Thursday, March 24, 2005

Thursday, March 24

This Day In History

  • 1765   Britain enacted the Quartering Act, requiring American colonists to provide temporary housing to British soldiers
  • 1882   Professor Robert Koch announced the discovery of the tuberculosis germ -- in Berlin, Germany.
  • 1932   Belle Baker hosted a radio variety show from a moving train ... a first for radio broadcasting. The program originated from a Baltimore and Ohio train that chugged its way around the New York area. The broadcast was heard on WABC in New York City.
  • 1935   After a year as a local show from New York City, "Major Bowes’ Original Amateur Hour" was heard on the entire NBC radio network. The show stayed on the air for 17 years. Later, Ted Mack took over for Bowes and made the move from radio to television.
  • 1944   In occupied Rome, the Nazis executed more than 300 civilians in reprisal for an attack by Italian partisans the day before that killed 32 German soldiers.
  • 1958   Elvis Presley reported to local draft board 86 in Memphis, TN. He became US 53310761. Oddly, since Elvis was now ‘government property’ serving his time in the Army, Uncle Sam stood to lose an estimated $500,000 in lost taxes each year that Private Presley was in the Army.
  • 1989   At four minutes past midnight, the Exxon Valdez, a 987-foot supertanker loaded with 1,264,155 barrels of North Slope crude oil, ran aground on Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound, Alaska.
  • 1995   The House of Representatives passed a welfare reform package calling for the most profound changes in social programs since the New Deal.
  • 1999   NATO begins launching air strikes in an attempt to force Serbia to cease hostilities against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.
Happy Birthday To
  • 1874   Harry Houdini (magician: the great Houdini, escape artist; died Oct 31, 1926)

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