March 13th: This Day in History

 

Once again, it should be reiterated, that this does not pretend to be a very extensive history of what happened on this day (nor is it the most original - the links can be found down below). If you know something that I am missing, by all means, shoot me an email or leave a comment, and let me know!

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

On this day in 483, St Felix III began his reign as Catholic Pope. In 607 on this day came the 12th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet. German King Koenraad II von Hohenstaufen was crowned on this day in 1138. On this day in 1519, Hernán Cortés landed in Mexico. In 1639 on this day, Cambridge College near Boston was renamed Harvard for clergyman John Harvard. On this day in 1781, Sir William Herschel saw what he mistakenly believed to be a comet, but which was really the planet Uranus. British Naturalist & Botanist Charles Darwin departed Valparaiso, Chile, for a crossing of the Andes on this day in 1835. On this day in 1865 in the very late stages of the American Civil War, with the main Rebel armies facing long odds against must larger Union armies, the Confederacy, in a desperate measure, reluctantly approved the use of black troops. In 1881 on this day, Czar Alexander II, who had ruled of Russia since 1855, was assassinated on the streets of St. Petersburg by a bomb thrown by a member of the revolutionary "People's Will" group. On this day in 1930, Clyde Tombaugh announced the discovery of Pluto at Lowell Observatory. Pluto was regarded as the ninth planet in the solar system until Neil de Grasse Tyson downgraded it. On this day in 1961, American President John F. Kennedy proposed the "Alliance for Progress," which was supposed to be a 10-year, multibillion-dollar aid program for Latin America. In 1965 on this day, the Beatles' "Eight Days a Week," single went #1 & stayed there for two weeks. Congo sentenced ex-Premier Moise Tsjombe to death on this day in 1967. In 1968 on this day, the Beatles released "Lady Madonna" in the United Kingdom. In 1972 on this day, Great Britain and China resumed full diplomatic relations after 22 years; Britain withdrew its consulate from Taiwan. On this day in 1979, the European Monetary System was established, ECU was created. The Dunblane massacre took place on this day in 1996 in Dunblane, Scotland, as 16 children and a teacher were shot dead by Thomas Hamilton, a spree killer who then committed suicide. On this day in 2003, a report in the journal "Nature" reported that scientists had discovered 350,000-year-old upright-walking human footprints in Italy. The 56 prints were made by three early, upright-walking humans that were descending the side of a volcano. In 2012 on this day, Encyclopedia Britannica announced that it will discontinue public printed versions of its encyclopedia after 244 years.

Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:

• On this day in 483, St Felix III began his reign as Catholic Pope

• In 607 on this day came the 12th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet

• German King Koenraad II von Hohenstaufen was crowned on this day in 1138.

Spanish Conquistador Hernán Cortés      

• On this day in 1519, Hernán Cortés landed in Mexico.

1560 - Spanish fleet occupies Djerba, at Tripoli

1564 - Cardinal Granvelle flees Brussels

1567 - Battle at Oosterweel: Spanish troops destroy Geuzenleger

1569 - Battle of Jarnac, Count of Anjou defeats Huguenots

1591 - Battle at Tondibi: Moroccans army under Judar beats sultan Askia Ishaq II of Songhai

1634 - Academie Francaise opens

• In 1639 on this day, Cambridge College near Boston was renamed Harvard for clergyman John Harvard.

1656 - Jews are denied the right to build a synagogue in New Amsterdam

1677 - Massachusetts gains title to Maine for $6,000

1735 - 1st US Moravian bishop, David Nitschmann, consecrated in Germany

1759 - 27th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet

1772 - Gotthold Lessing's "Emilia Calotti," premieres in Brunswick

• On this day in 1781, Sir William Herschel saw what he mistakenly believed to be a comet, but which was really the planet Uranus. The German-born English astronomer William Hershel discovers Uranus, the seventh planet from the sun. Herschel's discovery of a new planet was the first to be made in modern times, and also the first to be made by use of a telescope, which allowed Herschel to distinguish Uranus as a planet, not a star, as previous astronomers believed.    Herschel, who was later knighted for his historic discovery, named the planet Georgium Sidus, or the "Georgian Planet," in honor of King George III of England. However, German astronomer Johann Bode proposed the name "Uranus" for the celestial body in order to conform to the classical mythology-derived names of other known planets. Uranus, the ancient Greek deity of the heavens, was a predecessor of the Olympian gods. By the mid-19th century, it was also the generally accepted name of the seventh planet from the sun.    The planet Uranus is a gas giant like Jupiter and Saturn and is made up of hydrogen, helium, and methane. The third largest planet, Uranus orbits the sun once every 84 earth years and is the only planet to spin perpendicular to its solar orbital plane. In January 1986, the unmanned U.S. spacecraft Voyager 2 visited the planet, discovering 10 additional moons to the five already known, and a system of faint rings around the gas giant.

1790 - John Martin, 1st American-born actor, performs in Philadelphia

1797 - Cherubini's opera "Medée," premieres in Paris

British Naturalist & Botanist Charles Darwin

• British Naturalist & Botanist Charles Darwin departed Valparaiso, Chile, for a crossing of the Andes on this day in 1835.

1846 - Friedrich Hebbel's "Maria Magdalena," premieres in Königsberg

1852 - Uncle Sam cartoon figure made its debut in the NY Lantern weekly

• On this day in 1865 in the very late stages of the American Civil War, with the main Rebel armies facing long odds against must larger Union armies, the Confederacy, in a desperate measure, reluctantly approved the use of black troops.    The situation was bleak for the Confederates in the spring of 1865. The Yankees had captured large swaths of Southern territory, General William T. Sherman's Union army was tearing through the Carolinas, and General Robert E. Lee was trying valiantly to hold the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, against General Ulysses S. Grant's growing force. Lee and Confederate President Jefferson Davis had only two options. One was for Lee to unite with General Joseph Johnston's army in the Carolinas and use the combined force to take on Sherman and Grant one at a time. The other option was to arm slaves, the last source of fresh manpower in the Confederacy.    The idea of enlisting blacks had been debated for some time. Arming slaves was essentially a way of setting them free, since they could not realistically be sent back to plantations after they had fought. General Patrick Cleburne had suggested enlisting slaves a year before, but few in the Confederate leadership considered the proposal, since slavery was the foundation of Southern society. One politician asked, "What did we go to war for, if not to protect our property?" Another suggested, "If slaves will make good soldiers, our whole theory of slavery is wrong." Lee weighed in on the issue and asked the Confederate government for help. "We must decide whether slavery shall be extinguished by our enemies and the slaves be used against us, or use them ourselves." Lee asked that the slaves be freed as a condition of fighting, but the bill that passed the Confederate Congress on March 13, 1865, did not stipulate freedom for those who served.    The measure did nothing to stop the destruction of the Confederacy. Several thousand blacks were enlisted in the Rebel cause, but they could not begin to balance out the nearly 200,000 blacks who fought for the Union. 

1868 - Senate begins US President Andrew Johnson's impeachment trial

1869 - Arkansas legislature passes anti-Klan law

1878 - Oxford defeats Cambridge in their 1st golf match

• In 1881 on this day, Czar Alexander II, who had ruled of Russia since 1855, was assassinated on the streets of St. Petersburg by a bomb thrown by a member of the revolutionary "People's Will" group. The People's Will, organized in 1879, employed terrorism and assassination in their attempt to overthrow Russia's czarist autocracy. They murdered officials and made several attempts on the czar's life before finally assassinating him on March 13, 1881.    As czar, Alexander did much to liberalize and modernize Russia, including the abolishment of serfdom in 1861. However, when his authority was challenged, he turned repressive, and he vehemently opposed movements for political reform. Ironically, on the very day he was killed, he signed a proclamation--the so-called Loris-Melikov constitution--that would have created two legislative commissions made up of indirectly elected representatives.    He was succeeded by his 36-year-old son, Alexander III, who rejected the Loris-Melikov constitution. Alexander II's assassins were arrested and hanged, and the People's Will was thoroughly suppressed. The peasant revolution advocated by the People's Will was achieved by Vladimir Lenin's Bolshevik revolutionaries in 1917.

1884 - Siege of Khartoum Sudan begins

1884 - US adopts Standard Time

1887 - Chester Greenwood of Maine patents earmuffs

1888 - Great Blizzard of 1888 rages

1894 - J L Johnstone of England invents horse racing starting gate

1897 - San Diego State University is founded.

1900 - British troops occupy Bloemfontein, Orange Free State

1900 - In France the length of the workday for women and children is limited to 11 hours by law.

