 –  U.S. Steel Corporation is organized

–  1913 –  women’s suffrage parade in Washington is attacked by males in the crowd

–  1923 –  Time magazine publishes its first issue

–  1931 –  “Star Spangled Banner” is declared the official national anthem

–  1933 –  Mount Rushmore is dedicated

–  1934 –  John Dillinger breaks out of jail using a fake wooden pistol

–  1943 –  Battle of the Bismarck Sea

–  1955 –  Elvis makes his first appearance on TV in broadcast of radio show “Louisiana Hayride”

–  1991 –  Rodney King beaten by Los Angeles police sparking riots when they are acquitted

Quote:   We know what happens to people who stay in the middle of the road.  They get run down.  –  Aneurin Bevan

March 4

–  birthdays:  1888 – Knute Rockne (Notre Dame football coach)  /  1958 –  Patricia Heaton (Debra on Everybody Loves Raymond) 

–  1681 –  William Penn granted a charter for land in America by King Charles II

–  1776 –  Washington places cannons on Dorchester Heights to force the British out of Boston

–  1791 –  Vermont becomes the 14^th state

–  1801 –  Jefferson becomes first President inaugurated in Washington

–  1841 –  William Henry Harrison gives the longest inaugural address on a rainy day and dies one month later

–  1861 –  Lincoln is inaugurated the 16^th President

–  1927 –  Babe Ruth signs a contract making him the highest paid baseball player at $70,000 per year

–  1933 –  FDR is inaugurated for the first time

–  1944 –  first American bombing of Berlin

Quote:  All experience is an arch to build on.  – Henry Brooks Adams

March 5

–  birthdays:  1836 –  Charles Goodnight (cattle rancher)  /  1870 – Frank Norris (muckraker who wrote “The Octopus”)  /  1956 – Michael Irvin (Hall of Fame receiver) 

–  1770 –  Boston Massacre

–  1836 –  Samuel Colt manufactures his first pistol

–  1872 –  George Westinghouse patents the air brake for trains

–  1922 –  Annie Oakley blasts 98 of 100 clay targets to set the women’s trap shooting record

–  1933 –  FDR proclaims the Bank Holiday

–  1946 –  Churchill gives his “Iron Curtain” speech in Fulton, Missouri

–  1953 –  Stalin dies

–  1960 –  Elvis ends his two year tour in the Army

–  1971 –  Led Zeppelin plays “Stairway to Heaven” live for the first time

Quote:   Experience is not what happens to a man;  it is what a man does with what happens to him.  –  Aldous Huxley

March 6

–  birthdays:  1747 – Casimir Pulaski (Father of the American Cavalry)  /  1906 –  Lou Costello (of Abbott and Costello)  /  1915 –  Pete Grey (one armed outfielder for the St. Louis Browns)  /  1923 – Ed McMahon (Johnny Carson’s sidekick on the Tonight Show)  /  1926 –  Alan Greenspan (Chairman of the Federal Reserve 1986-2007)  /  1941 –  Robert DeNiro (actor – “Raging Bull”, “Taxi Driver”)  /  1947 –  Rob Reiner (actor – All in the Family / director – Spinal Tap)  /  1963 –  D.L. Hughley (comedian)  /  1972 – Shaquille O’Neal 

–  1521 –  Magellan discovers Guam

–  1831 –  Edgar Allan Poe is kicked out of West Point

–  1836 –  Mexicans storm the Alamo after a thirteen day siege

–  1857 –  Dred Scott Decision –  slaves are not citizens

–  1950 –  Silly Putty goes on sale

–  1951 –  trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg begins

–  1964 –  Cassius Clay converts to Islam and takes the name Muhammad Ali 

Quote:   Education is when you read the fine print;  experience is what you get when you don’t.  –  Pete Seeger

