http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
Mar 24, 1989: Exxon Valdez runs aground
The worst oil spill in U.S. territory begins when the supertanker Exxon Valdez, owned and operated by the Exxon Corporation, runs aground on a reef in Prince William Sound in southern Alaska. An estimated 11 million gallons of oil eventually spilled into the water. Attempts to contain the massive spill were unsuccessful, and wind and currents spread the oil more than 100 miles from its source, eventually polluting more than 700 miles of coastline. Hundreds of thousands of birds and animals were adversely affected by the environmental disaster.
It was later revealed that Joseph Hazelwood, the captain of the Valdez, was drinking at the time of the accident and allowed an uncertified officer to steer the massive vessel. In March 1990, Hazelwood was convicted of misdemeanor negligence, fined $50,000, and ordered to perform 1,000 hours of community service. In July 1992, an Alaska court overturned Hazelwood's conviction, citing a federal statute that grants freedom from prosecution to those who report an oil spill.
Exxon itself was condemned by the National Transportation Safety Board and in early 1991 agreed under pressure from environmental groups to pay a penalty of $100 million and provide $1 billion over a 10-year period for the cost of the cleanup. However, later in the year, both Alaska and Exxon rejected the agreement, and in October 1991 the oil giant settled the matter by paying $25 million, less than 4 percent of the cleanup aid promised by Exxon earlier that year.
Mar 24, 1998: A school shooting in Jonesboro, Arkansas, kills five
Mitchell Johnson, 13, and Andrew Golden, 11, shoot their classmates and teachers in Jonesboro, Arkansas. Golden, the younger of the two boys, asked to be excused from his class, pulled a fire alarm and then ran to join Johnson in a wooded area 100 yards away from the school's gym. As the students streamed out of the building, Johnson and Golden opened fire and killed four students and a teacher. Ten other children were wounded.
The two boys were caught soon afterward. In their possession were thirteen fully loaded firearms, including three semi-automatic rifles, and 200 rounds of ammunition. Their stolen van had a stockpile of supplies as well as a crossbow and several hunting knives. All of the weapons were taken from the Golden family's personal arsenal. Both of the boys had been raised around guns. They belonged to gun clubs and even participated in practical shooting competitions, which involve firing at simulated moving human targets. Golden reportedly shot several dogs in preparation for the actual shooting.
Because Johnson and Golden were thirteen and eleven, they could not be charged as adults in Arkansas. They were both adjudicated as delinquent and sent to reform institutes. They were to be released when they turned eighteen, as they could legally no longer be housed with minors, but Arkansas bought a facility in 1999 that enabled the state to keep the boys in custody until their twenty-first birthdays. Johnson was freed in 2005; Golden was released in 2007. Neither has any criminal record. Arkansas changed its laws following the Jonesboro tragedy so that child murderers can be imprisoned past twenty-one. School shootings were highly publicized in the media during the late 1990s who ascribed the supposed epidemic to violent movies, television and video games. However, violence against students in school actually went down significantly in the late 1990s, throwing into the question the entire theory.
Mar 24, 1765: Parliament passes the Quartering Act
On this day in 1765, Parliament passes the Quartering Act, outlining the locations and conditions in which British soldiers are to find room and board in the American colonies.
The Quartering Act of 1765 required the colonies to house British soldiers in barracks provided by the colonies. If the barracks were too small to house all the soldiers, then localities were to accommodate the soldiers in local inns, livery stables, ale houses, victualling houses, and the houses of sellers of wine. Should there still be soldiers without accommodation after all such publick houses were filled, the colonies were then required to take, hire and make fit for the reception of his Majesty's forces, such and so many uninhabited houses, outhouses, barns, or other buildings as shall be necessary.
As the language of the act makes clear, the popular image of Redcoats tossing colonists from their bedchambers in order to move in themselves was not the intent of the law; neither was it the practice. However, the New York colonial assembly disliked being commanded to provide quarter for British troops--they preferred to be asked and then to give their consent, if they were going to have soldiers in their midst at all. Thus, they refused to comply with the law, and in 1767, Parliament passed the New York Restraining Act. The Restraining Act prohibited the royal governor of New York from signing any further legislation until the assembly complied with the Quartering Act.