1904 - Bronze statue of Christ on Argentine-Chilian border dedicated

1911 - Ivan Caryll's musical "Pink Lady," premieres in NYC

1911 - Stanley Cup: Ottawa Senators beat Galt (Ont), 7-4

1912 - Stanley Cup: Quebec Bulldogs sweep Moncton (NB) in 2 games

1913 - Kansas legislature approved censorship of motion pictures

1915 - Dodgers manager Wilbert Robinson tries to catch a baseball dropped from an airplane, but the pilot substituted a grapefruit

1918 - American Red Magen David (Jewish Red Cross) forms

1918 - 1st NHL championship: Mont Canadiens beat Toronto Arenas, outscoring them 10-7 in a 2 game set

1920 - Wolfgang Kapp's coup attempt in Berlin fails

1921 - Mongolia (formerly Outer Mongolia) declares independence from China

Playwright George Bernard ShawPlaywright George Bernard Shaw 1922 - George Bernard Shaws "Back to Methusaleh V," premieres in NYC

1922 - WRR-AM in Dallas TX begins radio transmissions

1922 - NHL Championship: Ottawa Senators outscore Toronto St Pats, 5 to 4, in 2 games

1923 - Lee de Forest demonstrates his sound-on-film moving pictures (NYC)

1924 - German Republic day

1925 - NHL Championship: Montreal Canadiens sweep Toronto Arenas in 2 games

1925 - Tennessee makes it unlawful to teach evolution

1928 - Rudolph Friml's musical "Three Musketeers," premieres in NYC

1929 - Bradman scores 123 Aust v England at MCG, his 2nd Test Cricket ton

•  On this day in 1930, Clyde Tombaugh announced the discovery of Pluto at Lowell Observatory. Pluto was regarded as the ninth planet in the solar system until Neil de Grasse Tyson downgraded it. 

1933 - Banks reopen

1933 - Joseph Goebbels becomes German Minister of Information and Propaganda within Nazi Reich

1935 - Driving tests introduced in Great Britain

1938 - Anschluá-Austria annexed by Nazi Germany

1938 - World News Roundup is broadcast for the first time on CBS Radio in the United States.

Nazi Minister of Propaganda and Information Joseph GoebbelsNazi Minister of Propaganda and Information Joseph Goebbels 1940 - Finland-Russian cease fire signed, Finland gives up Karelische

1940 - The Russo-Finnish Winter War ends.

1941 - A Bougne forms AGRA (Amis du Grand Reich Allemand)

1942 - Julia Flikke, Nurse Corps, becomes 1st woman colonel in US army

1943 - Baseball approves official ball (with cork & balata)

1943 - Failed assassin attempt on Hitler during Smolensk-Rastenburg flight

1943 - Frank Dixon wins Knights of Columbus mile (4:09.6)

1944 - USSR recognizes Italian Badoglio government

1945 - Queen Wilhelmina returns to Netherlands

1945 - Sicherheitsdienst arrest Dutch resistance fighter Henry Werkman

1947 - "Brigadoon" opens at Ziegfeld Theater NYC for 581 performances

1947 - 19th Academy Awards - "Best Years of Lives," De Havilland, March win

1948 - 10th NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: Kentucky beats Baylor 58-42

1949 - US Ladies Figure Skating championship won by Yvonne C Sherman

1949 - US Mens Figure Skating championship won by Richard Button

Dictator of Nazi Germany Adolf HitlerDictator of Nazi Germany Adolf Hitler 1950 - General Motors reports net earnings of $656,434,232 (record)

1951 - 2nd Dutch government of Drees forms

1951 - Israel demands DM 6.2 billion compensation from Germany

1954 - Braves' Bobby Thomson breaks his ankle, he is replaced by Hank Aaron

1954 - Viet Minh General Giap opens assault on That Bien Phu

1955 - Bir BSD Mahendra succeeds Tribhubana as king of Nepal

1955 - Patty Berg wins LPGA Titleholders Golf Championship

1956 - NZ bowl out WI for 77 at Eden Park to score their 1st Test Cricket win

1957 - Bloody battles after anti-Batista demonstration in Havana Cuba

1958 - Government troops land in Sumatra Indonesia

1960 - Fay Crocker wins LPGA Titleholders Golf Championship

1960 - NFL's Chicago Cardinals moves to St Louis

1960 - White Sox unveil new road uniforms with players' names above number

1961 - Elizabeth Gurley Finn (70) becomes pres of US Communist Party

1961 - Floyd Patterson KOs Ingemar Johansson in 6 for heavyweight boxing title

 Picture of the US Postage stamp commemorating American President John F. Kennedy's "Alliance for Progress"

US President John F. Kennedy 

• On this day in 1961, American President John F. Kennedy proposed the "Alliance for Progress," which was supposed to be a 10-year, multibillion-dollar aid program for Latin America. The program came to be known as the Alliance for Progress and was designed to improve U.S. relations with Latin America, which had been severely damaged in recent years.    When Kennedy became president in 1961, U.S. relations with Latin America were at an all-time low. The Latin American republics were disappointed with U.S. economic assistance after World War II. They argued that they had supported America during the war by increasing their production of vital raw materials and keeping their prices low--when the United States began massive aid programs to Europe and Japan after the war, Latin American nations protested that they also deserved economic assistance. Their anger was apparent during Vice President Richard Nixon's trip through the region in 1958, when a mob attacked his car at a stop in Caracas.    More troubling to American officials was the threat of communism in Latin America. In 1954, the Central Intelligence Agency had funded and supplied a revolution that overthrew the leftist government of Guatemala. In 1959, Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba and by 1961, the United States had severed relations with his government. In response to these developments, Kennedy made his plea for the Alliance for Progress. In requesting funds from Congress, the president stressed the need for improved literacy, land use, industrial productivity, health, and education in Latin America. The United States needed to help Latin America, where "millions of men and women suffer the daily degradations of hunger and poverty" and "discontent is growing." The United States would provide money, expertise, and technology to raise the standard of living for the people of Latin America, which would hopefully make the countries stronger and better able to resist communist influences.    In response to Kennedy's plea, Congress voted for an initial grant of $500 million in May 1961. During the next 10 years, billions were spent on the Alliance, but its success was marginal and there were many reasons that the program was ultimately a failure. American congressmen were reluctant to provide funds for land redistribution programs in Latin America because they felt it smacked of socialism. Latin American elites directed most of the funds into pet projects that enriched themselves but did little to help the vast majority of their people. The Alliance certainly failed in its effort to bring democracy to Latin America: by the time the program faded away in the early-1970s, 13 governments in Latin America had been replaced by military rule.

1961 - Landslide in USSR, kills 145

1961 - Old type, black & white notes cease to be legal tender

1962 - Yugoslavia grants 1,000 prisoners amnesty

1963 - 2 Russian reconnaissance flights over Alaska

1963 - Hindemith & Wilder's opera "Long Christmas Dinner," premieres in NYC

1963 - Indonesia & Netherlands recover diplomatic relations

1964 - Turkey threatens Cyprus with armed attack

   

• In 1965 on this day, the Beatles' "Eight Days a Week," single went #1 & stayed there for two weeks. 

1965 - Jeff Beck replaces Eric Clapton of the Yardbirds

• Congo sentenced ex-Premier Moise Tsjombe to death on this day in 1967.

• In 1968 on this day, the Beatles released "Lady Madonna" in the United Kingdom.

1969 - Apollo 9 returns to Earth

Cuban President and Dictator Fulgencio BatistaCuban President and Dictator Fulgencio Batista 1970 - 100 year Beehive anniversary ends in brawl in Amsterdam

1970 - Digital Equipment Corp introduces PDP-11 minicomputer

1970 - SF city employees begin 4-day strike

1971 - Live at Fillmore East recorded

• In 1972 on this day, Great Britain and China resumed full diplomatic relations after 22 years; Britain withdrew its consulate from Taiwan.

1973 - Syria adopts constitution

1973 - "Irene" opens at Minskoff Theater NYC for 605 performances

1973 - Minskoff Theater opens at 200 W 45th St NYC

1974 - Glenn Turner scores twin tons for NZ's 1st win against Aust

1975 - Bernard Slade's "Same Time, Next Year," premieres in NYC

1977 - Dennis Lillee takes 6-26, England all out 95 in Centenary Test

1978 - Moluccans "suicide commandos" occupies Province house

• On this day in 1979, the European Monetary System was established, ECU was created.

1979 - Gairy dictatorship in Grenada overthrown by New Jewel Movement

1979 - Isle's Mike Bossy's 5th career hat trick

1980 - Eric Heiden skates world record 1000m (1:13.60)

1980 - Ford Motor Co found innocent in death of 3 women in a fiery Pinto

1980 - Men's Figure Skating Championship in Dortmund won by Jan Hoffmann GDR

1981 - NCAA St Joseph's upsets top seed DePaul

1982 - Ice Dance Championship at Copenhagen won by Torvill & Dean (GRB)

1982 - Ice Pairs Championship at Copenhagen won by Baess & Thierbach (GDR)

1982 - Men's Fig Skating Champions in Copenhagen won by Scott Hamilton (USA)

1982 - Worlds Ladies Fig Skate Champs in Copenhagen won by Elaine Zayak (USA)

1982 - Elaine Zayak, lands 6 triple jumps to win world skating championship

1983 - "Woman of the Year" closes at Palace Theater NYC after 770 perfs

1983 - 1st USFL overtime game-Birmingham Stallions beat Oakld Invaders 20-14

1984 - Last day of 1st-class cricket for G Chappell, R Marsh, B Laird

1984 - WA beat Queensland by four wickets to win the Sheffield Shield

1985 - Funeral services held for Konstantin Chernenko (Moscow)

1985 - Michael Secrest (US) begins 24-hr ride of 516 miles, 427 yards

1986 - Soyuz T-15 carries 2 cosmonauts to Soviet space station Mir

1986 - Microsoft has its Initial public offering.