March 7

–  birthdays:  1849 Luther Burbank (horticulturist who developed  more than 800 plants)  /  1938 – Janet Guthrie (first woman to race in the Indianapolis 500 and Daytona 500)  /  1956 – Bryan Cranston (actor – Breaking Bad) 

–  1876 –  Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone

–  1897 –  Dr. John Kellogg serves corned flakes to mental patients for the first time

–  1933 –  “Monopoly” is trademarked

–  1936 –  Hitler marches into the Rhineland

–  1945 –  American soldiers capture the Remagen bridge over the Rhine River

–  1965 –  Alabama state troopers clash with Civil Rights activists at Selma bridge on “Black Sunday”

Quote:  Experience gives us the tests first and the lessons later.  –  Naomi Judd

March 8

–  birthdays:  1862 –  Joseph Lee (philanthropist who created the first neighborhood playground)  /  1921 – Alan Hale, Jr.  (the Skipper on Gilligan’s Island)  /  1963 –  Kathy Ireland (supermodel)

–  1817 –  the New York Stock Exchange is formed

–  1862 – the first ironclad, the CSS Virginia (the Merrimack) attacks a Union fleet

–  1913 –  the Internal Revenue Service begins collecting taxes

–  1965 –  Marines land at Da Nang in S. Vietnam

Quote:  In the future everybody will be world famous for fifteen minutes.  –  Andy Warhol

March 9

–  birthdays:  1454 –  Amerigo Vespucci  /  1824 –  Leland Sanford (president of the Central Pacific Railroad)  /  1918 –  Mickey Spillane (detective novelist – Mike Hammer)  /  1934 – Yuri Gagarin (cosmonaut who was the first man in space)  /  1943 – Bobby Fischer (first American world chess champion)  /  1987 – Lil’ Bow Bow (rapper – biggest hit = “Like You”)

–  1841 –  Supreme Court frees the slaves of the Amistad

–  1841 –  American forces invade Mexico by landing at Vera Cruz

–  1862 –  Monitor vs. the Merrimack

–  1864 –  Grant is appointed commander in chief for the Union Army

–  1917 –  Pancho Villa raids Columbus, N.M. killing 17 civilians

–  1945 –  firebombing of Tokyo kills at least 80,000 Japanese

–  1954 –  broadcaster/newsman Edward R. Murrow criticizes Joseph McCarthy

–  1959 –  Barbie makes her debut at the American Toy Fair in New York

–  1964 –  first Ford Mustang produced

–  1997 –  Notorious B.I.G. is killed

Quote:  Having one child makes you a parent;  having more makes you a referee.  –  David Frost

March 10

–  birthdays:  1940 – Chuck Norris (actor / roundhouse kicker)  /  1958 – Sharon Stone (actress – “Basic Instinct”)  /  1971 – Jon Hamm (actor – Mad Men)  /  1983 – Carrie Underwood (country singer – biggest hit = “Inside Your Heaven”)

–  1862 –  federal government issues the first paper money

–  1876 –  first telephone call (“Watson, come here.  I need you.”)

–  1908 –  first Mother’s Day celebrated by Anna Jarvis

–  1945 –  firebombing of Tokyo kills 100,000 Japanese civilians

–  1997 –  Buffy the Vampire Slayer premieres on TV

Quote:  The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.  –  FDR

March 11

–  birthdays:  1895 –  Shemp Howard (one of the Three Stooges)  /  1903 – Lawrence Welk (accordionist and band leader of The Lawrence Welk Show)  /  1926 –  Ralph Abernathy (Civil Rights leader)  /  1950 –  Bobby McFerrin (singer – “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”)  /  1971 – Johnny Knoxville (masochist)  /  1993 – Anthony Davis (NBA player)

–  1789 – Pierre L’Enfant and Benjamin Banneker begin working on the plans for Washington, D.C.