In New York, the governor managed to convince Parliament that the assembly had complied. In Massachusetts, where barracks already existed on an island from which soldiers had no hope of keeping the peace in a city riled by the Townshend Revenue Acts, British officers followed the Quartering Act's injunction to quarter their soldiers in public places, not in private homes. Within these constraints, their only option was to pitch tents on Boston Common. The soldiers, living cheek by jowl with riled Patriots, were soon involved in street brawls and then the Boston Massacre of 1770, during which not only five rock-throwing colonial rioters were killed but any residual trust between Bostonians and the resident Redcoats. That breach would never be healed in the New England port city, and the British soldiers stayed in Boston until George Washington drove them out with the Continental Army in 1776.
Mar 24, 1965: First teach-in conducted
The first "teach-in" is conducted at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor; two hundred faculty members participate by holding special anti-war seminars. Regular classes were canceled, and rallies and speeches dominated for 12 hours. On March 26, there was a similar teach-in at Columbia University in New York City; this form of protest eventually spread to many colleges and universities.
Mar 24, 1975: North Vietnamese launch "Ho Chi Minh Campaign"
The North Vietnamese "Ho Chi Minh Campaign" begins. Despite the 1973 Paris Peace Accords cease fire, the fighting had continued between South Vietnamese forces and the North Vietnamese troops in South Vietnam. In December 1974, the North Vietnamese launched a major attack against the lightly defended province of Phuoc Long, located north of Saigon along the Cambodian border. They successfully overran the provincial capital at Phuoc Binh on January 6, 1975.
President Richard Nixon had repeatedly promised South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu that the United States would come to the aid of South Vietnam if the North Vietnamese committed a major violation of the Peace Accords. However, by the time the communists had taken Phuoc Long, Nixon had resigned from office and his successor, Gerald Ford, was unable to convince a hostile Congress to make good on Nixon's promises to Saigon.
The North Vietnamese, emboldened by the situation, launched Campaign 275 in March 1975 to take the provincial capital of Ban Me Thuot in the Central Highlands. The South Vietnamese defenders fought very poorly and were quickly overwhelmed by the North Vietnamese attackers. Once again, the United States did nothing. President Thieu, however, ordered his forces in the Highlands to withdraw to more defensible positions to the south. What started out as a reasonably orderly withdrawal degenerated into a panic that spread throughout the South Vietnamese armed forces. They abandoned Pleiku and Kontum in the Highlands with very little fighting and the North Vietnamese pressed the attack from the west and north. In quick succession, Quang Tri, Hue, and Da Nang in the north fell to the communist onslaught. The North Vietnamese continued to attack south along the coast, defeating the South Vietnamese forces one at a time.
As the North Vietnamese forces closed on the approaches to Saigon, the Politburo in Hanoi issued an order to Gen. Van Tien Dung to launch the "Ho Chi Minh Campaign," the final assault on Saigon itself. By April 27, the North Vietnamese had completely encircled Saigon and by April 30, the North Vietnamese tanks broke through the gates of the Presidential Palace in Saigon and the Vietnam War came to an end.
Mar 24, 1918: German forces cross the Somme River
On March 24, 1918, German forces cross the Somme River, achieving their first goal of the major spring offensive begun three days earlier on the Western Front.
Operation Michael, engineered by the German chief of the general staff, Erich von Ludendorff, aimed to decisively break through the Allied lines on the Western Front and destroy the British and French forces. The offensive began on the morning of March 21, 1918, with an aggressive bombardment.
The brunt of the attack that followed was directed at the British 5th Army, commanded by General Sir Hubert Gough, stationed along the Somme River in northwestern France. This section was the most poorly defended of any spot on the British lines, due to the fact that it had been held by the French until only a few weeks before and its defensive positions were not yet fully fortified. Panic spread up and down the British lines of command, intensified by communications failures between Gough and his subordinates in the field, and German gains increased over the subsequent days of battle. On March 23, Crown Prince Rupprecht, on the German side of the line, remarked that The progress of our offensive is so quick, that one cannot follow it with a pen.
