March 23
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Events on This Day
1743 - It was the first London performance of Handel’s Messiah, and King King George II was in the audience. In the middle of the Hallelujah Chorus, the King rose to his feet in appreciation of the great piece! The entire audience followed suit out of respect for the King. And so began the custom of standing during the singing of the Hallelujah Chorus.1794 - Josiah G. Pierson patented a rivet machine. Rivet at home with a hand-held gizmo perfect for pocket or purse that lets you rivet buttons, snaps and other do-dads on clothes. Makes a perfect gift!
1858 - Eleazer A. Gardner of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania received two special awards: 1) For having the courage to stick with the name Eleazer and 2) for patenting the cable street car. Not the cable car that made San Francisco so popular, but the street car that runs on overhead cables in some cities -- like Philadelphia.
1861 - John D. Defrees became the first Superintendent of the United States Government Printing Office. He, however, received no special holiday in his honor. Go figure.
1880 - John Stevens of Neenah, WI patented the device which was called a grain crushing mill. The machine allowed flour production to increase by 70 percent and to sell for $2 more per barrel.
1903 - The Wright brothers applied for patents for their flight control system. They knew they had solved the problem of manned flight, and at this point the brothers became very secretive about their work.
1917 - A four-day series of tornadoes killed 211 people in Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois.
1918 - The giant German Paris Gun, shelled Paris from 75 miles away.
1925 - An evolution law, enacted on this day in the great State of Tennessee, made it a crime for a teacher in any state-supported public school or college to teach any theory that contradicted the Bible’s account of man’s creation. Within two months, a Dayton, Tennessee high school science teacher, John T. Scopes was indicted, and later convicted, in the famous ‘Monkey Trial’ for teaching his students the theory of evolution; that man descended from a lower order of animals ... or monkeys. Scopes was fined $100. Defense Attorney Clarence Darrow stated that this was “the first case of its kind since we stopped trying people for witchcraft.”
1933 - The German Reichstag adopted the Enabling Act, which effectively granted Adolf Hitler dictatorial legislative powers.
1940 - Truth or Consequences was first heard on radio. The Ralph Edwards-produced program was hosted by Mr. Edwards before he discovered a young announcer named Bob Barker. Barker also was the show’s host on television more than a decade later. The radio show was originally heard on only four CBS stations. Later, NBC picked up the show where it eventually became the most popular of all radio quiz shows.
1944 - Nicholas Alkemade fell 18,000 feet without a parachute and lived. Nicholas was the tail gunner in a British Lancaster bomber on a night mission to Berlin. His plane was attacked by German fighters. When the captain ordered the crew to bail out, Alkemade discovered that his parachute was in flames. He chose to jump without the parachute rather than to stay in the burning plane. He fell 5,486 meters, landing in trees, underbrush, and drifted snow. He twisted his knee and had some cuts, but was otherwise alright.
1945 - In the largest single operation in the Pacific war, 1,500 U.S. Navy ships, with British support, begin bombarding Okinawa. The shelling was in preparation for the invasion nine days later.
1948 - John Cunningham set a world altitude record of 59,446 ft (18,119 meters).
1950 - Beat the Clock, starring radio’s original Superman, Bud Collyer, premiered on CBS-TV. A lady named Roxanne was Collyer’s assistant from 1950 to 1955. Beverly Bentley was the clock-beater’s assistant from 1955 through the last show on February 16, 1958. It was another one of those Mark Goodsen and Bill Todman productions.
1950 - And the Oscar for Best Actor goes to... Broderick Crawford for his portrayal of corrupt politician Willie Stark in All the King’s Men. Thus we recall the 22nd Academy Awards, held at the RKO Pantages Theater in Los Angeles. The host for the evening, actor Paul Douglas, helped Hollywood pat itself on the back, as they celebrated the films of 1949. All the King’s Men also won the Academy Award for Best Picture (Robert Rossen, producer) and the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress (Mercedes McCambridge). Other winners this night included Best Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz for Letter to Three Wives, Best Actress: Olivia de Havilland for The Heiress and Best Supporting Actor: Dean Jagger for Twelve O’Clock High. On a musical note, the Best Music/Song Oscar was awarded to Frank Loesser for Baby, It’s Cold Outside from Neptune’s Daughter. And who did Broderick Crawford beat out for the Best Actor prize? Kirk Douglas, Richard Todd, John Wayne and Gregory Peck.
1956 - Pakistan became an independent republic within the British Commonwealth. The partition of Pakistan and India along religious lines resulted in the largest migration in human history: 17 million people fled across the borders in both directions to escape the sectarian violence accompanying the partition.
