Wednesday, March 30

This Day In History

• 1822   Florida became a U.S. territory.
• 1842   Dr. Crawford W. Long performed the first operation while his patient was anesthetized by ether on this day.
• 1856   The Treaty of Paris was signed, ending the Crimean War.
• 1858   Hyman L. Lipman of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania patented the writing device we call the pencil.
• 1867   Secretary of State William H. Seward reached agreement with Russia to purchase the territory of Alaska for $7.2 million (approximately two cents an acre), a deal roundly ridiculed as ''Seward's Folly.''
• 1870   The 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution went into effect, guaranteeing the right to vote regardless of race.
• 1870   Texas was readmitted to the Union.
• 1909   The Queensboro Bridge, linking the New York boroughs of Manhattan and Queens, opened.
• 1945   The Soviet Union invaded Austria during World War II.
• 1964   The game show Jeopardy debuted on television.
• 
  1981   U.S. President Ronald Reagan was shot in the chest by a would-be assassin as the President walked to his limousine in Washington DC. Press Secretary James Brady and two police officers were also wounded in the attack. John W. Hinkley, Jr. was convicted of the crime.
• 1986   Actor James Cagney died at age 86.
• 1995   Pope John Paul II issued the 11th encyclical of his papacy in which he condemned abortion and euthanasia as crimes that no human laws could legitimize.
• 1998   German automaker BMW bought Rolls-Royce for $570 million.
• 1999   A jury in Portland, Ore., ordered Philip Morris to pay $81 million to the family of a man who died of lung cancer after smoking Marlboros for four decades.
• 2002   The Queen Mother Elizabeth of England died at the age of 101.

Happy Birthday To

• 1853   Vincent van Gogh (post-impressionist artist: The Potato Eaters, Sunflowers, The Night Cafe; died July 29, 1890)
• 1929   Richard Dysart (actor: L.A. Law, Wall Street, Back to the Future 3, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, The Day of the Locust, Pale Rider, The Terminal Man, Wall Street)
• 1930   John Astin (actor: The Addams Family, The Pruitts of Southampton, Operation Petticoat, Night Court, I’m Dickens, He’s Fenster, The Adventures of Brisco County Jr., National Lampoon’s European Vacation)
• 1930   Peter Marshall (Pierre LaCock) (TV host: Hollywood Squares)
• 1937   Warren Beatty (Henry Warren Beaty) (actor: Splendor in the Grass, The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone, Bonnie and Clyde, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, The Parallax View, Shampoo, Heaven Can Wait, Reds, Dick Tracy, Bulworth, Town and Country; Academy Award-winning director: Reds [1981]; Heaven Can Wait, Dick Tracy, Bulworth; Irving G. Thalberg Memorial [Academy] Award [2000])
• 1945   Eric Clapton (Eric Patrick Clapp) (rock guitarist: group: Yardbirds: For Your Love; song writer: Layla, score for The Hit; Grammy Award- winning singer: Bad Love [1990], LPs: Tears from Heaven and Unplugged [1993], I Shot the Sheriff, Lay Down Sally, Promises, I Can’t Stand It, Wonderful Tonight)