The next day, German troops stormed across the Somme, having previously captured its bridges before French troops could destroy them. Despite having resolved to concentrate on weaker points of the enemy lines, Ludendorff continued to throw his armies against the crucial villages of Amiens (a railway junction) and Arras—which the British and French were instructed to hold at all costs—hoping to break through and push on towards Paris. By that time, German troops were exhausted, and transportation and supply lines had begun to break down in the cold and bad weather. Meanwhile, Allied forces had recovered from the initial disadvantage and had begun to gain the upper hand, halting the Germans at Moreuil Wood on March 30.
On April 5, Ludendorff called off Operation Michael. It had yielded nearly 40 miles of territory, the greatest gains for either side on the Western Front since 1914. He would launch four more offensive pushes over the course of the spring and summer, throwing all of the German army's resources into this last, desperate attempt to win the war.
Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:
1379 - End of Gelderse war victory
1545 - German Parliament opens in Worms
1550 - France & England sign Peace of Boulogne
1603 - Scottish king James VI becomes King James I of
England
1629 - 1st game law passed in American colonies, by Virginia
1645 - Battle at Jankov Bohemia: Sweden beatS RC emperor
Ferdinand III
1664 - Roger Williams is granted a charter to colonize Rhode
Island
1721 - Johann Sebastian Bach opens his Brandenburgse
Concerts
1731 - Naturalization of Hieronimus de Salis Parliamentary
Act is passed.
1765 - Britain enacts Quartering Act, required colonists to
provide temporary housing to British soldiers
1792 - Benjamin West (US) becomes president of Royal Academy
of London
1801 - Aleksandr P Romanov becomes emperor of Russia
1828 - Philadelphia & Columbia Railway (1st state owned)
authorized
1832 - Mormon Joseph Smith beaten, tarred & feathered in
Ohio
1837 - Canada gives black citizens the right to vote
1848 - State of siege proclaimed in Amsterdam
1855 - Manhattan Kansas founded as New Boston Kansas
1860 - Clipper Andrew Jackson arrives in SF, 89 days out of
NY
1868 - Metropolitan Life Insurance Co forms
Religious Leader Joseph Smith JrReligious Leader Joseph
Smith Jr 1877 - University boat race between Oxford & Cambridge ends in a
dead heat
1878 - British frigate Eurydice sunk; 300 lost
1880 - Tobacco Growers' Mutual Insurance Company
incorporates in CT
1882 - German scientist Robert Koch discovers bacillus cause
of TB
1883 - 1st telephone call between NY & Chicago
1887 - Oscar Straus appointed 1st Jewish ambassador from US
(to Turkey)
1890 - Start of Sherlock Holmes "The Adventure of
Wisteria Lodge" (BG)
1894 - 37 miners killed at Franklin, WA
1898 - 1st automobile sold
1900 - New York City Mayor Robert Anderson Van Wyck breaks
ground for a new underground "Rapid Transit Railroad" that would link
Manhattan and Brooklyn.
1906 - "Census of the British Empire" shows
Britain rules 1/5 of the world
1907 - The first issue of the Georgian Bolshevik newspaper
Dro is published.
