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Today in History ~ March 14
Pi Day,
The number Pi (3.1459...) is celebrated March 14th or 3-14. At the San Francisco Exploratorium, people eat pie and add beads representing the digits of Pi to a long strand. Mathematicians have been trying to calculate Pi for centuries. It has been calculated to over two billion decimal places and there is no end in sight.
Events1629 - England grants a royal charter to Massachusetts Bay Colony
1644 - England grants patent for Providence Plantations (now Rhode Island)
1689 - Scotland dismisses William III & Mary Stuart as king & queen. British laugh at them.
1743 - 1st American town meeting (Boston's Faneuil Hall)
1794 - Eli Whitney received a patent for his cotton gin, an invention that revolutionized America's cotton industry. [H]
1812 - Congress authorized issue of America's first war bonds, to pay for military equipment for use against the British.
1821 - African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church founded (NY)
1862 - Battle of New Bern, NC: General Burnside conquers New Bern
1864 - Rossini's "Petite Messe Solennelle," premieres in Paris
1875 - Smetana's "Vysehrad," premieres
1885 - Gilbert & Sullivan's "Mikado," premieres in London
1900 - Congress ratified the Gold Standard Act.
1901 - 1st performance of Anton Bruckner's 6th Symphony in A
1903 - 1st national bird reservation established in Sebastian, FL
1912 - King Vittorio Emanuel III of Rome injured during assassination attempt
1913 - John D Rockefeller gives $100 million to Rockefeller Foundation
1915 - German cruiser Dresden blows itself up near coast of Chile
1916 - Battle of Verdun - German attack on Mort-Homme ridge, West of Verdun
1923 - German Supreme Court prohibits NSDAP (Nazi Party)
1923 - President Warren G Harding becomes 1st president to file an income tax report.
1933 - Winston Churchill wants to boost air defense
1939 - The republic of Czechoslovakia was dissolved, opening the way for Nazi occupation.
1940 - 27 killed, 15 injured when truck full of migrant workers collides with a train outside McAllen, Texas
1941 - Xavier Cugat & Orch record "Babalu"
1943 - Aaron Copland's orchestral work "Fanfare for the Common Man" premiered in New York, with George Szell conducting.
1950 - FBI's "10 Most Wanted Fugitives" program begins
1951 - During Korean War, US/UN forces recapture Seoul
1953 - Nikita Khrushchev succeeds Malenkov as secretary Comm Party
1958 - RIAA certifies 1st gold record (Perry Como's Catch A Falling Star)
1964 - A jury in Dallas found Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby guilty of murdering Lee Harvey Oswald, the assassin of President Kennedy, the previous November. Ruby was sentenced to death but the conviction was overturned and he died of cancer while awaiting a new trial. [H]
1965 - Israeli cabinet approves diplomatic relations with West Germany
1967 - The body of President Kennedy was moved from a temporary grave to a permanent memorial site at Arlington National Cemetery.
1968 - CBS TV suspends Radio Free Europe free advertising because RFE doesn't make it clear it is sponsored by the CIA
1971 - The Rolling Stones leave England for France to escape taxes
1980 - Polish airliner crash kills all 87 aboard (22 are US amateur boxers)
1985 - The United States evacuated American officials from Lebanon, leaving only a small diplomatic presence in war-torn Beirut.
1989 - The Bush administration announced it would ban imports of semi-automatic assault rifles indefinitely.
1990 - Mikhail S Gorbachev becomes president of the Soviet Congress
1991 - Speakers at a Los Angeles Police Commission hearing demanded the ouster of Chief Daryl F. Gates in the wake of the videotaped police beating of motorist Rodney King.
1991 - A British court reversed the convictions of the "Birmingham Six," who had spent 16 years in prison for an Irish Republican Army bombing, and ordered them released. [H]
1991 - Scientists from around the world reported the discovery of the gene that triggers colon cancer.
1991 - Emir of Kuwait returns to Kuwait City, after the Iraqis leave
1992 - Soviet newspaper "Pravda" suspends publication
1992 - A U.S. aircraft carrier was sent to the Persian Gulf as U.N. officials pressed Iraq on the destruction of weapons in compliance with Security Council resolutions.
1992 - Researchers said a substance occurring naturally in broccoli helps the body fight off cancer-causing chemicals.
1992 - The Associated Press obtained the names of 22 of 24 of the worst offenders in the check overdraft scandal at the House bank; topping the list were former Rep. Tommy Robinson of Arkansas and Rep. Bob Mrazek of New York, both Democrats.
1993 - 3,000th performance of "Nunsense"
1994 - Sen. Robert Packwood, R-Oregon, dropped a court battle to prevent a Senate panel from gaining access to his diaries. The committee was investigating allegations of sexual harassment and influence peddling.
1995 - Testifying at the O.J. Simpson murder trial, Los Angeles police Detective Mark Fuhrman denied allegations that he'd made racist statements.
1996 - During a visit to Israel, President Bill Clinton pledged $100 million to the fight against terrorism.
1996 - Millionaire Steve Forbes withdrew from the presidential contest.
1997 - Gangs seeking to oust Albanian President Sali Berisha took control of Tirane, the capital city, as unrest triggered by the collapse of pyramid investment funds the previous month continued.