–  1892 –  first public basketball game in Springfield, Massachusetts

–  1918 –  Spanish flu hits the U.S. eventually killing 600,000

–  1927 –  first armored car robbery

–  1941 –  FDR signs the Lend-Lease Act

–  1942 –  Gen. MacArthur leaves the Philippines for Australia

–  1985 –  Gorbachev takes power in the Soviet Union

–  1997 –  the ashes of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry are launched into space

Quote:  The world is full of fools and he who would not see it should live alone and smash his mirror.  –  Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

March 12

–  birthdays:  1922 – Jack Kerouac (Beat writer – On the Road)  /  1946 – Liza Minnelli (singer/actress – Cabaret)  /  1947 –  Mitt Romney (Republican nominee in 2012)  /  1948 –  James Taylor (biggest hit =  “You’ve Got a Friend”)  /  1960 – Courtney Vance (actor- Hamburger Hill) 

–  1894 –  Coca-Cola is sold in bottles for the first time at a Vicksburg, Miss. candy store

–  1933 –  FDR gives his first “fireside chat”

–  1938 –  Nazi Germany annexes Austria

–  1945 –  Anne Frank dies at age 15 in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp

–  1947 –  the Truman Doctrine

Quote:   A  knowledgeable fool is a greater fool than an ignorant fool.  –  Moliere

March 13

–  birthdays:  1911 – L. Ron Hubbard (founder of Scientology)  /  1914 – Edward “Butch” O’Hare (first Navy ace in WWII)  /  1939 – Neil Sedaka (singer –  biggest hit =  “Laughter in the Rain”)

–  1868 –  Andrew Johnson’s impeachment trial begins

–  1877 –  Chester Greenwood patents ear muffs

–  1933 –  Josef Goebbels becomes Nazi Propaganda Minister

–  1954 –  the siege of Dien Bien Phu begins

–  1961 –  JFK launches the Alliance for Progress

Quote:   A fool can always find a greater fool to admire him.  –  Nicolas Boileau

March 14

–  birthdays:  1879 – Albert Einstein  /  1920 – Hank Ketcham (cartoonist –  Dennis the Menace)  /  1933 – Quincy Jones, Jr. (composer)  /  1948 – Billy Crystal  (comedian – “City Slickers”)  /  1960 –  Kirby Puckett (Hall of Fame baseball player)  /  1988 – Stephen Curry  /  1997 – Simone Biles (gymnast) 

–  1794 –  Eli Whitney patents the cotton gin

–  1904 –  Teddy Roosevelt busts his first trust in Northern Securities Company v. U.S.

–  1933 –  CCC begins tree conservation

–  1964 –  Jack Ruby sentenced to death for the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald

–  1973 –  John McCain is released from imprisonment in North Vietnam after five years

Quote:   Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.  –  Alexander Pope

March 15

–  birthdays:  1767 –  Andrew Jackson (7^th President 1829-37)  /  1933 – Ruth Bader Ginsberg  /  1944 –  Sly Stone (singer of Sly and the Family Stone –  biggest hit =  “Everyday People”)

–  1781 –  Battle of Guilford Courthouse

–  1823 –  Maine becomes the 23^rd state as part of the Missouri Compromise

–  1892 –  Jesse Reno patents the first escalator

–  1913 – Wilson hosts the first presidential news conference

–  1916 –  Gen. Pershing chases Pancho Villa into Mexico

–  1939 – Germany invades Czechoslovakia

–  1972 –  movie “The Godfather” premieres

Quote:   There’s a sucker born every minute.  –  P.T. Barnum

March 16

–  birthdays:  1751 – James Madison  /  1906 – Henny Youngman (comedian – “Take my wife, please”)  /  1926 – Jerry Lewis  /  1959 – Flavor Flav (rapper)  /  1989 – Blake Griffin (basketball player)

–  1802 –  U.S. Military Academy founded at West Point

–  1850 – Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is published

–  1912 –  Mrs. William Taft plants the first cherry tree in Washington

–  1926 – Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fueled rocket

–  1945 –  Iwo Jima is declared secured after weeks of fighting and 6,000 dead Marines