1910 - 83°F highest temperature ever recorded in Cleveland
in March
1913 - Netherlands soccer team's 1st victory over England
1913 - Palace Theater opens at 1564 Broadway NYC
Microbiologist Robert KochMicrobiologist Robert Koch 1920 -
1st US coast guard air station established (Morehead City NC)
1922 - Grand National at Aintree sees only 3 horses out of
32 starters finish
1924 - Greece becomes a republic
1925 - KSL-AM in Salt Lake City UT begins radio
transmissions
1926 - The Beehive in the Hague opens 1st escalator in
Netherlands
1927 - Cuban chess champ, Jose Capablanca wins 33-day Grand
Chess Tournie
1927 - Dutch 1st Chamber condemns Belgian & Neth's
Wielingen Treaty
1930 - 1st religious services telecast in US (W2XBS NYC)
1930 - Planet Pluto named
1932 - 1st US radio broadcast from a moving train (Belle
Baker WABC from MD)
1933 - Peter I Island incorporated as a Norwegian dependency
1934 - U.S. Congress passes the Tydings-McDuffie Act,
declaring the Philippines after a period of 10 years
1935 - Major Bowes' Original Amateur Hour goes national on
NBC Radio Network
1936 - Red Wings beat Montreal Maroons in 16 mins & 30
seconds of 6th period Stanley Cup game lasts 9 periods (176 mins), ends 1-0
1937 - Bus blew a tire, going out of control, killing 18
(Salem Illinois)
1937 - National Gallery of Art established by Congress
1941 - British troops defeat British Somalia
1941 - German troops occupy El Agheila Libya
1941 - Glenn Miller begins work on his 1st movie for 20th
Century Fox
1941 - LIU beats Ohio U 56-42 for NIT basketball
championship
1941 - Richard Wright & Paul Green's "Native
Son" premieres in NYC
1944 - 76 Allied officers escape Stalag Luft 3 (Great
Escape)
1944 - 811 British bombers attack Berlin
1944 - In occupied Rome, Nazis execute more than 300
civilians
1945 - Gen Eisenhower, Montgomery & Bradley discuss
advance in Germany
1945 - Largest one-day airborne drop, 600 transports &
1300 gliders
1945 - Operation Varsity: British, US & Canadian
airborne landings E of Rhine
1945 - US minesweepers reach Kerama Retto, South coast of
Okinawa
1947 - Congress proposes 2-term limitation on the presidency
1947 - John D Rockefeller Jr donates NYC East River site to
the UN
1949 - 21st Academy Awards - "Hamlet", Laurence
Olivier & Jane Wyman win
1949 - Walter & John Huston become 1st father-and-son
team to win
1950 - Gracie de Moss wins LPGA Pro-Ladies Golf Championship
1950 - US Ladies Figure Skating championship won by Yvonne C
Sherman
1950 - US Mens Figure Skating championship won by Richard
Button
1952 - Great demonstrations against apartheid in
South-Africa
1953 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1955 - 1st seagoing oil drill rig placed in service
1955 - British Army patrols withdraw from Belfast after 20
years
Playwright Tennessee WilliamsPlaywright Tennessee Williams
1955 - Tennessee Williams' "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" opens for 694
performances
1958 - Elvis Presley joins the army (serial number 53310761)
1959 - Iraq withdraws from the Baghdad Pact
1959 - The Party of the African Federation (PFA) is launched
by Léopold Sédar Senghor and Modibo Keita.
1960 - US appeals court rules novel "Lady Chatterly's
Lover" not obscene
1961 - NY Senate approves $55M for a baseball stadium at
Flushing Meadows
1962 - 24th NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: Cin beats
Ohio State 71-59
1962 - Benny Paret, KOed in a welterweight title, he dies 10
days later
1962 - Mick Jagger & Keith Richards perform as Little
Boy Blue & Blue Boys
1964 - Kennedy half-dollar issued
1965 - US Ranger 9 strikes Moon, 10 miles (16 km) NE of
crater Alphonsus
1966 - Selective Service announces college deferments based
on performance
1967 - U of Mich holds 1st "Teach-in" after
bombing of North Vietnam
1968 - Mickey Wright wins Port Malabar Golf Invitational
1970 - Dutch cartoonist Frans Piet ends "Sjors &
Sjimmie" strip
Singer & Cultural Icon Elvis PresleySinger &
Cultural Icon Elvis Presley 1972 - Great Britain imposes direct rule over
Northern Ireland
1973 - Harley Race beats Dory Funk Jr in Kansas City, to
become NWA champ
