Thursday, March 31

This Day In History

• 1492   King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain issued an edict expelling those Jews unwilling to convert to Christianity.
• 1880   The first electric street lights ever installed by a municipality were turned on in beautiful Wabash, IN.
• 1889   French engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel unfurled the French tricolor from atop the Eiffel Tower to mark its completion.
• 1918   Daylight saving time went into effect throughout the United States for the first time. Folks would spring ahead an hour allowing for longer early evenings. The time change left enough light for many activities, especially in farming areas. Planting and such could best be done with the sun up an extra hour. And, of course, folks would fall back an hour to standard time in the fall.
• 1917   The United States took possession of the Virgin Islands from Denmark.
• 1923   The first U.S. dance marathon, held in New York City, ended with Alma Cummings setting a world record of 27 hours on her feet.
• 1933   Congress authorized the Civilian Conservation Corps.
• 1943   The Rodgers and Hammerstein musical ''Oklahoma!'' opened on Broadway.
• 1945   ''The Glass Menagerie'' by Tennessee Williams opened on Broadway.
• 1949   Newfoundland entered the confederation as Canada's 10th province.
• 1959   The Dalai Lama, fleeing Chinese repression of an uprising in Tibet, arrived at the Indian border and was granted political asylum.
• 1968   President Lyndon Johnson announced that he would not run for re-election.
• 1976   The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that coma patient Karen Anne Quinlan could be disconnected from her respirator. (Quinlan remained comatose and died in 1985.)
• 1992   The U.N. Security Council voted to ban flights and arms sales to Libya, branding it a terrorist state for shielding six men accused of blowing up Pan Am Flight 103 and a French airliner.
• 1995   Major League Baseball players agreed to end the sport’s longest strike in history after a judge ordered a preliminary injunction against team owners.
• 1995   Mexican-American singer Selena Quintanilla-Perez, 23, is shot by the president of her fan club in Corpus Christi, Texas.
• 1995   Baseball players agreed to end a 232-day strike after a judge granted a preliminary injunction against club owners.
• 1998   Former New York Congresswoman Bella Abzug died at age 77.
• 1999   Three U.S. Army soldiers were captured by Serb forces near the Yugoslav-Macedonia border.
• 1999   Four New York City police officers were charged with murder for killing Amadou Diallo, an unarmed African immigrant, in a hail of bullets. (The officers were acquited in 2000.)

Happy Birthday To

• 1596   Rene Descartes (‘Father of modern philosophy’: “I think, therefore I am.”; died Feb 11, 1650)
• 1915   Henry Morgan (Henry Lerner Von Ost, Jr.) (comedian: TV panel shows: I’ve Got a Secret; died May 19, 1994)
• 1927   Cesar Chavez (labor leader: started the National Farm Workers Association, organizing migrant farm workers; died Apr 23, 1993)
• 1931   Miller Barber (golf champion: holds record for most wins in the Senior PGA Tour [24] from 1981 to 1992)
• 1934   Shirley Jones (singer, actress: Carousel, The Music Man, Oklahoma!, Elmer Gantry, The Partridge Family)
• 1935   Herb Alpert (bandleader: Tijuana Brass: The Lonely Bull, Taste of Honey, The Work Song, This Guy’s in Love with You, Rise; record company executive: the "A" of A&M Records)
• 1935   Richard Chamberlain (actor: Dr. Kildare, The Thorn Birds; Centennial, Shogun, The Towering Inferno, Julius Caesar, The Madwoman of Chaillot, The Bourne Identity, King Solomon’s Mines; environmentalist in Hawaii)
• 1945   Gabe (Gabriel) Kaplan (actor, comedian: Welcome Back Kotter, The Hoboken Chicken Emergency, Nobody’s Perfekt)
• 1948   Al Gore (Albert Arnold Gore Jr.) (U.S. Senator from Tennessee [1985-1993]; 45th U.S. Vice President [under Bill Clinton 1993-2000])