1963 - An indoor pole vault record was set by John Pennel in Memphis, TN. He cleared 16 feet, 3 inches.
1963 - Surfin’ USA, by the Beach Boys, was released. It was a note-for-note copy of Chuck Berry’s Sweet Little Sixteen with new lyrics. The sole author of Surfin’ USA was listed as Brian Wilson. Berry’s publisher later sued and won the writing credit on later releases of the song.
1965 - Astronaut John Young became the first man to eat a corned beef sandwich in outer space. When it comes to events of progress, we will certainly add this to the record book, now won’t we? ...along with that golf club stunt of Alan Shepard’s from the surface of the moon years later. Young smuggled the sandwich on board in order to supplement the astronauts’ meals of dehydrated foods, including powdered fruit juice (Tang).
1966 - The Archbishop of Canterbury met at the Vatican with Pope Paul VI. It was the first meeting between Anglican and Catholic leaders since Henry VIII broke with Rome more than 400 years earlier.
1972 - New York Yankees baseball officials announced plans to keep the Yankees in the nation’s largest city. Plans were also revealed concerning a major renovation of Yankee Stadium. While work was underway at ‘The House that Ruth Built’, the Bronx Bombers shared tenancy with the cross-town New York Mets in Flushing, New York at Shea Stadium. New Yorkers also got one other bonus from the announced plans: George Steinbrenner.
1973 - Concentration, the longest-running NBC-TV game show, left the air after 15 years. The show was hosted by Hugh Downs from 1958–1969, by Bob Clayton from 1969-1973, and Ed McMahon did the honors for a few months in 1969.
1974 - Cher reached the top of the music charts as Dark Lady reached the #1 spot for a one-week stay. Other artists who shared the pop music spotlight during that time included: Terry Jacks, John Denver, Blue Swede, Elton John and MFSB.
1978 - A&M records signed The Police after Miles Copeland, the group’s manager, had played the song Roxanne for the company’s executives. Roxanne became the group’s first North American hit, after already hitting the charts in Great Britain.
1981 - CBS Television announced plans to reduce Captain Kangaroo to a 30-minute show each weekday morning. The reason, according to network brass, was to allow more time for its morning news programming. This move proved to be a huge mistake. The CBS Morning News was the weakest morning news program on the air, against NBC’s Today and ABC’s Good Morning America. The show was a ratings disaster that went through many changes and complete makeovers in an effort to find an audience. Secret plans to use Mr. Moose, Bunny Rabbit, Grandfather Clock and Mr. Green Jeans on the Morning News did not, however, become reality -- although former Miss America, Phyllis George, was a reality on the program.
1985 - Singer Billy Joel married supermodel Christie Brinkley in private ceremonies held in New York City. (They were divorced Aug 25, 1994.)
1985 - We Are the World, by USA for Africa, a group of 46 pop stars, entered the music charts for the first time at number 21.
1986 - Martina Navratilova defeated Hana Mandlíková to win the Virginia Slims Championship. It was the first women’s tournament to go four sets since 1901.
1989 - Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann, Univ. of Utah scientists, announced that they had produced atomic fusion at room temperature.
1990 - Former Exxon Valdez Captain Joseph Hazelwood was ordered by a judge in Anchorage, AK to help clean up Prince William Sound and pay $50,000 in restitution for his role in the 1989 oil spill of one year earlier.
1993 - Scientists announced that they had found the renegade gene that causes Huntington’s disease.
1994 - Wayne Gretzky broke Gordie Howe’s National Hockey League career record with his 802nd goal.
1994 - A Russian Airbus A-310 crashed in Siberia killing 70 people. Investigators eventually blamed the crash on the pilot’s teenage son who had inadvertently disconnected the jet’s autopilot.
1996 - Taiwan held its first direct presidential elections; incumbent Lee Teng-hui was the landslide victor.
1998 - The movie, Titanic, won a record-tying 11 Oscars at the 70th Annual Academy Awards (tying the number of awards won by Ben-Hur in 1959). Comedian/actor Billy Crystal kept the crowd at the Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, and the millions watching on TV, in stitches as Titanic (James Cameron, Jon Landau, producers) won (big breath now): Best Picture; Best Director (James Cameron); Best Cinematography (Russell Carpenter); Best Art Direction-Set Decoration (Peter Lamont [art director], Michael Ford [set decorator]); Best Costume Design (Deborah Lynn Scott ); Best Sound (Gary Rydstrom, Tom Johnson, Gary Summers, Mark Ulano); Best Film Editing (Conrad Buff IV, James Cameron, Richard A. Harris); Best Effects/Sound Effects Editing (Tom Bellfort, Christopher Boyes); Best Effects/Visual Effects (Robert Legato, Mark A. Lasoff, Thomas L. Fisher, Michael Kanfer); Best Music/Original Dramatic Score (James Horner); and Best Music/Song (James Horner (music) and Will Jennings (lyrics) for My Heart Will Go On, performed by Céline Dion). Not a bad return for a measly investment of $200 million. And yes, Virginia, there were other winners: Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt took top acting honors as the misanthropic writer and the waitress who softens his heart in As Good as it Gets. The Best Supporting Actor Oscar went to Robin Williams for Good Will Hunting and Best Supporting Actress was Kim Basinger for her L.A. Confidential part (Lynn Bracken: “Merry Christmas to you, officer.”) We’re running a little late, so good night all...