1973 - Immaculata beats Queens College, 59-52 to win AIAW
Basketball title
1973 - Professional track debut of Kip Keino defeating Jim
Ryun in the mile
1973 - SF 49er pres Lou Spadia proposes NFL expand to 30
teams
1974 - 36th NCAA Mens Basketball Championship: NC State
beats Marquette 76-64
1975 - Muhammad Ali TKOs Chuck Wepner in 15 for heavyweight
boxing title
1976 - Argentine Pres Isabel Peron deposed by country's
military
1978 - Wings release "With a Little Luck"
1979 - "Ballroom" closes at Majestic Theater NYC
after 116 performances
1979 - 1st appearance as Australian cricket captain for Kim
Hughes
1979 - Columbia flown on carrier aircraft lands at Kennedy
Space Center
1979 - 10 rebounds & 10 assists, as the Spartans cruise
to a 101-67 by Penn Mich State's Earvin "Magic" Johnson registers
triple-double 29 pts
1980 - 42nd NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: Louisville
beats UCLA 59-54
1980 - ABC's nightly Iran Hostage crisis program renamed
"Nightline"
1980 - Capitol Records releases some rare Beatles tracks
1981 - "Nightline with Ted Koppel" premieres on
ABC
1981 - Bombay beat Delhi by innings & 46 to win Ranji
Cricket Trophy
1981 - Colombia drops diplomatic relations with Cuba
1982 - US sub Jacksonville collides with a Turkish freighter
near Virginia
1984 - Andrea Schone skates ladies world record 5 km
(7:34.52)
1984 - IOC agrees to 6-team exhibition baseball tournament
in Olympics
1984 - Igor Malkov skates world record 10 km (14:21.51)
1985 - 5th Golden Raspberry (Razzie) Awards: Bolero wins
1985 - Jan Stephenson wins LPGA GNA Golf Classic
1985 - Norman Gifford makes cricket ODI debuts at age 44 (v
Aust, Sharjah)
1985 - 5th Golden Raspberry Awards: Bolero wins
1986 - 58th Academy Awards - "Out of Africa",
William Hurt & G Page win
1986 - Suriname army capt Etienne Boerenveen arrested for
cocaine smuggling
1986 - US & Libya clash in Gulf of Sidra
1986 - NASA publishes "Strategy for Safely Returning
the Space Shuttle to Flight Status"
Singer Janet JacksonSinger Janet Jackson 1987 - 1st Soul
Train Music Awards: Janet Jackson, Luther Vandross win
1987 - WA win the Sheffield Shield by drawing cricket final
vs Victoria
1988 - "Gospel at Colonus" opens at Lunt Fontanne
Theater NYC for 61 perfs
1988 - Quarterback Dan Fouts retires
1989 - Mary Martin in "Peter Pan" 1st seen on TV
since 1973
1989 - Worst US oil spill, Exxon's Valdez spills 11.3 mil
gallons off Alaska
1990 - Indian troops leave Sri Lanka
1990 - Tom Hunter swims world record 50m freestyle (21.81
sec)
1991 - "Les Miserables," opens at Auditorium
Theatre, Chicago
1991 - 11th Golden Raspberry Awards: Ford Fairlane &
Ghosts Can't Do It wins
1991 - Barcelona Dragons beat NY/NJ Knights 19-7 in their
1st WLAF game
1991 - Danielle Ammaccapane wins LPGA Standard Register Ping
Golf Tournament
1991 - In liberated Kuwait, banks reopen
1991 - NY Yankees beat NY Mets, 9-3
1991 - Wrestlemania VII in LA, Hulk Hogan pins Sgt Slaughter
WWF Wrestler Hulk HoganWWF Wrestler Hulk Hogan 1992 -
"Jake's Women" opens at Neil Simon Theater NYC for 245 performances
1992 - Space Shuttle STS-45 (Atlantis 11) launches into
space
1992 - Sudanese Boeing 707 crashes on mountain Hymettos at
Athens: 5-6 die
1992 - 1st Belgium in the space, Dirk Frimout on Atlantis
Space Shuttle STS-45 (Atlantis 11) launches into space
1993 - Ezer Weizman elected president of Israel
1994 - "Carousel" opens at Beaumont Theater NYC
for 322 performances
1994 - "Song of Jacob Zulu" opens at Plymouth
Theater NYC for 53 performances
1994 - F-16 collides with C-130 Hercules above AFB in NC,
120 die
1996 - 16th Golden Raspberry Awards: Showgirls wins
1996 - Eastenders star Michael French is reported to be a
homosexual
1996 - Laura Davies wins LPGA Standard Register Ping Golf
Tournament
1996 - MTA raises NYC bridge tolls to $3.50 each way
1997 - 69th Academy Awards - "English Patient",
Tom Cruise & Brenda Blythen win
1997 - Australian parliament overturns world's 1st &
only euthanasia law
1998 - Jonesboro massacre: Two students, ages 11 and 13,
fire upon teachers and students at Westside Middle School in Jonesboro,
Arkansas; five people are dead and ten are wounded.