–  1968 –  My Lai Massacre

Quote:   Better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt.  –  Mark Twain

March 17

–  birthdays:  1804 – Jim Bridger (mountain man)  /  1902 –  Bobby Jones (golfer –  only winner of all four majors in the same year)  /  1919 – Nat King Cole (singer –  “Mona Lisa”)  /  1951 –  Kurt Russell (actor – Escape from New York)  /  1955 – Gary Sinise (actor / veterans activist)  /  1972 –  Mia Hamm (soccer player)

–  1762 –  first St. Patrick’s Day parade in NYC

–  1898 – John Holland successfully tests the first modern submarine

–  1905 –  Franklin Roosevelt marries his distant cousin Eleanor

–  1943 –  German u-boat wolfpacks sink 21 merchant ships in a convoy with the loss of only one sub

–  1973 –  John McCain is released after five years of captivity in North Vietnam

Quote:   The best way to suppose what may come, is to remember what is past.  –  Lord Halifax

March 18

–  birthdays:  1782 – John C. Calhoun (Jackson’s Vice President)  /  1837 – Grover Cleveland (22^nd and 24^th President)  /  1869 –  Neville Chamberlain  /  1932 –  John Updike (author –  “Rabbit, Run”)  /  1938  –  Charlie Pride (first African-American inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame –  “Kiss an Angel Good Morning”)  /  1963 – Vanessa Williams (first African-American Miss America)  /  1970 – Queen Latifah (rapper/actress) 

–  1766 – Parliament repeals the Stamp Act

–  1949 – NATO is ratified

–  2002 – The Ramones are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Quote:   To err is human;  to forgive divine.  –  Alexander Pope

March 19

–  birthdays:  1589 –  William Bradford (Governor of Plymouth Colony for 30 years)  /  1848 – Wyatt Earp (lawman in Dodge City)  /  1860 – William Jennings Bryan (three time candidate for President)  /  1891 – Earl Warren (Supreme Court justice 1953-69)  /  1904 – John Sirica (judge in the Watergate Scandal)  /  1905 – Albert Speer (Hitler’s Minister of Armaments and Production)  /  1906 –  Adolf Eichmann (Nazi Holocaust organizer)  /  1933 –  Philip Roth (author – “Portnoy’s Complaint”)  /  1947 – Glenn Close (actress – Fatal Attraction)  /  1955 – Bruce Willis (actor – Die Hard) 

–  1920 –  Senate fails to ratify the Versailles Treaty

–  1928 –  Amos n’ Andy debuts on the radio

–  1931 –  Nevada legalizes gambling

–  1995  –  Michael Jordan returns to basketball after failure at baseball

–  2003 –  Operation Iraqi Freedom begins

Quote:   It is more shameful to doubt one’s friends than to be duped by them.  –  Duc de la Rochefoucauld

March 20

–  birthdays:  1811 – George Caleb Bingham (painter)  /  1856 – Frederick Winslow Taylor (Father of Scientific Management)  /  1904 –  BF Skinner (psychologist – theory of behaviorism)  /  1922 –  Carl Reiner (comedian/writer)  /  1925 – John Ehrlichman (Nixon aide)  /  1928 – Fred Rogers (Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood)  /  1937 –  Jerry Reed (country music singer – “Amos Moses”  /  actor –  Smokey and the Bandit)  /  1957 –  Spike Lee (director – Malcolm X) 

–  1852 –  Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes Uncle Tom’s Cabin

–  1896 – Marines are sent to Nicaragua to protect American citizens

–  1900 –  Secretary of State John Hay announces the other nations have agreed to the “Open Door Policy”

–  1930 –  Kentucky Fried Chicken is founded by Colonel Harland Sanders

–  1942 –  Douglas MacArthur proclaims “I shall return”

–  1952 –  Humphrey Bogart wins Best Actor for “The African Queen”