1998 - Bertelsmann AG agreed to purchase Random House, Inc., the world's largest English-language general-interest trade book publisher, for some $1.6 billion.
1999 - The Senate voted to support U.S. participation in a NATO bombing of Serbia as NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana gave the formal go-ahead for airstrikes against Serbian targets following the failure of Kosovo peace talks.
2000 - The 776-foot Greek cargo ship, Leader L, sank in the Atlantic 400 miles off Bermuda. 31 Filipino crew members were forced into life boats. 13 men were rescued by Canadian helicopters. Six bodies were found. Twelve people were presumed dead as the ship pulled down one life raft.
2001 - These motion pictures opened in U.S. theatres: A comedy, drama The Brothers, starring Morris Chestnut, Bill Bellamy and D.L. Hughley; and the romantic comedy, Say It Isn’t So, with Heather Graham, Chris Klein, Sally Field and Richard Jenkins.
2001 - Russia’s orbiting Mir space station ended its 15-year earth orbit with a fiery plunge into the South Pacific.
2002 - Opera and pop soprano Eileen Farrell died in New Jersey. She was 82 years old.
2002 - Irina Slutskaya won her first world title, defeating four-time champion Michelle Kwan at the World Figure Skating Championships in Nagano, Japan.
2003 – This was an unusual Oscar night in Hollywood. The stars arrived at the Kodak Theatre for the 75th Academy Awards ceremony; but there was no “red-carpet” with cheering fans – no on-the-spot Joan Rivers interviews. The specter of war in Iraq and a somber mood primarily dressed in black hung over the brightly-lighted seating area. But the show must go on! And so it did with Steve Martin lifting the mood as only the funny man can do. There were several surprises on this Sunday evening. Chicago with 13 nominations didn’t make a clean sweep. It won just six of the gold statuettes including best Supporting Actress (Kathryn Zeta-Jones) and the big award of the evening for best Picture (also, Art & Set Direction: John Myhre, Gordon Sim; Costume Design: Colleen Atwood; Film Editing: Martin Walsh; best Sound: Michael Minkler, Dominick Tavella, David Lee). The big loser of the night was Gangs of New York, with 10 nominations and 0 wins. The Hours with nine nominations scraped by with one biggie: Nicole Kidman as best Actress in a Leading Role. The Oscar for best Supporting actor went to Chris Cooper for his role in Adaptation, while Ronald Harwood was honored for the best Adaptation of a Script, for his screenplay of The Pianist. The upset victory of the night went to Adrien Brody for his performance in The Pianist. Who can forget the kiss Mr. Brody planted on the beautiful Halle Berry as she presented him with the award! Accepting the award for best Director (The Pianist) was also slightly out of the ordinary, even for Hollywood. Roman Polanski, a fugitive from the U.S. legal system, stayed in Europe to accept the honor from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Not so unusual for Hollywood, the award for best Documentary Feature went to Michael Donovan and Michael Moore for Bowling for Columbine with Moore accepting with a verbal attack on the Iraq War and U.S. President Bush. About 1,500 journalists and more than 3,400 guests and millions more watched this Academy Awards ceremony on TV. They applauded and cried and booed.
2005 - U.S. President George Bush (II), Mexican President Vicente Fox, and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin, at a one-day summit in Texas, signed a deal that provides for sweeping co-operation between Canada, Mexico and the U.S. on security, economic and health issues.
2006 - Pope Benedict XVI convened the College of Cardinals for the first time since his election in 2005. Before adding 15 new members to their ranks, the Pope invited college members to share their concerns about the challenges facing the Catholic Church.
2006 - Mike Horn (39) of South Africa and Borge Ousland (43) of Norway completed a 620-mile trek without outside supplies or help from dog sleds to the North Pole. The trip took 60 days, five hours, and included walking, skiing, climbing and swimming across ice openings.