1998 - A tornado sweeps through Dantan in India killing 250
people and injuring 3000 others.
1999 - Kosovo War: NATO commences air bombardment against
Yugoslavia, marking the first time NATO has attacked a sovereign country.
1999 - Mont Blanc Tunnel Fire: 39 people die when a Belgian
transport truck carrying flour and margarine caught fire in the Mont Blanc
Tunnel.
2001 - 21st Golden Raspberry Awards: Battlefield Earth wins
Actor Denzel WashingtonActor Denzel Washington 2002 - 74th
Academy Awards - "A Beautiful Mind", Denzel Washington & Halle
Berry win
2003 - The Arab League votes 21-1 in favor of a resolution
demanding the immediate and unconditional removal of U.S. and British soldiers
from Iraq.
2006 - Long-term protests in Belarus are broken by police.
2006 - Pope Benedict XVI adds 15 men to the College of
Cardinals, in the first consistory of his Pontificate.
2007 - The Australian Labor Party is reinstated after the
New South Wales state elections.
2008 - Bhutan officially becomes a democracy, with its first
ever general election.
2010 - Lee Kun-hee returns to Samsung Electronics chief
executive officer (CEO) position after his resignation in April 21, 2008
2012 - African Union deploys 5,000 strong force with the aim
of catching or killing warlord Joseph Kony
2013 - 17 soldiers are killed by a suicide bomber at a
military checkpoint in North Waziristan, Pakistan
2013 - 25 people are killed by gunmen in a coordinated
attack in Adamawa State, Nigeria
2013 - A series of emergency meetings in Brussels are
undertaken to resolve Cyprus’ financial situation
2013 - Scotland defeats Sweden to win the 2013 World Women's
Curling Championship
1379 - The Gelderse war ended. 1545 - German Parliament opened in Worms. 1550 - France and England signed the Peace of Boulogne. 1629 - The first game law was passed in the American colonies, by Virginia. 1664 - A charter to colonize Rhode Island was granted to Roger Williams in London. 1720 - In Paris, banking houses closed due to financial crisis. 1765 - Britain passed the Quartering Act that required the American colonies to house 10,000 British troops in public and private buildings. 1792 - Benjamin West became the first American artist to be selected president of the Royal Academy of London. 1828 - The Philadelphia & Columbia Railway was authorized as the first state owned railway. 1832 - Mormon Joseph Smith was beaten, tarred and feathered in Ohio. 1837 - Canada gave blacks the right to vote 1848 - A state of siege was proclaimed in Amsterdam. 1868 - Metropolitan Life Insurance Company was formed. 1878 - The British frigate Eurydice sank killing 300. 1880 - The first "hail insurance company" was incorporated in Connecticut. It was known as Tobacco Growers’ Mutual Insurance Company. 1882 - In Berlin, German scientist Robert Koch announced the discovery of the tuberculosis germ (bacillus). 1883 - The first telephone call between New York and Chicago took place. 1900 - Mayor Van Wyck of New York broke the ground for the New York subway tunnel that would link Manhattan and Brooklyn. 1900 - In New Jersey, the Carnegie Steel Corporation was formed. 1904 - Vice Adm. Tojo sank seven Russian ships as the Japanese strengthened their blockade of Port Arthur. 1905 - In Crete, a group led by Eleutherios Venizelos claimed independence from Turkey. 1906 - In Mexico, the Tehuantepec Istmian Railroad opened as a rival to the Panama Canal. 1906 - The "Census of the British Empire" revealed that England ruled 1/5 of the world. 1911 - In Denmark, penal code reform abolished corporal punishment. 1920 - The first U.S. coast guard air station was established at Morehead City, NC. 1924 - Greece became a republic. 1927 - Chinese Communists seized Nanking and break with Chiang Kai-shek over the Nationalist goals. 1932 - Belle Baker hosted a radio variety show from a moving train. It was the first radio broadcast from a train. 1934 - U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt signed a bill granting future independence to the Philippines. 1938 - The U.S. asked that all powers help refugees fleeing from the Nazis. 1944 - In Rome, The Gestapo rounded up innocent Italians and shot them to death in response to a bomb attack that killed 32 German policemen. Over 300 civilians were executed. 1946 - The Soviet Union announced that it was withdrawing its troops from Iran. 1947 - The U.S. Congress proposed the limitation of the presidency to two terms. 1954 - Britain opened trade talks with Hungary. 