–  1973 –  Roberto Clemente elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame eleven weeks after his death in a humanitarian plane flight

–  1976 –  Patricia Hearst convicted of bank robbery

–  2003 –  American forces invade Iraq

–  2016 –  Obama becomes the first President to visit Cuba since 1928

Quote:   To find a friend, one must close one eye.  To keep him – two.  –  Norman Douglas

March 21

–  birthdays:  1856 – Henry Flipper (first African-American to graduate from West Point)  /  1916 –  Harold Robbins (author – “The Carpetbaggers”)  /  1949 –  Eddie Money  (rock singer – biggest hit =  “Take Me Home Tonight”)  /  1962 – Matthew Broderick  (actor – “Ferris Bueller”)  /  1962 –  Rosie O’Donnell  (actress – “A League of Their Own”)  /  1985 –  Adrian Peterson (NFL running back) 

–  1925  –  Tennessee passes the Butler Act making it the first state to outlaw the teaching of evolution (repealed in 1967)

–  1963 –  Alcatraz is closed

–  1965 –  Martin Luther King, Jr. begins the march from Selma to Montgomery

–  1970 –  first San Diego Comic-Con

–  1980 –  J.R. is shot on the TV show “Dallas”

–  1980 –  Carter announces the U.S. will boycott the Moscow Olympics

Quote:   The young have aspirations that never come to pass, the reminiscences of what never happened.  –  Saki

March 22

–  birthdays:  1869 –  Emilio Aguinaldo (Filipino revolutionary)  /  1887 –  Chico Marx  /  1908 –  Louis L’Amour (author of Westerns –  “Hondo”)  /  1912 – Karl Malden (actor – “Streets of San Francisco”)  /  1931 – William Shatner ( actor – “Star Trek”)  /  1952 – Bob Costas  (sportscaster)  /  1959 – Matthew Modine (actor – “Full Metal Jacket”)  /  1976 –  Reese Witherspoon (actress – “Legally Blonde”)  /  1989 –  J.J. Watt (football player)  /  2233 – James T. Kirk  (captain of the Starship Enterprise)

–  1622 – 347 colonists massacred by Powhatan Indians in Jamestown

–  1638 –  Anne Hutchinson is expelled from Massachusetts Bay Colony

–  1765 –  Stamp Act is passed by Parliament

–  1790 –  Jefferson becomes the first Secretary of State

–  1820 –  Stephen Decatur is killed in a duel

–  1941 –  Jimmy Stewart becomes the first major Hollywood to enlist for WWII

–  1947 –  Pres. Truman signs an executive order calling for loyalty oaths

–  1957 –  Elvis releases “All Shook Up”

–  1972 –  Congress approves the Equal Rights Amendment

Quote:   When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around.  But when I got to be 21, I was astonished how much the old man had learned in seven years.  –  Mark Twain

March 23

–  birthdays:  1857 – Fannie Farmer (famous cook)  /  1905 –  Joan Crawford (actress – “Mildred Pierce”)  /  1912 – Werhner Von Braun (German scientist that worked for NASA)  /  1944 – Ric Ocasek (singer for The Cars –  biggest hit:  “Drive”)  /  1952 – Rex Tillerson (Trump’s first Secretary of State)  /  1953 – Chaka Khan  (singer – biggest hit:  “I Feel for You”)  /  1973 – Jason Kidd (NBA Hall of Famer)  /  1992 – Kyrie Irving (NBA player) 

–  1775 –  Patrick Henry proclaims “Give me liberty or give me death!”