2007 - New movies in the U.S.: The Hills Have Eyes 2, starring Jessica Stroup, Reshad Strik, Michael McMillian, Daniella Alonso, Lee Thompson Young, Ben Crowley, Eric Edelstein, Michael Bailey Smith, David Reynolds, Derek Mears, Tyrell Kemlo, Javier Nieto, Gáspár Szabó, Jeff Kober, Jay Acovone, Archie Kao and Philip Pavel; The Last Mimzy, with Joely Richardson, Timothy Hutton, Michael Clark Duncan, Rhiannon Leigh, Chris O'Neil and Rainn Wilson; Pride, with Terrence Howard, Bernie Mac, Tom Arnold, Regine Nehy and Kevin Phillips; Reign Over Me, starring Adam Sandler, Don Cheadle, Jada Pinkett Smith, Liv Tyler, Safforn Burrows, Cicely Tyson, Robert Klein, Melinda Dillon, Mike Binder and Ted Raimi; Shooter, with Mark Wahlberg, Michael Peña, Danny Glover, Kate Mara, Elias Koteas, Rhona Mitra, Rade Sherbedgia and Ned Beatty; and TMNT, starring Patrick Stewart, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Chris Evans, Ziyi Zhang, Kevin Smith, Mako, James Arnold Taylor, Mikey Kelley, Mitchell Whitfield and Nolan North.
2007 - The aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy was decommissioned in Florida after nearly 40 years of service.
2007 - The U.S. House of Representatives voted to create a cutoff deadline for the Iraq war, ordering the withdrawl of combat troops out by Aug 31, 2008. President George Bush (II) vetoed the legislation.
2008 - South Korea’s Hyundai Motors said it would begin mass producing hybrid cars in 2009 amid growing demand for fuel-efficient and environmentally friendly vehicles.
2009 - Canada’s No.2 oil company, Suncor Energy Inc, bought rival Petro-Canada for C$18.43 billion ($14.86 billion) -- to expand its oil sand reserves and create the Canada’s biggest energy group.
2009 - A U.S. judge ordered the FDA to allow sales of the morning-after pill to women 17 and older without a prescription.
2010 - U.S. President Barack Obama signed the $938 billion Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The law guaranteed health care coverage for 32 million uninsured Americans and its signing capped a divisive, yearlong debate. Republican legislators in more than 3 dozen states sought to challenge the bill contending that it would infringe on state sovereignty and individual freedoms. The bill included a 2.3% excise tax on medical devices set to begin in 2013.
2011 - Film superstar Elizabeth Taylor died in Los Angeles at 79 years of age. Taylor’s striking beauty led her through a film career that spanned five decades, beginning with National Velvet in 1944. Other Taylor films included Father of the Bride (1950), A Place in the Sun (1951), Giant (1956), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) and Suddenly, Last Summer (1959). She won the Academy Award for Best Actress in BUtterfield 8 (1960), played the title role in Cleopatra (1963), and married her co-star Richard Burton. They appeared together in 11 films, including Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), for which Taylor won a second Academy Award. Her much-publicized personal life included eight marriages and several life-threatening illnesses. She championed HIV and AIDS programs, and co-founded the American Foundation for AIDS Research in 1985, and the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation in 1993. Elizabeth Taylor died of Taylor died of congestive heart failure after having suffered many years of ill health.
2011 - Japan said the cost of rebuilding the country after its biggest recorded earthquake and the devistating tsunami that followed could be as much as 25 trillion yen ($309 billion).
2012 - New movies in the U.S.: The Hunger Games, starring Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Elizabeth Banks, Woody Harrelson, Isabelle Fuhrman and Alexander Ludwig; 4:44 Last Day on Earth, starring Willem Dafoe, Paz de la Huerta, Natasha Lyonne, Paul Hipp, Thomas Michael Sullivan, Shanyn Leigh, Anthony Perullo and Selena Mars; Brake, with Stephen Dorff, Chyler Leigh, JR Bourne, Tom Berenger, Bobby Tomberlin, Kali Rocha, King Orba and Pruitt Taylor Vince; The Trouble With Bliss, starring Michael C. Hall, Lucy Liu, Sarah Shahi, Brie Larson, Peter Fonda and Rhea Perlman; and The Deep Blue Sea, with Rachel Weisz, Tom Hiddleston, Simon Russell Beale, Karl Johnson and Ann Mitchell.
2012 - U.S. border patrol agents found 13 pounds of methamphetamine in the gas tank of a car being towed through a checkpoint in Temecula, California. Drug confiscations for the week at the Interstate 15 checkpoint totaled 51 pounds worth $1,000,000.
