Today is Tuesday, March 15, the 75th day of 2016. There are 291 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlights in History:
On March 15, 1916, a U.S. expeditionary force led by Brig. Gen. John J. Pershing entered Mexico on an ultimately futile mission to capture Pancho Villa, whose raiders had attacked Columbus, New Mexico, killing 18 U.S. citizens. Trumpet player and bandleader Harry James was born in Albany, Georgia.
On this date:
In 44 B.C., Roman dictator Julius Caesar was assassinated by a group of nobles that included Brutus and Cassius.
In 1767, the seventh president of the United States, Andrew Jackson, was born in Waxhaw, South Carolina.
In 1820, Maine became the 23rd state.
In 1922, Sultan Fuad I proclaimed himself the first king of modern Egypt.
In 1935, the Busby Berkeley movie musical “Gold Diggers of 1935” was released by Warner Bros.
In 1941, Richard C. Hottelet, a correspondent for the United Press, was arrested in Berlin by the German secret police on suspicion of espionage. (Hottelet was released four months later in a prisoner exchange.)
In 1956, the Lerner and Loewe musical play “My Fair Lady,” based on Bernard Shaw’s “Pygmalion,” opened on Broadway.
In 1966, at the 8th Annual Grammy Awards, “A Taste of Honey,” performed by Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass, was named Record of the Year, while Frank Sinatra’s “September of My Years” won Album of the Year.
In 1977, the U.S. House of Representatives began a 90-day closed-circuit test to determine the feasibility of showing its sessions on television.
In 1985, the first Internet domain name, symbolics.com, was registered by the Symbolics Computer Corp. of Massachusetts.
In 1996, the Liggett Group agreed to repay more than $10 million in Medicaid bills for treatment of smokers, settling lawsuits with five states.
In 2001, federal authorities confirmed that remains found on a Texas ranch were those of missing atheist leader Madalyn Murray O’Hair and two of her relatives, who had disappeared 5 1/2 years earlier. (David Waters, the key suspect in the slayings, was sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty in federal court to extortion conspiracy.)
Ten years ago: Saddam Hussein, testifying for the first time in his trial, called on Iraqis to stop killing each other and instead fight U.S. troops; the judge reprimanded him for making a rambling, political speech and ordered the TV cameras switched off. A gunman opened fire inside a Denny’s restaurant in Pismo Beach, California, leaving two dead and two injured before taking his own life. Jeff King won his fourth Iditarod, finishing several hours ahead of runner-up Doug Swingley.
Five years ago: The Syrian civil war had its beginnings with Arab Spring protests across the region that turned into an armed insurgency and eventually became a full-blown conflict. William Melchert-Dinkel (MEL’-kurt DINK’-ehl), a former nurse accused of seeking out depressed people online and encouraging two to kill themselves, was found guilty by a judge in Faribault, Minnesota, of aiding the suicides of an English man and a Canadian woman. (The Minnesota Supreme Court later reversed the convictions; Melchert-Dinkel was later found guilty of one count of assisting a suicide and one count of attempting to assist a suicide.) John Baker became the first Alaska Native musher to win the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race since Jerry Riley in 1976.
One year ago: The United States and Iran plunged back into negotiations in Lausanne, Switzerland, hoping to end a decades-long standoff on Iran’s nuclear program. A pair of suicide bombers attacked two churches in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore, killing at least 15 people. Mike Porcaro, 59, who’d carved out a long, successful career as the bass player for the award-winning pop group Toto, died in Los Angeles. Actress-dancer Sally Forrest, 86, died in Beverly Hills, California.
Today’s Birthdays: Musician DJ Fontana is 85. Former astronaut Alan L. Bean is 84. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is 83. Actor Judd Hirsch is 81. Jazz musician Charles Lloyd is 78. Rock musician Phil Lesh is 76. Singer Mike Love (The Beach Boys) is 75. Rock singer-musician Sly Stone is 73. Rock singer-musician Howard Scott (War; Lowrider Band) is 70. Rock singer Ry Cooder is 69. Actor Craig Wasson is 62. Rock singer Dee Snider (Twisted Sister) is 61. Actor Joaquim de Almeida is 59. Actress Park Overall is 59. Movie director Renny Harlin is 57. Model Fabio is 55. Singer Terence Trent D’Arby (AKA Sananda Maitreya) is 54. Rock singer Bret Michaels (Poison) is 53. Rhythm-and-blues singer Rockwell is 52. Actor Chris Bruno is 50. Rock singer Mark McGrath (Sugar Ray) is 48. Actress Kim Raver is 47. Rock musician Mark Hoppus is 44. Country singer-musician Matt Thomas (Parmalee) is 42. Actress Eva Longoria is 41. Rapper-musician will.i.am (Black Eyed Peas) is 41. Rock DJ Joseph Hahn (Linkin Park) is 39. Rapper Young Buck is 35. Actor Sean Biggerstaff is 33. Rock musician Ethan Mentzer is 33. Actor Kellan Lutz is 31. Actress Caitlin Wachs is 27.
Thought for Today: “There are no hopeless situations; there are only men who have grown helpless about them.” — Clare Boothe Luce, American author, diplomat, member of Congress (1903-1987).