1987 - Ice Dance Championship at Cincinnati won by Bestemianova & Bukin (URS)

1987 - John Gotti is acquitted of racketeering

1987 - Washington Caps score 5 goals against Toronto in 3 mins & 3 secs

Actor/Comedian Bill CosbyActor/Comedian Bill Cosby 1988 - 14th People's Choice Awards: Fatal Attraction, Bill Cosby. win

1989 - 27th shuttle, Discovery 8, launched, 1st woman to do the countdown

1989 - FDA orders recall of all Chilean fruit in US

1989 - US space shuttle STS-29 launched

1990 - Nicholoas Braithwaite elected premier of Grenada

1991 - Exxon pays $1-billion dollars in fines & cleanup of Valdez oil spill

1992 - FCC rules companies can own 30 AM & 30 FM stations (formerly 12)

1992 - Martina Navratilova & Judy Nelson settle their galamony suit

1992 - An earthquake registering 6.8 on the Richter scale kills over 500 in Erzincan, eastern Turkey.

1993 - Blizzard of '93 hits north-east US

1994 - 33.3% of Austria votes for ultra-right Freedom Party

1994 - Donna Andrews wins LPGA Ping Welch's Golf Championship

1994 - Oil tank/airship crash at Bosporus (huge fire/15+ killed)

1994 - President Mangope of Bophuthaswana deposed

1995 - 9th Soul Train Music Awards: Boyz II Men, Anita Baker win

Tennis Player Martina NavratilovaTennis Player Martina Navratilova 1995 - Anti fascist Kazachstan anti-parliament forms

1995 - Hungarian Forint devalued 9%

1995 - Istanbul police shoot dead 16 Alawitische demonstrators

1996 - Sri Lanka beat India in World Cup semi as riots stop play

•  The Dunblane massacre took place on this day in 1996 in Dunblane, Scotland, as 16 children and a teacher were shot dead by Thomas Hamilton, a spree killer who then committed suicide.

1997 - India's Missionaries of Charity chooses Sister Nirmala to succeed Mother Teresa as its leader.

1997 - The Phoenix lights were seen over Phoenix, Arizona by hundreds of people, and by millions on television. They are now a hotly debated controversy.

•  On this day in 2003, a report in the journal "Nature" reported that scientists had discovered 350,000-year-old upright-walking human footprints in Italy. The 56 prints were made by three early, upright-walking humans that were descending the side of a volcano.

2005 - Terry Ratzmann shoots and kills six members of the Living Church of God and the minister at Sheraton Inn in Brookfield, Wisconsin before killing himself.

2008 - Gold prices on the New York Mercantile Exchange hit $1,000.00 an ounce for the first time.

2012 - 19 people are shot dead in a bus attack in Ethiopia

•  In 2012 on this day, Encyclopedia Britannica announced that it will discontinue public printed versions of its encyclopedia after 244 years.

2012 - 110 people are killed and 63 are missing after a ferry collides with an oil tanker near Dhaka, Bangladesh

2012 - 28 people, including 22 children, are killed in a motorway bus crash near Sierre, Switzerland

2013 - 10 people are killed by a suicide bombing in Kunduz province, Afghanistan

2013 - The European Parliament rejects a European Union budget for the first time

2013 - An Embraer 821 aeroplane crashes and kills 9 people in Para, Brazil

2013 - North Korea shreds the Korean Armistice agreement

2013 - Aleqa Hammond’s Siumut party wins the Greenland parliamentary elections

2013 - Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio is elected as the new pope, taking the papal name Pope Francis

0483 - St. Felix III began his reign as Pope.   0607 - The 12th recorded passage of Halley's Comet occurred.   1519 - Cortez landed in Mexico.   1639 - Harvard University was named for clergyman John Harvard.   1660 - A statute was passed limiting the sale of slaves in the colony of Virginia.   1777 - The U.S. Congress ordered its European envoys to appeal to high-ranking foreign officers to send troops to reinforce the American army.   1781 - Sir William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus.   1852 - The New York "Lantern" newspaper published the first "Uncle Sam cartoon". It was drawn by Frank Henry Bellew.   1861 - Jefferson Davis signed a bill authorizing slaves to be used as soldiers for the Confederacy.   1868 - The U.S. Senate began the impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson.   1877 - Chester Greenwood patented the earmuff.   1878 - The first collegiate golf match was played between Oxford and Cambridge.   1884 - Standard time was adopted throughout the U.S.   1900 - In South Africa, British Gen. Roberts took Bloemfontein.   1901 - Andrew Carnegie announced that he was retiring from business and that he would spend the rest of his days giving away his fortune. His net worth was estimated at $300 million.   1902 - In Poland, schools were shut down across the country when students refused to sing the Russian hymn "God Protect the Czar."   1902 - Andrew Carnegie approved 40 applications from libraries for donations.   1908 - The people of Jerusalem saw an automobile for the first time. The owner was Charles Glidden of Boston.   1911 - The U.S. Supreme Court approved corporate tax law.   1915 - The Germans repelled a British expeditionary force attack in France.   1918 - Women were scheduled to march in the St. Patrick's Day Parade in New York due to a shortage of men due to wartime.   1925 - A law in Tennessee prohibited the teaching of evolution.   1930 - It was announced that the planet Pluto had been discovered by scientist Clyde Tombaugh at the Lowell Observatory.   1933 - U.S. banks began to re-open after a "holiday" that had been declared by President Roosevelt.   1935 - Three-thousand-year-old archives were found in Jerusalem confirming some biblical history.   1940 - The war between Russia and Finland ended with the signing of a treaty in Moscow.   1941 - Adolf Hitler issued an edict calling for an invasion of the U.S.S.R.   1942 - Julia Flikke of the Nurse Corps became the first woman colonel in the U.S. Army.   1943 - Japanese forces ended their attack on the American troops on Hill 700 in Bougainville.   1946 - Reports from Iran indicated that Soviet tanks units were stationed 20 miles from Tehran.   1946 - Premier Tito seized wartime collaborator General Draja Mikhailovich in a cave in Yugoslavia.   1951 - Israel demanded $1.5 billion in German reparations for the cost of caring for war refugees.   1951 - The comic strip "Dennis the Menace" appeared for the first time in newspapers across the country.   1957 - Jimmy Hoffa was arrested by the FBI on bribery charges.   1963 - China invited Soviet President Khrushchev to visit Peking.   1969 - The Apollo 9 astronauts returned to Earth after the conclusion of a mission that included the successful testing of the Lunar Module.   1970 - Cambodia ordered Hanoi and Viet Cong troops to leave.   1970 - Digital Equipment Corp. introduced the PDP-11 minicomputer.   1972 - "The Merv Griffin Show" debuted in syndication for Metromedia Television.   1974 - The U.S. Senate voted 54-33 to restore the death penalty.   1974 - An embargo imposed by Arab oil-producing countries was lifted.   1980 - A jury in Winamac, IN, found Ford Motor Company innocent of reckless homicide in the deaths of three young women that had been riding in a Ford Pinto.   1988 - The board of trustees off Gallaudet University in Washington, DC, chose I. King Jordan to be its first deaf president. The college is a liberal arts college for the hearing-impaired.   1990 - The U.S. lifted economic sanctions against Nicaragua.   1991 - Exxon paid $1 billion in fines and for the clean-up of the Alaskan oil spill.   1995 - The first United Nations World Summit on Social Development concluded in Copenhagen, Denmark.   1997 - Sister Nirmala was chosen by India's Missionaries of Charity to succeed Mother Teresa as leader of the Catholic order.   2002 - Fox aired "Celebrity Boxing." Tonya Harding beat Paula Jones, Danny Banaduce beat Barry Williams and Todd Bridges defeated Vanilla Ice.   2003 - Japan sent a destroyer to the Sea of Japan amid reports that North Korea was planning to test an intermediate-range ballistic missile.   2003 - A report in the journal "Nature" reported that scientists had found 350,000-year-old human footprints in Italy. The 56 prints were made by three early, upright-walking humans that were descending the side of a volcano.

1639 Cambridge College was renamed Harvard University. 1781 The German-born English astronomer Sir William Herschel discovered the planet Georgium Sidus, later known as Uranus. 1852 "Uncle Sam" cartoon appeared for the first time in N.Y. Lantern weekly. 1868 The Senate began President Andrew Johnson's impeachment trial. 1906 Suffragist Susan B. Anthony died. 1925 Tennessee passed a bill prohibiting the teaching of evolution in public schools. . 1996 A man shot dead 16 children and a woman teacher in a school in Dunblane, Scotland. He then shot himself. 