2012 - Australian police broke up a child porn ring and arrested 14 men, including some fathers. Hundreds of thousands of images and videos were seized, some depicting toddlers. Police raided more than a dozen properties across the country after a tip from Interpol, which linked the men to a child exploitation network in Germany.
2014 - France released satellite data showing possible debris from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, missing since March 8, as searchers continued combing a remote part of the southern Indian Ocean. Searchers eventually ruled out the debris as having come from the missing jetliner.
2015 - Utah Governor Gary Herbert signed a law that brought back the firing squad. Utah was the only state to use the firing squad after the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.
2016 - A Los Angeles plea agreement saw Chinese national Su Bin (50) plead guilty to stealing trade secrets, including plans for transport planes and fighter jets. This, while he operated an aviation and aerospace company in Canada from 2008-2014. Su Bin admitted to conspiring with two unnamed persons in China to try to acquire plans for U.S. F-22 and F-35 fighter jets and C-17 transport aircraft. He was sentenced in July 2016 four years in prison.
2016 - Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo said Warsaw would not take in its share of migrants under a European Union plan because of the jihadist attacks that killed 31 people in Brussels.
2016 - North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory signed a law that blocked local governments from passing antidiscrimination rules and required transgender students to use bathrooms assigned to their biological sex.
2017 - A 6,800-ton South Korean ferry was hoisted to the surface nearly three years after it capsized and sank in violent seas off the country's southwestern coast. 304 people -- almost all school children -- died when the Sewol sank on April 16, 2014.
2017 - Andrea Cristea, 31, was the fifth person to die after Khalid Masood drove his car into a crowd of people on Westminster Bridge in London on March 22. Critea was rescued from the cold water after the attack, but Scotland Yard confirmed the woman was taken off life support. Thousands of people gathered in Trafalgar Square on this day in a show of solidarity for the victims of the attack.
2018 - Movies opening in the U.S. included: Midnight Sun, starring Bella Thorne, Patrick Schwarzenegger and Rob Riggle; Pacific Rim: Uprising with Scott Eastwood, Adria Arjona and Tian Jing; Paul, Apostle of Christ, starring James Faulkner, Jim Caviezel and Joanne Whalley; the animated Sherlock Gnomes, featuring the voices of Emily Blunt, Johnny Depp, James McAvoy, Maggie Smith, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Caine, Stephen Merchant and Mary J. Blige; and Isle of Dogs, with voicing by Bryan Cranston, Koyu Rankin, Edward Norton, Liev Schreiber, Greta Gerwig, Bill Murray, Jeff Goldblum, Bob Balaban and Scarlett Johansson; Unsane, with Claire Foy, Joshua Leonard and Jay Pharoah; Followers, starring Amanda Delaney, Justin Maina and Sean Michael Gloria; and I Kill Giants, with Zoe Saldana, Imogen Poots and Jennifer Ehle.
2018 - The U.S. Senate approved a $1.3 trillion spending bill in a 65-32 vote. The House had approved the measure, 256-167. And POTUS Trump signed the bill. The Taylor Force Act, named after an American killed in Israel by a Palestinian in 2016, was folded into the spending bill. It suspends U.S. financial aid to the Palestinian Authority until the PA changes its laws to cease paying stipends funneled through the Palestinian Authority Martyr’s Fund to (1)individuals who commit acts of terrorism and (2)to the families of deceased terrorists.
2019 - Pope Francis accepted the resignation of 77-year-old Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati as archbishop of Santiago, the highest-ranking member of the Catholic Church in Chile. A man had filed a $500,000 lawsuit against Ezzati and the Archdiocese of Santiago claiming that in 2015 he had been raped in a bedroom attached to the cathedral and that Ezzati had bribed him to keep silent.
2019 - A 16-year-old student at the Parkland, Florida high school (Marjory Stoneman Douglas High), where 17 people were killed in a 2018 mass shooting, took his own life. The death came a week after another Parkland shooting survivor, 19-year-old Sydney Aiello, died by suicide. Aiello’s mother said that her daughter struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder and survivor’s guilt in the year after the shooting that left 17 people dead. Aiello had been a friend of Meadow Pollack, one of the students killed in the attack.