1955 - Tennessee Williams' play "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" debuted on Broadway. 1955 - The first oil drill seagoing rig was put into service. 1960 - A U.S. appeals court ruled that the novel, "Lady Chatterly’s Lover", was not obscene and could be sent through the mail. 1972 - Great Britain imposed direct rule over Northern Ireland. 1976 - The president of Argentina, Isabel Peron, was deposed by her country's military. 1980 - In San Salvador, Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero was shot to death by gunmen as he celebrated Mass. 1981 - "Nightline" with Ted Koppel premiered. 1982 - Soviet leader Leonid L. Brezhnev stated that Russia was willing to resume border talks with China. 1985 - Thousands demonstrated in Madrid against the NATO presence in Spain. 1988 - Former national security aides Oliver L. North and John M. Poindexter and businessmen Richard V. Secord and Albert Hakim pled innocent to Iran-Contra charges. 1989 - The Exxon Valdez spilled 240,000 barrels (11 million gallons) of oil in Alaska's Prince William Sound after it ran aground. 1989 - The U.S. decided to send humanitarian aid to the Contras. 1990 - Indian troops left Sri Lanka. 1991 - The African nation of Benin held its first presidential elections in about 30 years. 1993 - In Israel, Ezer Weizman, an advocate of peace with neighboring Arab nations, was elected President. 1995 - Russian forces surrounded Achkoi-Martan. It was one of the few remaining strongholds of rebels in Chechenia. 1995 - The U.S. House of Representatives passed a welfare reform package that made the most changes in social programs since the New Deal. 1997 - The Australian parliament overturned the world's first and only euthanasia law. 1998 - In Jonesboro, AR, two young boys open fire at students from woods near a school. Four students and a teacher were killed and 10 others were injured. The two boys were 11 and 13 years old cousins. 1998 - A former FBI agent said papers found in James Earl Ray's car supports a conspiracy theory in the assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. 1999 - In Kenya, at least 31 people were killed when a passenger train derailed. Hundreds were injured. 1999 - NATO launched air strikes against Yugoslavia (Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo and Vojvodina). The attacks marked the first time in its 50-year history that NATO attacked a sovereign country. The bombings were in response to Serbia's refusal to sign a peace treaty with ethnic Albanians who were seeking independence for the province of Kosovo. 1999 - The 7-mile tunnel under Mont Blanc in France was an inferno after a truck carrying flour and margarine caught on fire. At least 30 people were killed. 2001 - Apple Computer Inc's operating system MAC OS X went on sale. 2002 - Thieves stole five 17th century paintings from the Frans Hals Museum in the Dutch city of Haarlem. The paintings were worth about $2.6 million. The paintings were works by Jan Steen, Cornelis Bega, Adriaan van Ostade and Cornelis Dusart. 2005 - The government of Kyrgyzstan collapsed after opposition protesters took over President Askar Akayev's presidential compound and government offices. 2005 - Sandra Bullock received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. 2006 - In Spain, the Basque separatist group ETA announced a permanent cease-fire.
1603 Queen Elizabeth I died at age 69 after ruling England for more than 40 years. 1882 Robert Koch announced the discovery of the tuberculosis bacillus. 1949 Laurence Olivier's Hamlet became the first British film to win an Oscar. 1958 Rock 'n' roll star Elvis Presley joined the U.S. army for two years. 1989 In one of worst oil spills in recent history, the tanker, Exxon Valdez, ran aground and released 240,000 barrels of oil into Prince William Sound. 1999 NATO begins launching air strikes in an attempt to force Serbia to cease hostilities against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. 2002 Halle Berry became the first African-American actress to win a best actress Oscar and Denzel Washington became the second African-American actor to get the best actor award. 2004 The notorious Bird family's more than half-century stronghold on the nation of Antigua and Barbuda came to an end when Baldwin Spencer won the post of prime minister in the general election.
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/mar24.htm
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory
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