The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:

http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php

http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/mar13.htm

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory

Movie Review: Nuremberg

  

A few months ago in late November, I wrote a review of the movie "Nuremberg."

But my girlfriend and I saw it again recently. And after going back to read - or rather, peruse - my own review, something dawned on me: it was not very much to my liking. It just seemed to me that, based on the review, most of what I got from it as a warning about the present day rise of fascism and hatred in the United States.

And while I still believe that this was a prominent part of what audiences are supposed to get out of this movie, it nevertheless is not the full story. After all, this movie is about an actual historical event and the controversies surrounding it. The focal point is, of course, Hermann Göring, the second-highest ranking Nazi of the Third Reich. 

So after seeing the movie again and being less than entirely impressed with my initial review, let me try again.

One note: the review was not disastrous in my eyes. It just felt incomplete, and not as focused as perhaps it should have been. That said, I will keep the original review, but add more to it, and perhaps cut snippets here and there, as deemed necessary.

Here goes:

My girlfriend and I went to see Nuremberg on Sunday evening. This was a movie which had intrigued me since I first learned about it. So I looked forward to seeing it, and finally saw it a little over two weeks after it was released.

Before I go on, of course, there should be the standard warning to stop reading if you intend to read this book, because there will be spoilers ahead.

SPOILER ALERT

SPOILER ALERT

SPOILER ALERT

Okay, so by now if you are still reading this, I have to imagine that you either are familiar with this movie already, or perhaps you do not mind the spoilers. Please just don't say that you were not given advanced warning. 

Ready?

Now, this is a history movie, largely based on actual events. So in that regard, a "spoiler alert" seems a little...well, pointless. After all, of this has happened and, I assume, most people actually going to see this movie are likely at least passingly familiar with what actually happened here.

Still, there are different interpretations of historical events. I read one review from a Jewish person who was entirely dismissive of the movie and at least claimed to have walked out halfway through, because it was evidently too antisemitic for their tastes. They used one story told by Hermann Göring in particular as the illustration of this perceived bias. And while I can understand that to a certain degree, it did not feel to me that this movie was either antisemitic or hate mongering in total or in tone, or that it glossed over the crimes committed against Jews (and others) during the Holocaust. Far from it. Also, frankly, to claim that the words from a very high-ranking Nazi official in a movie largely centered on that historical figure are somehow proof that the movie is antisemitic seems a little...well, naive. Would you prefer a sanitized version of history, so that the actual antisemitism is glossed over, and the reasons for the crimes against humanity themselves are, therefore, glossed over?

I don't get it. 

Anyway, that was my personal slice of opinion. Yes, there are definitely antisemitic views by some of the characters in this movie. But can you expect anything different with a movie focusing on high-ranking Nazi officials? I'm sorry, but it seems obvious that some antisemitic views will be seen and heard, since this is based on history. Hello? 

So I acknowledge some of criticisms of this movie and how bothered they were by the way that it seemingly humanized the Nazis, and particularly Hermann Göring. While I can sympathize to some degree, it seems also that this is what we need right now. Not another movie which portrays Nazis as inhuman monsters, but to recognize that they actually were human beings. That they had their strengths and weaknesses, their hopes and dreams (yes, even after the war ended disastrously for Germany), and their insecurities, their arrogance and hubris, and all of that.

It is this arrogance which makes so many of these high-ranking Nazis feel exempt from any possible consequences from their criminal actions. Never before had their been anything like a World Court or the Nuremberg Trials, and the Nazis - particularly Göring - are very much aware of this fact. It is in their interests to remind everyone of this fact frequently, because there really was no precedent for the Nuremberg Trials. That is part of the challenge, trying to bring these men to some sort of official justice, and not simply shooting them. It is an attempt by the victorious Allied nations to try to illustrate that they are not as barbarous as Nazi Germany had been. Still, it is not certain that such a trial can be coordinated, or that everyone will be on board. Ultimately, the four major victorious European powers - the United States, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union - did go along with it, adding legitimacy to the trial. The movie did not focus too extensively on this, although it was addressed.

To the extent that the movie does document these challenges, it is mostly through American Robert Jackson, one of the prosecutors at the trial. He is played by Michael Shannon, and it is some excellent acting. Indeed, you do get the feeling that you are watching a judge of the 1940's struggling with the newness of this world trial. He is shown trying to gain support, including a trip to the Vatican, where he is actually accused of trying to blackmail the Pope to support the trials. There is also the challenge of trying to build a case, which means isolating the crimes of the Nazis, and not just generalizing. After all, it had been a brutal war, and as Göring makes clear at some points in the movie, the Allies were also guilty of war crimes and astonishing horrors, including dropping "the bomb" on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. So Jackson has to try and build a case that the Nazis were uniquely criminal in conduct, and that proves anything but easy.

Rami Malek plays psychiatrist Douglas Kelly, who checks on the mental and physical health of these high-ranking Nazis. This also becomes complicated, because there is doctor/patient confidentiality to think about, as well as what seems almost like friendship between Kelly and Göring at times. However, Kelly wants Jackson to succeed in prosecuting Göring and the rest of the Nazis. To that end, he warns Jackson that he is seriously underestimating Göring. Indeed, the first part of the trial shown in the movie reveals exactly that. Göring is in his element and Jackson trips on his own feet in trying to pin down this crafty Nazi official. It is only through the assistance and some fancy legal footwork by the British prosecutor that finally trips Göring up. After this exchange, everyone knows that the outcome of the trial has already been decided.

In short, whether you like it or not, these people were human beings. Yes, they absolutely, undeniably did some things and committed some crimes which force people to question their humanity. But in fact, they are human beings, with real lives and real human traits that we can all relate to. That's not being antisemitic by acknowledging that simple fact. it's just the reality. In fact, to me, the fact that these people really are human beings, and that the movie shows them in that light, makes what happened all the more horrific. Because indeed, these very human people were responsible for a chapter in history that will surely never be forgotten while civilization lasts. The level of cruelty, particularly the bureaucratic nature of a mass extermination, is what makes what they did stand out so uniquely in history. If we dumb it down so that they are regarded only and exclusively as monsters, I think that we miss the point of the danger of something like this actually happening again. These were real people, and they orchestrated a terrible chapter in human history that almost everyone agrees should never be repeated. However, it seems to me a prerequisite for us to understand their humanness in order to avoid something like this in the future. If we turn them into caricatures, to people who we cannot relate to at all, then what lessons are to be learned? 

Remember the timing for when this movie is coming out. After all, the United States itself suddenly cannot seem to avoid putting a seemingly unstable populist who plays people's fear and prejudices and even hatreds for his own narrow political gain. Believe me, I understand the temptation to dehumanize him, or billionaires who keep orchestrating policies behind the scenes so that they can make still more billions or even trillions. However, we must remember that they are human beings, and not mere caricatures (much less Gods). 

At one point, we see Hermann Göring, who is brilliantly captured by Russell Crowe, conversing in a relaxed manner about why he, and Germans more generally, turned to Hitler. And he says that Hitler made them feel more German. He had simple solutions which seemed workable, and promised to restore German pride and greatness. 

Does that sound familiar? Personally, I believe that Trump has that same message for many Americans who otherwise feel forgotten. There are some similarities, albeit obviously also some differences, between Germany in the 1930's leading up to the rise of the Nazis, and the modern day realities and circumstances in the United States which have led to the rise of Trump and MAGA. I never "got" the apparent dark charisma or charm, but that does not mean that it does not exist. What Göring describes in this movie about Hitler felt like it resonated, because Trump seems to make whole groups of people feel less forgotten. He appeals to a largely fictional time in American history when everything supposedly was right, when the country worked well and was unified and strong. He often harkens back to a time when white people - and particularly white men - enjoyed a very privileged status in the country. And I personally believe that this is a large part of his appeal, since the core of his support is white people, and especially white men. Not a minor point, in my personal opinion. 

Of course a movie like this is going to be controversial. It is about a doctor who is ascertaining the mental and physical health of Nazis who are about to go on trial for crimes against humanity. So he is focusing on the very human side of what the entire world at that point viewed as inhuman monsters. Not light subject matter, to be sure. Bound to upset some people.

Isn't that the point, though? 

Personally, I thought that this was a good movie. And timely, for that matter. There is a reason why it came out when it did. Now especially, when Trump for the first time suggested that some opposition government officials might be imprisoned and even executed. It hardly feels like it could have been an accident. that this particular movie comes out when it has.

So to me, it is very important. Crucial, even. We need to understand the history of the Holocaust, of how something like that was possible. These days, too many people seem to have forgotten history and, let's face it, nowhere in any advanced society has the history of the Holocaust been so largely forgotten and/or misunderstood as it has here in the United States. To me, that is why so many people seem to scoff at any comparisons between Trump and monsters of the past. That is why he gets away with so damn much, when he has a hard time criticizing outright Nazis and white supremacists in Charlotteville a few years ago, or when he posts a supporter shouting "White power!" as he did during the 2020 campaign, or when he suggests that parts of the Constitution might need to be suspended, as he did on his Truth Social in 2022, or now that he has very recently called for the execution of political opposition. Too many people are dismissing all of this as inconsequential, or "Trump being Trump."