–  1857 –  Elisha Otis puts in his first elevator (NYC)

–  1901 –  Emilio Aguinaldo is captured

–  1919 –  Mussolini forms the Fascist Party

–  1929 –  first telephone on a President’s desk (Hoover)

–  1933 –  Enabling Act grants Hitler dictatorial powers

–  1983 –  Reagan introduces the Strategic Defense Initiative (“Star Wars”)

–  1994 –  Wayne Gretzky sets record for most goals in a career

Quote:   Every generation revolts against its fathers and makes friends with its grandfathers.  –  Lewis Mumford

March 24

–  birthdays:  1874 –  Harry Houdini (escape artist)  /  1902 –  Thomas Dewey  (Republican candidate in 1944 & 1948)  /  1909  –  Clyde Barrow (bank robber)  /  1911 –  Joseph Barbera (cartoonist partner of William Hanna –  “Tom and Jerry”, “The Flintstones”)  /  1915 – Gorgeous George  (pro wrestler)  /  1930 – Steve McQueen (actor – “The Great Escape”)  /  1944 – R. Lee Ermey (actor – “Full Metal Jacket”)  /  1973 – Jim Parsons (Sheldon in “The Big Bang Theory”)  /  1974 –  Alyson Hannigan (Willow in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”)  /  1976 – Peyton Manning  /  1977 – Jessica Chastain  (actress – “Zero Dark Thirty”) 

–  1664 –  Roger Williams is granted a charter to colonize Rhode Island

–  1832 –  Joseph Smith is dragged from bed by a mob and tarred and feathered

–  1958  –  Elvis enters the Army

–  1989 –  the supertanker Exxon Valdez runs aground in Prince William Sound in Alaska starting a massive oil spill

–  2005 –   “The Office” premieres

Quote:   Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.  –  Thomas Edison

March 25

–  birthdays:  1871 –  John Gutzon Borgum (sculptor of Mount Rushmore)  /  1911 – Jack Ruby  /  1918 – Howard Cosell  (sportscaster – “Monday Night Football”)  /  1934 –  Gloria Steinem  (feminist – Ms. Magazine)  /  1942 – Aretha Franklin  (the “Queen of Soul”; first female inducted into the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame;  biggest hit = “Respect” )  /  1947 –  Elton John  (biggest hit =  “Candle in the Wind 1997”)  /  1965 –  Sarah Jessica Parker  (actress – “Sex in the City”) 

–  1863 –  first Medal of Honor awarded

–  1911 – Triangle Shirtwaist Fire

–  1955 – U.S. Customs seizes copies of Allen Ginsberg’s poem “Howl” as obscene

Quote:   It is necessary only for the good man to do nothing for evil to triumph.  –  Edmund Burke

March 26

–  birthdays:  1874 – Robert Frost (poet)  /  1911 – Tennessee Williams (playwright – “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”)  /  1914 –  William Westmoreland (commanding general in Vietnam 1964-68)  /  1930 – Sandra Day O’Connor (first woman on the Supreme Court)  /  1931 –  Leonard Nemoy (Spock on “Star Trek”)  /  1940 –  James Caan (actor – “Misery”)  /  1940 –  Nancy Pelosi  /  1943 – Bob Woodward (journalist for Watergate)  /  1944 – Diana Ross (singer- biggest hit =  “Upside Down”)  /  1948 –  Steven Tyler (singer for Aerosmith – biggest hit = “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing”)  /  1950 – Martin Short (comedian)  /  1950 – Teddy Pendergrass (singer – biggest hit = “Close the Door”)  /  1960 – Marcus Allen (Hall of Fame running back)  /  1962 – John Stockton  (NBA career assist leader) 

–  1820  –  Joseph Smith has his “First Vision” leading to the creation of the Mormon Church

–  1830 –  The Book of Mormon is published

–  1942 –  first Jews arrive at Auschwitz

–  1945 – famous flag-raising on Iwo Jima

–  1953 –  Jonas Salk announces vaccine for polio

–  1955  –  “Ballad of Davy Crockett” reaches #1

–  1979 – Sadat of Egypt and Begin of Israel sign the Camp David Accords

–  1997 –  police discover the bodies of 39 members of the “Heaven’s Gate” cult dead from mass suicide

Quote:   What we call evil is simply ignorance bumping its head in the dark.  –  Henry Ford

