Today in history

Today’s highlight in history:

On March 18, 1940, Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini met at the Brenner Pass, where the Italian dictator agreed to join Germany’s war against France and Britain.

On this date:

In 1766, Britain repealed the Stamp Act of 1765.

In 1922, Mohandas K. Gandhi was sentenced in India to six years’ imprisonment for civil disobedience. (He was released after serving two years.)

In 1925, the Tri-State Tornado struck southeastern Missouri, southern Illinois and southwestern Indiana, resulting in some 700 deaths.

In 1937, in America’s worst school disaster, nearly 300 people, most of them children, were killed in a natural gas explosion at the New London Consolidated School in Rusk County, Texas.

In 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order authorizing the War Relocation Authority, which was put in charge of interning Japanese-Americans, with Milton S. Eisenhower (the younger brother of Dwight D. Eisenhower) as its director.

In 1963, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Gideon v. Wainwright, ruled unanimously that state courts were required to provide legal counsel to criminal defendants who could not afford to hire an attorney on their own.

In 1965, the first spacewalk took place as Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov went outside his Voskhod 2 capsule, secured by a tether.

In 1974, most of the Arab oil-producing nations ended their 5-month-old embargo against the United States that had been sparked by American support for Israel in the Yom Kippur War.

In 2002, Brittanie Cecil died two days short of her 14th birthday after being hit in the head by a puck at a game between the host Columbus Blue Jackets and Calgary Flames; it was apparently the first such fan fatality in NHL history.

Friday, March 17, the 76th day of 2023. There are 289 days left in the year. This is St. Patrick’s Day.

Today’s highlight in history:

On March 17, 1969, Golda Meir became prime minister of Israel.

On this date:

In 1762, New York held its first St. Patrick’s Day parade.

In 1776, the Revolutionary War Siege of Boston ended as British forces evacuated the city.

In 1905, Anna Eleanor Roosevelt married Franklin Delano Roosevelt in New York.

In 1941, the National Gallery of Art opened in Washington, D.C.

In 1942, six days after departing the Philippines during World War II, Gen. Douglas MacArthur arrived in Australia to become supreme commander of Allied forces in the southwest Pacific theater.

In 1950, scientists at the University of California at Berkeley announced they had created a new radioactive element, “californium.”

In 1966, a U.S. Navy midget submarine located a missing hydrogen bomb that had fallen from a U.S. Air Force B-52 bomber into the Mediterranean off Spain. (It took several more weeks to actually recover the bomb.)

In 1970, the United States cast its first veto in the U.N. Security Council, killing a resolution that would have condemned Britain for failing to use force to overthrow the white-ruled government of Rhodesia.

In 2003, edging to the brink of war, President George W. Bush gave Saddam Hussein 48 hours to leave his country. Iraq rejected Bush’s ultimatum, saying that a U.S. attack to force Saddam from power would be “a grave mistake.”

In 2010, Michael Jordan became the first ex-player to become a majority owner in the NBA as the league’s Board of Governors unanimously approved Jordan’s $275 million bid to buy the Charlotte Bobcats from Bob Johnson.

In 2016, finally bowing to years of public pressure, SeaWorld Entertainment said it would no longer breed killer whales or make them perform crowd-pleasing tricks.

In 2020, the Kentucky Derby and the French Open were each postponed from May to September because of the coronavirus.

Ten years ago: Two members of Steubenville, Ohio’s celebrated high school football team were found guilty of raping a drunken 16-year-old girl and sentenced to at least a year in juvenile prison in a case that rocked the Rust Belt city of 18,000. Former Oklahoma quarterback Steve Davis, 60, who led the Sooners to back-to-back national championships in the 1970s, was killed in a private plane crash in northern Indiana. Louisville earned the top overall seed in the NCAA tournament after a topsy-turvy season in college basketball.

Five years ago: Superstore company Fred Meyer announced that it would stop selling guns and ammunition; in the aftermath of the Florida high school shooting, the company had earlier said it would stop selling firearms to anyone under 21. Russia said it was expelling 23 British diplomats in a growing diplomatic dispute over a nerve agent attack on a former spy in Britain.

One year ago: Rescuers searched for survivors in the ruins of a theater blown apart by a Russian airstrike in the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol, while ferocious bombardment left dozens dead in a northern city. U.S. Olympic figure skater Alysa Liu and her father Arthur Liu – a former political refugee – were among those targeted in a spying operation that the Justice Department alleged was ordered by the Chinese government. St. Patrick’s Day parades across the U.S., including the largest in New York City, resumed after a pandemic-driven hiatus.

Today’s Birthdays: The former national chairwoman of the NAACP, Myrlie Evers-Williams, is 90. Former astronaut Ken Mattingly is 87. Singer-songwriter John Sebastian (The Lovin’ Spoonful) is 79. Former NSA Director and former CIA Director Michael Hayden is 78. Rock musician Harold Brown (War; Lowrider Band) is 77. Actor Patrick Duffy is 74. Actor Kurt Russell is 72. Country singer Susie Allanson is 71. Actor Lesley-Anne Down is 69. Actor Mark Boone Jr. is 68. Country singer Paul Overstreet is 68. Actor Gary Sinise is 68. Actor Christian Clemenson is 65. Former basketball and baseball player Danny Ainge is 64. Actor Arye Gross is 63. Actor Vicki Lewis is 63. Actor Casey Siemaszko (sheh-MA’-zshko) is 62. Writer-director Rob Sitch is 61. Actor Rob Lowe is 59. Rock singer Billy Corgan is 56. Actor Mathew St. Patrick is 55. Actor Yanic (YAH’-neek) Truesdale is 54. Rock musician Melissa Auf der Maur is 51. Olympic gold medal soccer player Mia Hamm is 51. Rock musician Caroline Corr (The Corrs) is 50. Actor Amelia Heinle is 50. Country singer Keifer Thompson (Thompson Square) is 50. Actor Marisa Coughlan is 49. Actor Natalie Zea is 48. Sports reporter Tracy Wolfson is 48. Actor Brittany Daniel is 47. Singer and TV personality Tamar Braxton is 46. Country musician Geoff Sprung (Old Dominion) is 45. Reggaeton singer Nicky Jam is 42. TV personality Rob Kardashian is 36. Pop/rock singer-songwriter Hozier is 33. Actor Eliza Hope Bennett is 31. Actor John Boyega is 31. Olympic gold medal swimmer Katie Ledecky is 26. Actor Flynn Morrison is 18.