This is dangerous and, frankly, unprecedented territory that we find ourselves in here in the United States. Sometimes, it feels to me already that our democracy is a thing of the past. Yet we need to keep reminding ourselves that Trump is only as powerful as the American people allow him to be. And the time to stand up to all of this is now, not later. Not when his power is even more entrenched. 

At the very end, the movie moves away from Nazis and the Holocaust, and turns instead to the doctor, who wrote a book that did very poorly. He wrote about the high-ranking Nazis

To that end, we see different aspects of the character of Hermann Göring. He is highly intelligent and capable, and has a fierce measure of self-discipline. Göring also clearly loves his wife and daughter. He is a man of some refinement, having been wealthy and a love of fine art. Yet, this is also the same man who signed horrific orders that made unbelievable suffering possible. He seems unmoved by the images of the victims of Nazi concentration camps and death camps. When pressed and backed into a corner as to whether or not he would still support Hitler knowing what he knows now, he confirms that he would indeed support Hitler, before shouting "Heil Hitler!" 

It seems that what we get to see of Hermann Göring is a complicated man, not just a simple monster. That makes him feel more real which, in turn, makes it all the more astonishing that a man who seems quite reasonable at times could have done such monstrous things. It would be only too easy to not understand him as an actual human being, but as a one dimensional monster completely removed from our understanding of reality. But when we instead see him having issues and concerns that we all can relate to - obvious love and concern for his wife and child, addiction to substances (he was a serious drug addict), struggling with weight and heart issues, then embarrassment when he finds out that most of the guards view him as a fat man and trying to do something about it, to get back into shape- are everyday realities that most of us, if not all of us, face. We can identify with that. Yes, he was a real human being. Yet, he also did some incredibly evil things and, when pushed to a corner, he expressed no real regret and doubled-down, saying that he would do it all over again if given a chance. 

This is important, because to understand the Holocaust - or any tragic chapter in history - we want to understand that it was actual, real human beings who created this misery. In fact, that is what makes this kind of thing all the more frightening. It's not the "Germans," or Hitler, or relegated to one particular era in history. This can happen again. In fact, mass suffering and genocides have happened numerous times since, in Nigeria in the 1960's, in China in the 1960's during the "Great Leap Forward, in Cambodia in the 1970's, in Rwanda in the 1990's, in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990's, and in Sudan in the 21st century. 

Can it happen again? 

Absolutely. 

That is why movies like this are so important. They bring these historical chapters to life. In so doing, we see that many of these things are not unique to our time. That there were certainly similarities and, thus, an opportunity to learn from the past.

At the end of the movie, well after the trial and the executions of to-ranking Nazi officials, we see Douglas Kelly warning Americans with his book and on the radio of the dangers of power-hungry, manipulative individuals seeking high positions. While others do not warm to his message that such things could happen here in the United States, that we are different (the old "American exceptionalist" arguments), Kelly insists that Americans also need to be careful, Such hatred can indeed be drummed up here on American soil, and a manipulative, populist leader can possibly come to power in the Untied States. However, his arguments fall on deaf ears, and he grows frustrated with the indifference which his arguments are consistently met with. We find out that he committed suicide about a decade and change after the Nuremberg Trial, using the same method which Göring used.

Ultimately, this is a mature movie with serious subject matter and themes. It takes a bit of knowledge of history and understanding some of the challenges which those who created the trial faced. Also, it does show the human side of all of the characters, including the frustrations of each.

So I highly recommend this movie. 

When the movie ends, this quote is shown on the screen. Figured it would also be worth sharing here, as well:

"The only clue to what man can do is what man has done,"

~ R.G. Collingwood

This is an important snippet of an interview of Hermann Göring by Gustave Gilbert. Göring is explaining how people do not want to go to war, but leaders can get past that and persuade the people to go along with the war. Gilbert then interjects and claims that the exception would be a democracy, giving the example of the United States. Göring, however, pretty easily dismisses this exception, suggesting that fundamentally, these tactics work regardless of the country or political system. 

Take a look at this fascinating and revealing exchange:

"Why, of course, the people don't want war," Goering shrugged. "Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece. Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship."  

"There is one difference," I pointed out. "In a democracy the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare wars."  

"Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."

Here is the link to where I got this exchange from:

Nuremberg Diary - by Gustave Gilbert Interview with Herman Goering:

https://www.mit.edu/people/fuller/peace/war_goering.html

Herman Goering

Today is International Women’s Day

This should have been published on Sunday, March 8th, a few days ago.

Better late than never.

Women are the best. We men should give thanks for women every single day. 

Yes, today is International Women's Day.

Some things about International Women's Day that I didn't know:

 - it dates back to 1909. 

- recognition varies from country to country. Some countries combine it with Mother's Day. Others make it an outright holiday. In Russia during the days leading up to the revolution in 1917, it was recognized with women getting the right to vote.

Let's recognize the importance of women and their contributions to our world and our daily lives, both widely known about and prominently seen, as well as the less overtly visible, everyday ways in which women tend to contribute to improve our lives, and society more generally.  

Below are two links which I thought might be helpful to learn more about International Women's Day, and how it is recognized around the world:

International Women's Day 2024: What to know about the day and how to #InspireInclusion by Mike Snider USA TODAY, March 8, 2024:

International Women's Day, on Friday, March 8, is a day of celebrating the achievements of women now practiced for more than 100 years. But it's also a reminder of how 'we can forge a better world.' 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2024/03/08/international-womens-day-2024-theme-inspire-inclusion/72886458007/

Five facts you need to know about International Women’s Day by David Mouriquand Published on 08/03/2024:

Five facts you need to know about International Women’s Day The campaign theme for International Women's Day 2024 is "Inspire Inclusion". By David Mouriquand Published on 08/03/2024 

https://www.euronews.com/culture/2024/03/08/five-facts-you-need-to-know-about-international-womens-day

March 12th: This Day in History

 

Once again, it should be reiterated, that this does not pretend to be a very extensive history of what happened on this day (nor is it the most original - the links can be found down below). If you know something that I am missing, by all means, shoot me an email or leave a comment, and let me know!

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

On this day in 538, Witiges, the King of the Ostrogoths, ended his siege of Rome and retreated to Ravenna, leaving the city in the hands of the victorious Roman general, Belisarius. In 1054 on this day, Pope Leo IX escaped captivity & returned to Rome. The University of Vienna was founded on this day in 1365. The first record of Johann Gutenberg's Bible came on this day in 1455, with a letter dated this day by Enea Silvio Piccolomini referring to the bible printed a year before. In 1664 on this day, New Jersey became a British colony. On this day in 1689, former English King James II landed in Ireland. On this day in 1737, the body of astronomer & physicist Galileo Galilei Galileo was moved to the Church of Santa Croce in Florence, Italy. On this day in 1900 during the Anglo-Boer War, President Steyn of the Orange Free State fled from Bloemfontein. On this day in 1930, Indian independence leader Mohandas Gandhi began a defiant march to the sea of 300 kilometers to protest the British monopoly on salt. It was his boldest act of civil disobedience to that point against British rule in India.  In 1938 on this day, Nazi Germany took over Austria in what came to be known as the Anschluss. It was one of the major takeovers by Hitler leading up to Word War II. On this day in 1947 during a dramatic speech to a joint session of Congress, President Harry S. Truman asked for U.S. assistance to Greece and Turkey to forestall communist domination of the two nations. Historians have often cited Truman's address, which came to be known as the "Truman Doctrine," as the official declaration of the Cold War. In 1968 on this day, Mauritius gained independence from Great Britain (National Day). Australian armed forces withdrew from the conflict in South Vietnam on this day in 1972. On this day in 1976, South African troops departed from the civil war in Angola. Chile's Dictator/ President Pinochet banned the Christian-Democratic Party on this day in 1977.

Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:

• On this day in 538, Witiges, the King of the Ostrogoths, ended his siege of Rome and retreated to Ravenna, leaving the city in the hands of the victorious Roman general, Belisarius.

• In 1054 on this day, Pope Leo IX escaped captivity & returned to Rome

• 1088 - Odo of Lagery elected as Pope Urban II, replacing Victor III

• 1144 - Gherardo Caccianemici elected Pope Lucius II, succeeding Callistus II

• 1350 - Orvieto city says it will behead & burn Jewish-Christian couples

• The University of Vienna was founded on this day in 1365.

• The first record of Johann Gutenberg's Bible came on this day in 1455, with a letter dated this day by Enea Silvio Piccolomini referring to the bible printed a year before.

• 1496 - Jews are expelled from Syria

• 1572 - Luis Vaz de Camoes publishes "Os Lusíados" in Portugal

• 1594 - Company of Distant established for business on East-Indies

• 1597 - England routes troops to Amiens

• 1609 - Bermuda becomes an English colony

• 1619 - Dutch settlement on Java changes name to Batavia

• 1622 - Ignatius of Loyola declared a saint

• 1642 - Abel Tasman is 1st European in New Zealand

• 1664 - 1st naturalization act in American colonies

 

• In 1664 on this day, New Jersey became a British colony. 