March 27

–  birthdays:  1899 – Gloria Swanson (actress – “Sunset Boulevard”)  /  1963 – Quentin Tarantino  (director – “Pulp Fiction”)  /  1971 – Mariah Carey (singer – biggest hit =  “We Belong Together”)  /  1975 – Fergie (singer – biggest hit =  “Big Girl’s Don’t Cry”) 

–  1513 –  Ponce de Leon first sights Florida

–  1814 –  Andrew Jackson wins the Battle of Horseshoe Bend over the Creek Indians

–  1855 –  Abraham Gesner patents kerosene

–  1884 –  first long distance phone call from Boston to NYC

–  1915 –  Typhoid Mary is arrested and sent back to quarantine after being on the lam for five years

–  1980 –  Mount St. Helens becomes active for the first time in 123 years

Quote:   The best government is that which governs least.  –  John L. O’Sullivan

March 28

–  birthdays:  1899 –  August Anheuser Busch, Jr. (beer baron)  /  1970 –  Vince Vaughn (actor – “The Wedding Crashers”)  /  1986 – Lady Gaga (biggest hit =  “Poker Face”) 

–  1881 – Barnum and Bailey form the “Greatest Show on Earth”

–  1972 – Wilt Chamberlain plays his last basketball game

–  1973 –  last American soldiers depart South Vietnam

–  1979 –  Three Mile Island nuclear disaster begins

Quote:   Delay is preferable to error. –  Thomas Jefferson

March 29

–  birthdays:  1790 – John Tyler (10^th President 1841-45)  /  1867 – Cy Young (pitcher with the most wins -511;  original inductee into the Hall of Fame)  /  1916 – Eugene McCarthy (anti-war candidate in 1968)  /  1917 – Man o’ War (racehorse)  /  1918 – Sam Walton (founder of Walmart)  /  1918 – Pearl Bailey (singer)  /  1945 – Walt Frazier  (NBA Hall of Fame)  /  1955 –  Earl Campbell (Hall of Fame running back)

–  1847 –  U.S. forces capture Vera Cruz in Mexico

–  1885 –  Dr. John Pemberton brews up his first batch of Coca-Cola (with cocaine as an ingredient)

–  1951 –  Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are convicted and sentenced to death

Quote:   History is little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind.  –  Edward Gibbons

March 30

–  birthdays:  1937 –  Warren Beatty (actor – “Shampoo”)  /  1945 –  Eric Clapton (rock guitarist – biggest hit =  “I Shot the Sheriff”)  /  1962 – MC Hammer (rapper – biggest hit =  “Pray”)  /  Celine Dion  (biggest hit =  “The Power of Love”)  /  1970 –  Secretariat  (racehorse)  /  1979 – Norah Jones (biggest hit =  “Don’t Know Why”)

–  1858 – pencil with attached eraser patented

–  1867 –  purchase of Alaska (“Seward’s Folly”)

–  1870 –  15^th Amendment adopted

–  1981 –  Reagan shot

Quote:   We hold these truths to be evident, that all men and women are created equal.  –  Elizabeth Cady Stanton

March 31

–  birthdays:  1878 –  Jack Johnson (first African-American heavyweight boxing champ)  /  1927 – Cesar Chavez (leader of the United Farm Workers)  /  1933 – Shirley Jones (actress – “The Partridge Family”)  /  1934 – Richard Chamberlain (actor – “Shogun”)  /  1943 –  Christopher Walken (actor – “The Deer Hunter”)  /  1946 –  Gabe Kaplan (Mr. Kotter in “Welcome Back, Kotter”)  /  1948 – Al Gore

–  1918 –  first daylight savings time

–  1923 –  first dance marathon

–  1931 –  Notre Dame coach Knute Rockne is killed in a plane crash

–  1968 –  LBJ announces he will not seek reelection

–  1995 –  Selena is killed

Quote:   War is hell.  –  William Sherman