Today in History

Today in History

The Asso­ci­ated Press

Today is Fri­day, March 23, the 83rd day of 2012. There are 283 days left in the year.

Today’s High­light in History:

On March 23, 2011, Acad­emy Award-winning actress Eliz­a­beth Tay­lor, the violet-eyed film god­dess whose sul­try screen per­sona, stormy per­sonal life and endur­ing fame and glam­our made her one of the last of the clas­sic movie stars, died in Los Ange­les of con­ges­tive heart fail­ure at age 79.

On this date:

In 1775, Patrick Henry deliv­ered an address to the Vir­ginia Provin­cial Con­ven­tion in which he is said to have declared, “Give me lib­erty, or give me death!”

In 1792, Joseph Haydn’s Sym­phony No. 94 in G Major (the “Sur­prise” sym­phony) had its first pub­lic per­for­mance in London.

In 1806, explor­ers Meri­wether Lewis and William Clark, hav­ing reached the Pacific coast, began their jour­ney back east.

In 1912, Wern­her von Braun, the sci­en­tist who helped develop the V-2 com­bat rocket for the Nazis and the Sat­urn V booster rocket for NASA, was born in Wirsitz, Germany.

In 1919, Ben­ito Mus­solini founded his Fas­cist polit­i­cal move­ment in Milan, Italy.

In 1933, the Ger­man Reich­stag adopted the Enabling Act, which effec­tively granted Adolf Hitler dic­ta­to­r­ial powers.

In 1942, the first Japanese-Americans evac­u­ated by the U.S. Army dur­ing World War II arrived at the intern­ment camp in Man­za­nar, Calif.

In 1956, Pak­istan became an Islamic republic.

In 1965, America’s first two-person space flight began as Gem­ini 3 blasted off with astro­nauts Vir­gil I. Gris­som and John W. Young aboard for a nearly five-hour flight.

In 1983, Pres­i­dent Ronald Rea­gan first pro­posed devel­op­ing tech­nol­ogy to inter­cept incom­ing enemy mis­siles — an idea that came to be known as the Strate­gic Defense Ini­tia­tive. Dr. Bar­ney Clark, recip­i­ent of a Jarvik per­ma­nent arti­fi­cial heart, died at the Uni­ver­sity of Utah Med­ical Cen­ter after 112 days with the device.

In 1994, Luis Don­aldo Colo­sio, Mexico’s lead­ing pres­i­den­tial can­di­date, was assas­si­nated in Tijuana. Wayne Gret­zky broke Gordie Howe’s National Hockey League career record with his 802nd goal.

In 2010, Pres­i­dent Barack Obama signed a $938 bil­lion health care over­haul, declar­ing “a new sea­son in America.”

Ten years ago: Pres­i­dent George W. Bush, dur­ing a visit to South Amer­ica, pledged coop­er­a­tion with Peru in the fight against ter­ror­ism. Girls in Afghanistan cel­e­brated their return to school for the first time in years. Irina Slut­skaya cap­tured her first world title, defeat­ing four-time cham­pion Michelle Kwan at the World Fig­ure Skat­ing Cham­pi­onships in Nagano, Japan. Opera and pop singer Eileen Far­rell died in Park Ridge, N.J. at age 82.

Five years ago: The House voted for the first time to clamp a cut­off dead­line on the Iraq war, agree­ing by a thin mar­gin to pull com­bat troops out by late 2008. Iran­ian forces cap­tured 15 British sailors and marines who were search­ing a mer­chant ship in the dis­puted Shatt Al-Arab water­way Per­sian Gulf; they were held for 13 days. Miss Ten­nessee Rachel Smith was crowned Miss USA at the pageant in Los Angeles.

One year ago: NATO ships began patrolling off Libya’s coast as airstrikes, mis­siles and ener­gized rebels forced Moam­mar Gadhafi’s tanks to roll back from two key west­ern cities. A blast blamed on Pales­tin­ian mil­i­tants ripped through a bus stop in Jerusalem, killing Mary Jean Gard­ner, a 59-year-old British tourist and wound­ing two dozen other peo­ple, includ­ing five Amer­i­cans. Army Spc. Jeremy Mor­lock pleaded guilty at his court-martial at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Wash­ing­ton state to the mur­ders of three unarmed Afghan civil­ians (he was sen­tenced to 24 years in prison).

Today’s Birth­days: Come­dian Marty Allen is 90. Sir Roger Ban­nis­ter, the run­ner who broke the 4-minute mile in 1954, is 83. Movie direc­tor Mark Rydell is 78. Motor­sports Hall of Famer Craig Breedlove is 75. Singer-producer Ric Ocasek is 63. Singer Chaka Khan is 59. Actress Amanda Plum­mer is 55. Actress Cather­ine Keener is 53. Actress Hope Davis is 48. Come­dian John Pinette is 48. Actor Richard Grieco is 47. Coun­try musi­cian Kevin Grif­fin (Yan­kee Grey) is 47. Actress Marin Hin­kle is 46. Rock singer-musician Damon Albarn (Blur) is 44. Actress-singer Melissa Errico is 42. Rock musi­cian John Humphrey (The Nixons) is 42. Actress Michelle Mon­aghan is 36. Actress Keri Rus­sell is 36. Gos­sip columnist-blogger Perez Hilton is 34. Actress Nicholle Tom is 34. Coun­try singer Paul Mar­tin (Mar­shall Dyl­lon) is 34.

Thought for Today: “When peo­ple say, ‘She’s got every­thing,’ I’ve got one answer — I haven’t had tomor­row.” — Eliz­a­beth Tay­lor (1932–2011).

Posted by AP News on Mar 23 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.