Today is Thursday March 24, the 84th day of 2016. There are 282 days left in the year.
Highlights in history on this date:
1267 – St. Louis of France calls his knights to Paris to prepare for the Eighth Crusade. It ends in failure before reaching the Holy Land, and becomes the last crusade.
1595 – Peace of Boulogne ends England’s war with France and Scotland.
1603 – Crowns of England and Scotland are joined under James VI of Scotland, who begins reign as James I upon death of Queen Elizabeth I.
1765 – Britain enacts the Quartering Act, requiring American colonists to provide temporary housing to British soldiers.
1783 – Spain recognizes independence of United States.
1882 – Robert Koch, German bacteriologist, announces isolation of tuberculosis germs.
1883 – Long-distance telephone service is inaugurated between Chicago and New York City.
1891 – Britain and Italy reach agreement in Ethiopia, defining frontiers of their Red Sea colonies.
1924 – Greece is proclaimed a republic.
1927 – Chinese Communists seize Nanking in China.
1929 – Fascists “win” single-party elections in Italy.
1944 – In occupied Rome, the Nazis execute more than 300 civilians in reprisal for an attack by Italian partisans the day before that killed 32 German soldiers.
1958 – Elvis Presley is inducted into the U.S. Army in Memphis, Tennessee.
1972 – Britain takes over direct control of Northern Ireland in effort to restore peace.
1976 – Argentina’s President Isabel Peron is deposed by her country’s military.
1980 – Roman Catholic Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero is shot to death by gunmen as he celebrates Mass in San Salvador, El Salvador.
1989 – Supertanker Exxon Valdez runs aground on a reef in Alaska’s Prince William Sound and begins leaking 11 million gallons (41.6 million liters) of crude oil.
1990 – Last Indian soldiers withdraw from Trincomalee, Sri Lanka, after a deadlocked 2 1/2-year-old jungle war against separatist Tamil Tiger rebels.
1991 – The Mali opposition says government troops killed nearly 150 people in three days of pro-democracy protests.
1998 – The European Union declares 11 countries eligible for the euro, the currency that will replace their respective national currencies.
1999 – NATO launches airstrikes against Yugoslavia — the first time in its 50-year existence that the alliance had attacked a sovereign country.
2007 – The U.N. Security Council imposes new sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, including a ban on Iranian arms exports and on any country buying Iranian weapons.
2008 – Yousaf Raza Gilani, a longtime loyalist of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, is elected Pakistan’s new prime minister and immediately frees judges detained by President Pervez Musharraf.
2010 – The U.S. and Russia reach agreements for a historic new treaty to reduce the nuclear arsenals of the former Cold War rivals.
2011 – Fighter jets hit aircraft and a crossroads military base deep inside Libya, and NATO appears poised to assume command of the international operation that is working to thwart Moammar Gadhafi’s forces by land, sea and air.
2012 – Egypt’s Islamists look poised to dominate a key lever of power that will help determine the country’s political future as parliament selects a panel to draw up the country’s new constitution.
2013 – Cypriot politicians turn to the European Union in a last-ditch effort to help their nation forge a viable plan to secure an international bailout after failing for a week to find a solution to the crisis that could force their country into bankruptcy.
2014 — Fresh evidence gleaned from unprecedented analysis of satellite data shows the missing Malaysian Airlines flight whose fate remains a mystery that consumed the world had crashed into a remote corner of the Indian Ocean.
2015 — A German airliner crashes into the French Alps, killing all 150 people aboard. It is later determined the co-pilot deliberately propelled his Airbus jet into the mountainside.
Today’s Birthdays:
Harry Houdini, U.S. magician (1876-1926); Edward Weston, U.S. photographer (1886-1958); Joseph Barbera, U.S. cartoonist (1911-2006); Steve McQueen, U.S. actor (1930-1980); Dario Fo, Italian playwright and Nobel laureate (1926–); Louie Anderson, U.S. comedian (1953–); Star Jones, U.S. talk show host (1962–); Keisha Castle-Hughes, Australian actress (1990–).
Thought For Today:
Time wounds all heels — Jane Ace, U.S. radio disc jockey (1905-1974)
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