• On this day in 1689, former English King James II landed in Ireland.

Replica of the statue of Galileo Galilei outside of Carnegie Museums of Natural History

• On this day in 1737, the body of astronomer & physicist Galileo Galilei Galileo was moved to the Church of Santa Croce in Florence, Italy. 

• 1755 - 1st steam engine in America installed, to pump water from a mine

• 1773 - Jeanne Baptiste Pointe de Sable found settlement now known as Chicago

• 1794 - Theatre Royal in London's Dury Lane opens after being rebuilt

• 1799 - Austria declares war on France

• 1832 - The ballet La Sylphide first premieres at the Opéra de Paris.

• In 1848 on this day, the Second Republic was established in France.

• 1849 - 1st gold seekers arrive in Nicaragua en route to Calif

• 1850 - 1st US $20 gold piece issued

• 1857 - Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Simon Boccanegra," premieres in Venice

• 1860 - Congress accepts Pre-emption Bill: free land in West for colonists

• 1865 - Affair near Lone Jack, Missouri

• 1867 - Last French troops leave Mexico

• 1868 - Great Britain annexes Basutoland in Africa (later renamed the Kingdom of Lesotho)

• 1868 - Congress abolishes manufacturer's tax

• 1868 - Henry O'Farrell attempts to assassinate Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh.

• On this day in 1877, Great Britain annexed Walvis Bay in Southern Africa, in what is present-day Namibia..

Zulu shields

• The British Zulu War began on this day in 1879. 

1881 - Andrew Watson makes his Scotland debut as the world's first black international football player and captain.

1884 - Mississippi establishes 1st US state college for women

1888 - 2nd day of the Great blizzard of '88 in NE US (400 die)

1889 - Battle at Metema (Gallabad): Ethiopian Emperor Yohannes IV, defeated

1889 - Start of South Africa's 1st Test, v England, Port Elizabeth

1894 - Pittsburgh issues free season tickets for ladies on Tuesday & Friday

1894 - In Vicksburg, Mississippi, USA, Coca-Cola is sold in bottles for the first time.

1896 - 1st movie in Netherlands (Kalverstr 220)

1897 - Vincent d'Indy's opera "Fervaal," premieres in Brussel

The Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria, South Africa.

• On this day in 1900 during the Anglo-Boer War, President Steyn of the Orange Free State fled from Bloemfontein.

1901 - Ground is broken for Boston's 1st AL ballpark (Huntington Ave Grounds)

1903 - NY Highlanders (Yankees) approved as members of AL

1904 - 1st main line electric train in UK (Liverpool to Southport)

1904 - Andrew Carnegie establishes Carnegie Hero Fund

1906 - Heavy storm ravages Dutch west coast

1908 - Stanley Cup: Mont Wanderers sweep Win Maple Leafs in 2 games

1908 - The Pan-Macedonian group is formed in Athens to support the Greek Struggle for Macedonia.

1910 - Stanley Cup: Montreal Wanderers beat Berlin (Kitchener), 7-3

1912 - Girl Guides (Girl Scouts) forms in Savannah, by Juliette Gordon Low

1912 - Helen Hayes Theater opens at 238 W 44th St NYC

1912 - Establishment of the first football club in Bulgaria - Botev Plovdiv

1913 - Foundation stone of the Australian capital in Canberra laid

1916 - French airship sinks British submarine D3

1917 - Russian Dumas sets up Provisional Committee; workers set up Soviets

1917 - Stalin, Kamenev & Muranov arrives in St Petersburg

1919 - Austrian National Meeting affirms Anschluss (incorporate into Germany)

Playwright George Bernard ShawPlaywright George Bernard Shaw 1919 - George Bernard Shaw's "Augustus Does His Bit," premieres in NYC

1925 - British government of Baldwin refuses to ratify Geneva agreement

1926 - Denmark begins unilateral disarmament

1926 - Pope Pius XI names J E van Roey archbishop of Malines Belgium

1928 - In California, the St. Francis Dam fails, killing over 600 people.

A statue of Gandhi at Union Square in New York City.

• On this day in 1930, Indian independence leader Mohandas Gandhi began a defiant march to the sea of 300 kilomters to protest the British monopoly on salt. It was his boldest act of civil disobedience to that point against British rule in India.    Britain's Salt Acts prohibited Indians from collecting or selling salt, a staple in the Indian diet. Citizens were forced to buy the vital mineral from the British, who, in addition to exercising a monopoly over the manufacture and sale of salt, also exerted a heavy salt tax. Although India's poor suffered most under the tax, Indians required salt. Defying the Salt Acts, Gandhi reasoned, would be an ingeniously simple way for many Indians to break a British law nonviolently. He declared resistance to British salt policies to be the unifying theme for his new campaign of satyagraha, or mass civil disobedience.    On March 12, Gandhi set out from Sabarmati with 78 followers on a 241-mile march to the coastal town of Dandi on the Arabian Sea. There, Gandhi and his supporters were to defy British policy by making salt from seawater. All along the way, Gandhi addressed large crowds, and with each passing day an increasing number of people joined the salt satyagraha. By the time they reached Dandi on April 5, Gandhi was at the head of a crowd of tens of thousands. Gandhi spoke and led prayers and early the next morning walked down to the sea to make salt.    He had planned to work the salt flats on the beach, encrusted with crystallized sea salt at every high tide, but the police had forestalled him by crushing the salt deposits into the mud. Nevertheless, Gandhi reached down and picked up a small lump of natural salt out of the mud--and British law had been defied. At Dandi, thousands more followed his lead, and in the coastal cities of Bombay and Karachi, Indian nationalists led crowds of citizens in making salt. Civil disobedience broke out all across India, soon involving millions of Indians, and British authorities arrested more than 60,000 people. Gandhi himself was arrested on May 5, but the satyagraha continued without him.    On May 21, the poet Sarojini Naidu led 2,500 marchers on the Dharasana Salt Works, some 150 miles north of Bombay. Several hundred British-led Indian policemen met them and viciously beat the peaceful demonstrators. The incident, recorded by American journalist Webb Miller, prompted an international outcry against British policy in India.    In January 1931, Gandhi was released from prison. He later met with Lord Irwin, the viceroy of India, and agreed to call off the satyagraha in exchange for an equal negotiating role at a London conference on India's future. In August, Gandhi traveled to the conference as the sole representative of the nationalist Indian National Congress. The meeting was a disappointment, but British leaders had acknowledged him as a force they could not suppress or ignore.    India's independence was finally granted in August 1947. Gandhi was assassinated by a Hindu extremist less than six months later.

• 1930 - Stella Walsh sets record for the 220-yard dash (0:26.1)

Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial in Washington, D.C.

• On this day in 1933, American President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave the first of his nation-wide "fireside chats" on radio.

• 1933 - President Paul von Hindenburg dropped the flag of the German Republic and ordered that the swastika and empire banner be flown side by side.  

1934 - Acting Pres Constantine Päts commits coup in Tallinn Estonia

1934 - Josip Broz (Tito) freed from jail

1934 - Paul Hindemith's "Mathis der Maler," premieres in Berlin

1935 - England establishes 30 MPH speed limit for towns & villages

• In 1938 on this day, Nazi Germany took over Austria in what came to be known as the Anschluss. It was one of the major takeovers by Hitler leading up to Word War II.  Mar 12, 1938: Hitler announces an Anschluss with Austria  On this day, Adolf Hitler announces an "Anschluss" (union) between Germany and Austria, in fact annexing the smaller nation into a greater Germany.    Union with Germany had been a dream of Austrian Social Democrats since 1919. The rise of Adolf Hitler and his authoritarian rule made such a proposition less attractive, though, which was an ironic twist, since a union between the two nations was also a dream of Hitler's, a native Austrian. Despite the fact that Hitler did not have the full approval of Austrian Social Democrats, the rise of a pro-Nazi right-wing party within Austria in the mid-1930s paved the way for Hitler to make his move. In 1938, Austrian Chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg, bullied by Hitler during a meeting at Hitler's retreat home in Berchtesgaden, agreed to a greater Nazi presence within Austria. He appointed a Nazi minister of police and announced an amnesty for all Nazi prisoners. Schuschnigg hoped that agreeing to Hitler's demands would prevent a German invasion. But Hitler insisted on greater German influence on the internal affairs of Austria-even placing German army troops within Austria--and Schuschnigg repudiated the agreement signed at Berchtesgaden, demanding a plebiscite on the question. Through the machinations of Hitler and his devotees within Austria, the plebiscite was canceled, and Schuschnigg resigned.    The Austrian president, Wilhelm Miklas, refused to appoint a pro-Nazi chancellor in Schuschnigg's stead. German foreign minister Hermann Goering then faked a crisis by engineering a "plea" for German assistance from inside the Austrian government (really from a German agent). On March 12, 1938, German troops marched into Austria. Hitler announced his Anschluss, and a plebiscite was finally held on April 10. Whether the plebiscite was rigged or the resulting vote simply a testament to Austrian terror at Hitler's determination, the Fuhrer garnered a whopping 99.7 percent approval for the union of Germany and Austria.    Austria was now a nameless entity absorbed by Germany. It was not long before the Nazis soon began their typical ruthless policy of persecuting political dissidents and, of course, all Jewish citizens.      Mar 12, 1938: Germany annexes Austria  On March 12, 1938, German troops march into Austria to annex the German-speaking nation for the Third Reich.    In early 1938, Austrian Nazis conspired for the second time in four years to seize the Austrian government by force and unite their nation with Nazi Germany. Austrian Chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg, learning of the conspiracy, met with Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in the hopes of reasserting his country's independence but was instead bullied into naming several top Austrian Nazis to his cabinet. On March 9, Schuschnigg called a national vote to resolve the question of Anschluss, or "annexation," once and for all. Before the plebiscite could take place, however, Schuschnigg gave in to pressure from Hitler and resigned on March 11. In his resignation address, under coercion from the Nazis, he pleaded with Austrian forces not to resist a German "advance" into the country.    The next day, March 12, Hitler accompanied German troops into Austria, where enthusiastic crowds met them. Hitler appointed a new Nazi government, and on March 13 the Anschluss was proclaimed. Austria existed as a federal state of Germany until the end of World War II, when the Allied powers declared the Anschluss void and reestablished an independent Austria. Schuschnigg, who had been imprisoned soon after resigning, was released in 1945.