2020 - COVID-19 news: 1)The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said traces of the coronavirus remained inside cabins of the Diamond Princess for more than two weeks after the cruise ship was vacated. 2)Ford Motor Co temporarily halted vehicle and engine production at its factories in India, South Africa, Thailand and Vietnam in response to the growing impact of the coronavirus. 3)Australia’s parliament rushed through more than A$80 billion ($46.3 billion) in fiscal stimulus for the coronavirus-stricken economy at a special sitting in Canberra. 4)Austria mobilized its military reservists for the first time since World War Two, asking them to fight the coronavirus outbreak by helping with food supplies, medical support and police operations. Austria has reported nearly 4,000 cases with 21 deaths so far. 5)Prime Minister Boris Johnson brought Britain into alignment with lockdowns across Europe, closing all nonessential shops and requiring people to stay in their homes, except for trips for food or medicine. 6)Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe suggested that the Summer Olympics in Tokyo might be postponed, hours after Canada and Australia threatened to boycott the Games. 7)Norway's foreign ministry said the UN will create a fund to support the treatment of coronavirus patients worldwide. Almost 340,000 people have been infected by the novel coronavirus across the world and more than 14,500 have died. Almost 340,000 people have been infected by the novel coronavirus across the world and more than 14,500 had died.
2020 - 26-year-old Jerry Drake Varnell was sentenced to 25 years in prison after being convicted of trying to blow up an Oklahoma City bank with a massive vehicle bomb. The FBI had learned that Varnell was planning the attack and an undercover agent posed as someone who could help construct the bomb, but instead provided phony materials.
2021 - Actor George Segal died in Santa Rosa, CA at 87 years of age. He began his career in serious drama but became one of America’s most reliable and familiar comic actors. Most recently he had played "Pops" on the sitcom The Goldbergs.
2021 - Texas health officials said COVID-19 vaccine eligibility would be expanded to all adults. “We are closing in on 10 million doses administered in Texas, and we want to keep up the momentum as the vaccine supply increases,” said Imelda Garcia, chair of the Texas Expert Vaccine Allocation Panel.
2021 - Carissa Etienne, the World Health Organization’s regional director for the Americas, warned that the coronavirus was surging dangerously across Brazil. She urged all Brazilians to adopt preventive measures to stop the spread.
2022 - Madeleine Albright died at 84 years of age. She was a U.S. diplomat and political scientist who served as the 64th United States secretary of state from 1997 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party, Albright was the first woman to hold that post. She played a pivotal role in President Bill Clinton’s administration, originally serving as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations before becoming the nation’s top diplomat.
2022 - Planned Parenthood said billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott had donated $275 million to the women’s healthcare provider. It was the largest gift from a single donor in the organization’s more than 100-year history.
2022 - Anatoly Chubais, architect of Russia’s post-Soviet economic reforms, quit his post as a Kremlin special envoy and left the country due to the war in Ukraine.
2022 - President Biden said that Russia’s intended use of chemical weapons against Ukraine was a real threat. He went to Brussels for emergency talks with European leaders, carrying with him plans for more sanctions that included members of the Russian parliament.
2023 - TikTok CEO Shou Chew testified before Congress as scrutiny mounted over the app’s ties to China -- and its potential risks to U.S. national security. The hearing, which lasted for more than five hours, kicked off with calls from a lawmaker to ban the app in the U.S. Chew used his testimony to stress TikTok’s independence from China and play up its U.S. ties. Numerous members of Congress interrupted his testimony to say they simply did not believe him.
2023 - Amid “unprecedented demand,” the wait time for a U.S. passport was “about 10 to 13 weeks, and for an expedited passport about seven to nine weeks,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken . The State Department was “getting 500,000 applications a week for passports,” which was 30 to 40% more than the previous year. This, after the department had launched a pilot online renewal platform so Americans who already had a passport could renew online. But that program had been halted “to make sure that we can fine-tune it and improve it before we roll it out in a bigger way,” Blinken added.
and more...
Birthdays on This Day March 23
1823 - Schuyler Colfax
17th U.S. Vice President [1869-1873] under Ulysses S. Grant; died Jan 13, 18851900 - Erich Fromm
psychoanalyst: The Method and Function of an Analytic Social Psychology, Psychoanalytic Characterology and Its Relevance for Social Psychology; died Mar 18, 19801904 - Joan Crawford (Lucille Fay LeSueur)
Academy Award-winning actress: Mildred Pierce [1945]; A Woman’s Face, Night Gallery, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane, Above Suspicion, Grand Hotel; died May 10, 19771910 - Akira Kurosawa
film director: Rashomon, The Seven Samurai, Ran, Rhapsody in August, The Idiot, The Bad Sleep Well; died Sep 6, 19981912 - Jeff York
actor: Tammy and the Millionaire, Savage Sam, Old Yeller, The Duel at Silver Creek, Special Agent, Blondie’s Holiday, Terry and the Pirates; died Oct 11, 19951912 - Wernher von Braun
scientist: developer of WWII German V-2 rocket, head of U.S. Army missile team; technological leader of American space program; died June 16, 19771917 - Patricia Burke
actress: Robin Hood: The Movie, Soft Beds, Hard Battles, Strangler’s Web, Marriage of Convenience, The Happiness of Three Women, While I Live; died Nov 23, 20031917 - Johnny Guarnieri
musician: piano: played with Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw; played at the Tail O’ The Cock in LA for a decade; died Jan 7, 19851922 - Marty Allen
comedian: half of Allen & Rossi team, actor: The Naked Face, Murder Can Hurt You, A Whale of a Tale, Allen and Rossi Meet Dracula and Frankenstein, The Christmas Visit; died Feb 12, 20181923 - Arnie Weinmeister
Pro Football Hall of Famer: [defensive tackle]: Univ of Washington; pro: New York Yankees, Brooklyn/New York Giants; played in four Pro Bowls during his career; died June 29, 20001925 - Monique van Vooren
actress: Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein, Ash Wednesday, Sugar Cookies; died Jan 25, 20201928 - Jim (James Robert) Lemon
baseball: Cleveland Indians, Washington Nationals, Washington Senators [all-star: 1960], Minnesota Twins, Chicago White Sox, Philadelphia Phillies; died May 14, 20061929 - Roger Bannister
British track star: broke the 4-minute mile [3:59.4 on May 6, 1954]; physician; died Mar 3, 20181931 - ‘Rocky’ Warren Godfrey
hockey: NHL: Boston Bruins, Detroit Red Wings; died Apr 5, 19971934 - Mark Rydell
movie director: Crime of the Century, Intersection, For the Boys, On Golden Pond, The Rose, The Cowboys, The Fox1937 - Craig Breedlove
rocket car speedster: the first person to travel more than 400mph, more than 500mph and more than 600 mph on land; died April 4, 20231940 - Ted Green
hockey: NHL: Boston Bruins1943 - Lee (Andrew) May
baseball: Cincinnati Reds [all-star: 1969, 1971/World Series: 1970], Houston Astros [all-star: 1972], Baltimore Orioles [World Series: 1979], KC Royals; died Jul 29, 20171944 - George (Charles) ‘Boomer’ Scott
baseball: Boston Red Sox [all-star: 1966, 1977/World Series: 1967], Milwaukee Brewers [all-star: 1975], KC Royals, NY Yankees; died Jul 28, 20131946 - Vic Washington
football: SF 49ers, Houston Oilers, Buffalo Bills; died Dec 31, 20081949 - Ric Ocasek (Richard Otcasek)
musician: guitar, singer: group: The Cars: My Best Friend’s Girl, Just What I Needed, Let’s Go, You Might Think, Magic, Drive, Tonight She Comes; solo: LP: Beatitude; died Sep 15, 20191950 - Phil Lanzon
musician: keyboards: group: Uriah Heep: Gypsy, Come Away, Melinda, High Priestess, Lady in Black, Look at Yourself, July Morning, The Wizard1951 - Ron Jaworski
football: Philadelphia Eagles quarterback: Super Bowl XV; TV sports analyst1953 - Chaka Khan (Yvette Marie Stevens)
singer: Tell Me Something Good [with Rufus], You Got the Love; solo: I Feel for You1955 - Moses Malone
Basketball Hall of Famer: Buffalo Braves, Houston Rockets [single-game playoff record for most offensive rebounds [15: April 21, 1977 vs. Washington], Philadelphia 76ers, Washington Bullets, Atlanta Hawks, Milwaukee Bucks, Washington Bullets, Atlanta Hawks, San Antonio Spurs; NBA MVP: 1979, 1982, 1983; records: most consecutive games without a disqualification [1,212], most free throws made [8,531], most offensive rebounds [6,731]; died Sep 13, 20151957 - Teresa Ganzel
actress: The Dave Thomas Comedy Hour, The Duck Factory, Roxie, Teachers Only1957 - Amanda Plummer
Tony Award-winning actress [1982]: Agnes of God; The Fisher King, Joe Versus the Volcano, The World According to Garp, Pulp Fiction; Christopher Plummer’s daughter1959 - Catherine Keener
actress: Being John Malkovich, Capote, Into the Wild, Johnny Suede, Death to Smoochy, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, A Late Quartet, The Croods1964 - Hope Davis
actress: About Schmidt, Six Degrees, In Treatment, Deadline, Mildred Pierce, The Newsroom1965 - Sarah Buxton
actress: Sunset Beach, The Bold and the Beautiful, Days of our Lives, The Climb, Little Children, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, NYPD Blue, McBride, Drama Queen, Dirty Down Under... Up Here, Listen, Fast Getaway II, Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead, Rock ’n’ Roll High School Forever1965 - Richard Grieco
model, actor: One Life to Live, 21 Jump Street, If Looks Could Kill, Marker, A Night at the Roxbury, Heaven or Vegas, Ultimate Deception, Forget About It1966 - Marin Hinkle
actress: Two and a Half Men, Once and Again, Imagine That, John’s Hand, Turn the River, Friends With Money, I Am Sam, Frequency, I’m Not Rappaport1966 -Marti Pellow (Mark McLoughlin)
singer: group: Wet, Wet, Wet: Goodnight Girl1967 - Gord Murphy
hockey: Philadelphia Flyers, Boston Bruins, Florida Panthers, Atlanta Thrashers1969 - Chris Turner
baseball [catcher, first base]: California/Anaheim Angels, Kansas City Royals, Cleveland Indians, New York Yankees1970 - Carl Pickens
football [wide receiver]: Univ of Tennessee; NFL: Cincinnati Bengals, Tennessee Titans1973 - Jason Kidd
basketball [point guard]: Univ of California, Berkeley; NBA: Dallas Mavericks [1994–1996], Phoenix Suns [1996–2001], New Jersey Nets [2001–2008], Dallas Mavericks [2008–2012; NBA champions: 2011], New York Knicks [2012–2013]; 10× NBA All-Star [1996, 1998, 2000–2004, 2007–2008, 2010]1974 - Randall Park
actor: Fresh Off the Boat, Veep, Always Be My Maybe, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Aquaman1975 - Joe Salave’a
football [defensive tackle]: Univ of Arizona; NFL: Tennessee Oilers/Titans, SD Chargers, Washington Redskins1976 - Michelle Monaghan
actress: Mission: Impossible III, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Gone Baby Gone, Made of Honor, The Heartbreak Kid, Eagle Eye, Source Code1976 - Keri Russell
actress: Felicity, The Americans, The Upside of Anger, Mad About Mambo, Dead Man’s Curve, When Innocence is Lost, The Lottery, Clerks, Honey I Blew Up the Kid, Mission: Impossible III, Bedtime Stories1977 - Brad Meester
football [guard]: Northern Iowa Univ; NFL: Jacksonville Jaguars1977 - Sammy Morris
football [running back]: Texas Tech Univ; NFL: Buffalo Bills [2000–2003]; Miami Dolphins [2004–2006]; New England Patriots [2007–2011]; Dallas Cowboys [2011]1978 - David Tom
actor: The Young and the Restless, Pleasantville, The Hazing, Holy Joe, The ’60s, Roommates, Summertime Switch, Swing Kids, Stay Tuned; twin brother of actress Nicholle Tom1978 - Nicholle Tom
actress: The Nanny, In Memory of My Father, The Book of Ruth, The Princess Diaries, Rave, Ice Angel, Panic, Unwed Father, Justice League; twin sister of actor David Tom1983 - Mo Farah
British distance runner: gold medallist in 5,000 and 10,000 metre races at 2012 London Olympics1984 - Brandon Marshall
football [wide receiver]: Univ of Central Florida; NFL: Denver Broncos [2006–2009], Miami Dolphins [2010–2011], Chicago Bears [2012–2014], New York Jets [2015–2016], New York Giants [2017–2018], New Orleans Saints [2018]1985 - Maurice Jones-Drew
football [runing back]: Univ of California, Los Angeles; NFL: Jacksonville Jaguars [2006–2013] [NFL Rushing leader [2011]; Oakland Raiders [2014]1986 - Brett Eldredge
singer: Don’t Ya, Beat of the Music, Mean to Me1986 - Steven Strait
actor: Magic City, The Covenant, Stop-Loss, After, Sleeping with the Fishes, The Expanse1990 - Princess Eugenie (Eugenie Victoria Helena Windsor)
British royalty: daughter of Prince Andrew and the Duchess of York [Sarah Ferguson]1992 - Kyrie Irving
basketball [point guard]: NBA: Cleveland Cavaliers [2011–2017]: 2015 NBA finals, 2016 NBA champs; Boston Celtics [2017–2019]; Brooklyn Nets [2019–2023]; Dallas Mavericks [2023- ]1992 - Vanessa Morgan
actress: My Babysitter’s a Vampire, The Latest Buzz, Guilty at 17, Finding Carter1995 - Victoria Pedretti
actress: The Haunting of Hill House, Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood, You
and still more...
Hit Music on This Day March 23
1949Cruising Down the River (facts) - The Blue Barron Orchestra (vocal: ensemble)
Far Away Places (facts) - Margaret Whiting
1958
1967
1976
1985
1994
2003
2012
2021
and even more...
Those were the days, my friend. We thought they’d never end...
TWtD Calendar