1997 - Surgeons at Bethesda Naval Medical Center repaired a painful torn knee tendon in President Clinton's right leg; the injury had been caused by a freak middle-of-the-night stumble at the Florida home of golfer Greg Norman.
2001 - British Prime Minister Tony Blair ordered a step-up in the slaughter of livestock as the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak continued.
2001 - Inspectors tightened U.S. defenses against foot-and-mouth disease a day after a case was confirmed in France.
2001 - Doug Swingley won the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in Alaska for the third straight year.
Birthdays Today
1681 - Georg Philipp Telemann, Magdeburg Germany, late baroque composer
1692 - Peter Musschenbroek, Dutch physician/physicist (Leyden jar)
1727 - Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, composer
1755 - Pierre-Louis Couperin, composer
1800 - James Bogardus, US inventor/builder (made cast-iron buildings)
1804 - Johann Strauss, the Elder, Viennese violinist/comp (Radetzky March)
1820 - Victor Emmanuel II, King of Sardinia (1849-61)/Italy (1861-78)
1854 - Paul Ehrlich (1908 Nobel prize for medicine; founded chemotherapy, discovered Salvarsan - a remedy for syphilis, developed antitoxin for diphtheria)
1864 - John (Casey) Jones (railroad engineer: subject of The Ballad of Casey Jones)
1864 - John Luther Jones, RR engineer (Ballad of Casey Jones)
1879 - Albert Einstein, Ulm Germany, (Nobel Prize-winning physicist [1921]: developed the Theory of Relativity) [H]
1912 - Les Brown (bandleader: Les Brown and His Band of Renown: Sentimental Journey, My Dreams are Getting Better All the Time; Leap Frog, I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm)
1918 - Dennis Patrick (actor: The Time Travelers, Choices, The Air Up There)
1919 - Max Shulman, novelist (Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, Tender Trap)
1920 - Hank Ketchum, cartoonist (Dennis the Menace)
1923 - Diane Arbus, photographer/innovator
1927 - Bill Rexford (auto racer)
1928 - Frank Borman, Gary Ind, astronaut (Gem 7, Ap 8)/CEO (Eastern Airline)
1931 - Bob Goalby (golfer: Masters Champion [1968])
1931 - Phil Phillips (Baptiste) (singer: Sea of Love)
1933 - Michael Cain (Micklewhite) (Oscar for Best Supporting actor: Hannah and Her Sisters [1986]; Sleuth, The Ipcress File, Alfie, Educating Rita, California Suite, Jack the Ripper, On Deadly Ground)
1933 - Quincy Jones (composer: film scores, TV show themes; bandleader; record producer; arranger; 25 Grammys, Grammy's Trustees Award [1989], Grammy's Legends Award [1990]; Musical Director for Mercury Records, then VP; Established Qwest Records)
1934 - Eugene Cernan (astronaut)
1934 - Shirley Scott (swinging, blues-oriented organist: recorded mostly with ex-husband, Stanley Turrentine)
1936 - Bob Charles (golfer: British Open Champion from New Zealand [1963])
1940 - Rita Tushingham, Liverpool England, actress (Green Eyes, Dr Zhivago, A Taste of Honey, Trap)
1944 - Clyde Lee (basketball)
1945 - Walter Parazaider (musician: reeds: group: Chicago: If You Leave Me Now, 25 Or 6 To 4, Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?, You're the Inspiration, Hard to Say I'm Sorry)
1946 - Wes Unseld (basketball: NBA MVP: Baltimore Bullets [1969])
1947 - Billy Crystal (Emmy Awards for Best Individual Performance and Writer in a Variety or Music Program: 63rd annual Oscars [1991]; Emmy Award-winning Writer for a Variety or Music Program: Midnight Train to Moscow [1990], 64th annual Oscars [1992] actor: City Slickers, Throw Mama From The Train, Soap, When Harry Met Sally)
1950 - Michael Ford (son of U.S. President Gerald R. Ford and First Lady, Betty Ford)
1952 - J Fred Muggs, chimp (Today show)
Famous deaths
0840 - Eginhard, French nobleman/biographer (Vita Karoli Magni), dies at 69
1559 - Jacques d'Auchy, Walloon baptist merchant, executed
1573 - Claude II, of Lotharingen, duke of Aumale/murdered adm Coligny,
1757 - John Byng, English admiral (Minorca), executed at 52
1768 - Vigilio Blasio Faitello, composer, dies at 58
1801 - Christian Friedrich Penzel, composer, dies at 63
1803 - Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, German poet, dies at 78
1861 - Abraham Louis Niedermeyer, composer, dies at 58
1883 - Karl Marx, German philosopher (Communist Manifesto), dies at 64
1932 - George Eastman, US industrialist (Kodak-camera), suicide at 77
1976 - Busby Berkeley, US choreographer/dir (Strike Up the Band), dies
1981 - Rene Clair, French director (It Happened Tomorrow), dies at 82?
1986 - Marlin Perkins, TV host (Wild Kingdom) at 80
1992 - Jean Poiret, French actor/writer (La Cage aux Folles), dies at 65
1992 - Steven Brian Pennell, 1st execution in Delaware in 45 years at 34
1997 - Fred Zinnemann (director), dies of heart attack at 89
If you have other Birthdays or events to add for this day please E-mail me
Yesterday Tomorrow