1939 - Pope Pius XII crowned in Vatican ceremonies

1940 - Finland surrenders to Russia during WW II, gives Karelische Isthmus

32nd US President Franklin D. Roosevelt32nd US President Franklin D. Roosevelt 1941 - German occupiers confiscate AVRO studios in Netherlands

1942 - British troops vacate the Andamanen in Gulf of Bengal

1943 - Soviet troops liberate Wjasma

1945 - 30 Amsterdammers executed by nazi occupiers

1945 - Italy's Communist Party (CPI) calls for armed uprising in Italy

1945 - NY is 1st to prohibit discrimination by race & creed in employment

1945 - USSR returns Transylvania to Romania

1946 - Part of Petsamo province ceded by Soviet Union to Finland

1947 - "Chocolate Soldier" opens at Century Theater NYC for 69 performances

1947 - Belgian government of Huysmans resigns

Bust of American President Harry Truman

• On this day in 1947 during a dramatic speech to a joint session of Congress, President Harry S. Truman asked for U.S. assistance to Greece and Turkey to forestall communist domination of the two nations. Historians have often cited Truman's address, which came to be known as the "Truman Doctrine," as the official declaration of the Cold War.    In February 1947, the British government informed the United States that it could no longer furnish the economic and military assistance it had been providing to Greece and Turkey since the end of World War II. The Truman administration believed that both nations were threatened by communism and it jumped at the chance to take a tough stance against the Soviet Union. In Greece, leftist forces had been battling the Greek royal government since the end of World War II. In Turkey, the Soviets were demanding some manner of control over the Dardanelles, territory from which Turkey was able to dominate the strategic waterway from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean.    On March 12, 1947, Truman appeared before a joint session of Congress to make his case. The world, he declared, faced a choice in the years to come. Nations could adopt a way of life "based upon the will of the majority" and governments that provided "guarantees of individual liberty" or they could face a way of life "based upon the will of a minority forcibly imposed upon the majority." This latter regime, he indicated, relied upon "terror and oppression." "The foreign policy and the national security of this country," he claimed, were involved in the situations confronting Greece and Turkey. Greece, he argued, was "threatened by the terrorist activities of several thousand armed men, led by communists." It was incumbent upon the United States to support Greece so that it could "become a self-supporting and self-respecting democracy." The "freedom-loving" people of Turkey also needed U.S. aid, which was "necessary for the maintenance of its national integrity." The president declared that "it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures." Truman requested $400 million in assistance for the two nations. Congress approved his request two months later.    The Truman Doctrine was a de facto declaration of the Cold War. Truman's address outlined the broad parameters of U.S. Cold War foreign policy: the Soviet Union was the center of all communist activity and movements throughout the world; communism could attack through outside invasion or internal subversion; and the United States needed to provide military and economic assistance to protect nations from communist aggression.    Not everyone embraced Truman's logic. Some realized that the insurgency in Greece was supported not by the Soviet Union, but by Yugoslavia's Tito, who broke with the Soviet communists within a year. Additionally, the Soviets were not demanding control of the Dardanelles, but only assurances that this strategic waterway would not be used by Russia's enemies-as the Nazis had used it during World War II. And whether U.S. assistance would result in democracy in Greece or Turkey was unclear. Indeed, both nations established repressive right-wing regimes in the years following the Truman Doctrine. Yet, the Truman Doctrine successfully convinced many that the United States was locked in a life-or-death struggle with the Soviet Union, and it set the guidelines for over 40 years of U.S.-Soviet relations.

1948 - -5°F lowest temperature ever recorded in Cleveland in March

1950 - Belgium votes (58%) for return of King Leopold III

1950 - Pope Pius XII encyclical "On combating atheistic propaganda"

1951 - Baseball Commish Happy Chandler loses fight (9-7) to stay in office

33rd US President Harry Truman33rd US President Harry Truman 1951 - Communist troops driven out of Seoul

1954 - 1st performance of Arnold Schoenberg's "Moses und Aaron"

1954 - Anish Kapoor, Mumbai India, Indian born British sculptor

1956 - Dow Jones closes above 500 for 1st time (500.24)

1957 - German DR accepts 22 Russian divisions

1958 - British Empire Day is renamed "Commonwealth Day"

1959 - Dutch Liberal Party wins 2nd parliamentary elections

1959 - US House joins Senate approving Hawaii statehood

1961 - Mickey Wright wins LPGA Miami Golf Open

1962 - Dutch Premier De Quay announces secret talks with Indonesia

1963 - Beatles perform as a trio, John Lennon is ill with a cold

1964 - 6th Grammy Awards: Days of Wine & Roses, Striesand wins 2

1964 - Jimmy Hoffa sentenced to 8 years

1964 - Malcolm X resigns from Nation of Islam

1964 - SN Behrmann's "But for Whom Charlie," premieres in NYC

African American Activist Malcolm XAfrican American Activist Malcolm X 1964 - WKAB TV channel 32 in Montgomery, AL (ABC) begins broadcasting

1966 - Bobby Hull's 51st goal of season, sets record

1966 - Jockey Johnny Longden retires after 40 years (6,032 wins)

1966 - Love's 1st album released "Love"

1966 - Pioneer Plaza dedicated

1966 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

1967 - Austria's Reinhold Bachler ski jumps 505 feet

• 1967 - Indonesian congress deprives president Sukarno of authority

National flag of Mauritius.

• In 1968 on this day, Mauritius gained independence from Great Britain (National Day)

1968 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

1969 - 11th Grammy Awards: Mrs Robinson, By the Time I Get to Phoenix wins

1969 - 120 joints found at George & Patti Harrison's home

1970 - US lowers voting age from 21 to 18

1971 - Syrian premier Hafez Assad elected president

1971 - Turkish Government of Demirel forced to resign by Army

1972 - Judy Rankin wins LPGA Lady Eve Golf Open

Flag of Australia

• Australian armed forces withdrew from the conflict in South Vietnam on this day in 1972. The last remnants of the First Australian Task Force withdraw from Vietnam. The Australian government had first sent troops to Vietnam in 1964 with a small aviation detachment and an engineer civic action team. In May 1965, the Australians increased their commitment with the deployment of the 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (RAR). The formation of the First Australian Task Force in 1966 established an Australian base of operations near Ba Ria in Phuoc Tuy province. The task force included an additional infantry battalion, a medium tank squadron, and a helicopter squadron, as well as signal, engineer, and other support forces. By 1969, Australian forces in Vietnam totaled an estimated 6,600 personnel.    The Australian contingent was part of the Free World Military Forces, an effort by President Lyndon B. Johnson to enlist allies for the United States and South Vietnam. By securing support from other nations, Johnson hoped to build an international consensus behind his policies in Vietnam. The effort was also known as the "many flags" program.    Australia began to withdraw its troops in 1970, following the lead of the United States as it drastically reduced its troop commitment to South Vietnam.

1972 - NHL great Gordie Howe retires after 26 seasons

1974 - Bundy victim Donna Manson disappears, Evergreen SC, Olympia, Wash

1975 - Vietcong conquer Ban me Thuot South Vietnam

Flag of South Africa during the apartheid era

• On this day in 1976 during apartheid white minority rule, South African troops departed from the civil war in Angola.

Flag of Chile

•  Chile's Dictator/ President Pinochet banned the Christian-Democratic Party on this day in 1977.

• 1977 - Egypt's Anwar Sadat pledges to regain Arab territory from Israel

• 1977 - Sadat pledges to regain Arab territory from Israel

• 1980 - Jury finds John Wayne Gacy guilty of murdering 33 in Chicago

1981 - Soyuz T-4 carries 2 cosmonauts to Salyut 6 space station

1981 - Stephen Sondheim's musical "Marry Me a Little," premieres in NYC

1981 - Walter R T Witschey installs world's largest sundial, Richmond, VA

1982 - 1st-class debut of Courtney Walsh, Jamaica v Leeward Islands

1982 - PLO chief Yassar Arafat appears on "Nightline"

1983 - Don Ritchie runs world record 50 mile (4:51:49)

1984 - Coal Miners' strike ended

1984 - National Union of Mine Workers in England begin a 51 week strike

1984 - British ice dancing team, Torvill & Dean, become 1st skaters to receive 9 perfect 6.0s in world championships

NBA Legend Larry BirdNBA Legend Larry Bird 1985 - Larry Bird scores Boston Celtic record 60 points

1986 - 210.25 million shares traded in NY Stock Exchange

1986 - Susan Butcher wins 1,158 mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race

1987 - "Les Miserables" opens at Broadway/Imperial NYC for 4000+ perfs

1987 - David Robinson scores 50 points in a NCAA basketball game

1987 - Federal judge dismisses lawsuits sought by Oliver North

1987 - Ice Pairs Championship at Cincinnati won by E Gordeeva & Grinkov (URS)

1987 - Men's Fig Skating Championship in Cincinnati won by Brian Orser (CAN)

1987 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR

1989 - 15th People's Choice Awards

1989 - 2 cyanide-contaminated Chilean grapes found (Philadelphia)

1989 - Madagascar AREMA party wins parliamentary election

Los Angeles/Oakland Raiders

•  1990 - LA Raiders announce they were returning to Oakland

1991 - 5th Soul Train Music Awards

1992 - Mauritius becomes a republic while remaining a member of the Commonwealth of Nations.

1993 - 317 killed by bomb attacks in Bombay

1993 - Cleveland radio station WMMS-FM/101.7 is bought by Disney

1993 - Entertainment Tonight's 3,000th show

1993 - Inkhata leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi begins 2½ week speech

1994 - Church of England ordains 1st 33 women priests

1995 - Congress party loses India national election

1995 - Dottie Mochrie wins LPGA PING/Welch's Golf Championship

1995 - Ice Dance Championship at Birmingham UK won by Gritshuk & Platov (RUS)

1995 - Ice Pairs Champ at Birmingham won by Radka Kovarikova & Rene Novotny

1995 - Lara scores 139 in ODI v Australia at Port-of-Spain

1995 - Letitia Vriesde runs South American indoor record 800m (2:00.35)

1995 - Men's Figure Skating Champions in Birmingham won by Elvis Stojko (CAN)

1995 - Worlds Ladies Figure Skating Champ in Birmingham won by Chen Lu (CHN)

1996 - Leeward Islands beat Trinidad by 73 runs to win Red Stripe Trophy

1998 - "Sound of Music," opens at Martin Beck Theater NYC

• 1999 - Former Warsaw Pact members the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland join NATO.

2003 - Zoran Đinđić, Prime Minister of Serbia, is assassinated in Belgrade.

2003 - Elizabeth Smart, was found after having been missing for 9 months.

2004 - Roh Moo-hyun, President of South Korea is impeached by its national assembly for the first time in the nation's history.

2005 - Tung Chee Hwa, the first Chief Executive of Hong Kong, steps down from his post after his resignation is approved by the Chinese central government.

• 2011 - A reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant melts and explodes and releases radioactivity into the atmosphere a day after Japan's earthquake.

2012 - 100 people are killed in ethnic clashes and cattle raids in South Sudan

2012 - 45 people, including children, are massacred by the Syrian Army in Homs

2012 - China records its highest trade deficit in over a decade

2013 - JOGMEC becomes the first to successfully extract methane hydrate from seabed deposits

2013 - The 2013 Papal conclave begins with no elected new Pope on the first day

1496 - Jews were expelled from Syria.   1609 - The Bermuda Islands became an English colony.   1664 - New Jersey became a British colony. King Charles II granted land in the New World to his brother James (The Duke of York).   1755 - In North Arlington, NJ, the steam engine was used for the first time.   1789 - The U.S. Post Office was established.   1809 - Britain signed a treaty with Persia forcing the French to leave the country.   1857 - "Simon Boccanegra" by Verdi debuted in Venice.   1884 - The State of Mississippi authorized the first state-supported college for women. It was called the Mississippi Industrial Institute and College.   1863 - President Jefferson Davis delivered his State of the Confederacy address.   1889 - Almon B. Stowger applied for a patent for his automatic telephone system.   1894 - Coca-Cola was sold in bottles for the first time.   1903 - The Czar of Russia issued a decree providing for nominal freedom of religion throughout his territory.   1904 - After 30 years of drilling, the tunnel under the Hudson River was completed. The link was between Jersey City, NJ, and New York, NY.   1905 - In Rome, Premier Giovanni Giolliwas forced out of office by continued civil strife.   1906 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that corporations must yield incriminating evidence in anti-trust suits.   1909 - The British Parliament increased naval appropriations for Britain.   1909 - Three U.S. warships were ordered to Nicaragua to stem the conflict with El Salvador.   1911 - Dr. Fletcher of Rockefeller Institute discovered the cause of infantile paralysis.   1912 - The Girl Scout organization was founded. The original name was Girl Guides.   1923 - Dr. Lee DeForest demonstrated phonofilm. It was his technique for putting sound on motion picture film.     1933 - U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt presented his first presidential address to the nation. It was the first of the "Fireside Chats."   1935 - Parimutuel betting became legal in the State of Nebraska.   1938 - The "Anschluss" took place as German troops entered Austria.   1940 - Finland surrendered to Russia ending the Russo-Finnish War.   1944 - Britain barred all travel to Ireland.   1947 - U.S. President Truman established the "Truman Doctrine" to help Greece and Turkey resist Communism.   1959 - The U.S. House joined the U.S. Senate in approving the statehood of Hawaii.   1966 - Bobby Hull, of the Chicago Blackhawks, became the first National Hockey League (NHL) player to score 51 points in a single season.   1974 - "Wonder Woman" debuted on ABC-TV. The show later went to CBS-TV.   1984 - Lebanese President Gemayel opened the second meeting in five years calling for the end to nine-years of war.   1985 - The U.S. and the U.S.S.R. began arms control talks in Geneva.   1985 - Larry Bird (Boston Celtics) scored a club-record 60 points against the Atlanta Hawks.   1985 - Former U.S. President Richard M. Nixon announced that he planned to drop Secret Service protection and hire his own bodyguards in an effort to lower the deficit by $3 million.   1987 - "Les Miserables" opened on Broadway.   1989 - Prime Minister Sadiq al Mahdi of Sudan formed a new cabinet to end civil war.   1989 - About 2,500 veterans and supporters marched at the Art Institute of Chicago to demand that officials remove an American flag placed on the floor as part of an exhibit.   1992 - Mauritius became a republic but remained a member of the British Commonwealth.   1993 - In the U.S., the Pentagon called for the closure of 31 major military bases.   1993 - Janet Reno was sworn in as the first female U.S. attorney general.   1994 - A photo by Marmaduke Wetherell of the Loch Ness monster was confirmed to be a hoax. The photo was taken of a toy submarine with a head and neck attached.   1994 - The Church of England ordained its first women priests.   1998 - Astronomers cancelled a warning that a mile-wide asteroid might collide with Earth saying that calculations had been off by 600,000 miles.   1999 - Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic became members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). All three countries were members of the former Warsaw Pact.   2002 - U.S. homeland security chief Tom Ridge unveiled a color-coded system for terror warnings.   2002 - Conoco and Phillips Petroleum stockholders approved a proposed merger worth $15.6 billion.   2003 - In Utah, Elizabeth Smart was reunited with her family nine months after she was abducted from her home. She had been taken on June 5, 2002, by a drifter that had previously worked at the Smart home.   2003 - The U.S. Air Force announced that it would resume reconnaissance flights off the coast of North Korea. The flights had stopped on March 2 after an encounter with four armed North Korean jets.   2009 - It was announced that the Sear Tower in Chicago, IL, would be renamed Willis Tower.   2010 - In the U.S., Apple began taking pre-orders for the iPad.

1912 Juliette Gordon Low founded the Girl Scouts. 1930 Mohandas Gandhi began his 200-mile march to protest the British salt tax.1938 "Anschluss" took place when Hitler incorporated his homeland of Austria into the Third Reich. 1947 President Truman established the "Truman Doctrine" to aid in the containment of Communism. 1993 Janet Reno was sworn in as the first female attorney general of the United States. 1994 The Church of England ordained women priests for the first time in 460 years. 2002 The color-coded terror alert system was unveiled by Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge. 2003 The prime minister of the Serbian state (of Serbia and Montenegro), Zoran Djindjic, was assassinated.

The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:

http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php

http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/mar12.htm

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory