Friday, March 23, 2018

TODAY IN HISTORY ― MARCH 23

March 23 is the 82nd day of the year (83rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 283 days remaining until the end of the year. This date is slightly more likely to fall on a Monday, Wednesday or Friday (58 in 400 years each) than on Saturday or Sunday (57), and slightly less likely to occur on a Tuesday or Thursday (56).

NATIONAL CHIP AND DIP DAY 


1540 – Waltham Abbey is surrendered to King Henry VIII of England; the last religious community to be closed during the Dissolution of the (Catholic) Monasteries.


1775 – American Revolutionary War: Patrick Henry delivers his speech ending in, "Give me liberty, or give me death!" at St. John's Episcopal Church, Richmond, Virginia.

1806 – After traveling through the Louisiana Purchase and reaching the Pacific Ocean, explorers Lewis and Clark and their "Corps of Discovery" begin their arduous journey home.
1857 – Elisha Otis's first elevator is installed at 488 Broadway New York City.

1862 – The First Battle of Kernstown, Virginia, marks the start of Stonewall Jackson's Valley Campaign. Though a Confederate defeat, the engagement distracts Federal efforts to capture Richmond.

1909 – President Theodore Roosevelt leaves New York for a post-presidency safari in Africa. The trip is sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution and National Geographic Society.

1918 – First World War: On the third day of the German Spring Offensive, the 10th Battalion of the Royal West Kent Regiment is annihilated with many of the men becoming prisoners of war.



1919 – In Milan, Italy, Benito Mussolini founds his Fascist political movement.

1956 – Pakistan becomes the first Islamic republic in the world (Republic Day in Pakistan).



1983 – The Strategic Defense Initiative: President Ronald Reagan makes his initial proposal to develop technology to intercept enemy missiles.


1991 – The Revolutionary United Front, with support from the special forces of Charles Taylor's National Patriotic Front of Liberia, invades Sierra Leone in an attempt to overthrow Joseph Saidu Momoh, sparking a gruesome 11-year Sierra Leone Civil War.

1994 – At an election rally in Tijuana, Mexican presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio is assassinated by Mario Aburto Martínez.

1994 – Aeroflot Flight 593 crashes in Siberia when the pilot's fifteen-year-old son accidentally disengages the autopilot, killing all 75 people on board.



1994 – A United States Air Force (USAF) F-16 aircraft collides with a USAF C-130 at Pope Air Force Base and then crashes, killing 24 United States Army soldiers on the ground. This later became known as the Green Ramp disaster.


2001 – The Russian Mir space station is deorbited, breaking up in the atmosphere before falling into the southern Pacific Ocean near Fiji.


2003 – Battle of Nasiriyah, first major conflict during the invasion of Iraq.


2005 – BP Texas City Refinery explosion: During a routine startup a tower is overfilled due to an instrument failure and liquid builds up and flows out of a flare. The liquid ignites and explodes killing 15 workers.

2009 – FedEx Express Flight 80: A McDonnell Douglas MD-11 flying from Guangzhou, China crashes at Tokyo's Narita International Airport, killing both the captain and the co-pilot.



BORN TODAY

1749 – Pierre-Simon Laplace, French mathematician and astronomer (d. 1827)

1924 – Bette Nesmith Graham, American inventor, invented Liquid Paper (d. 1980)

1947 – Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, American author


From Wikipedia and Google (images), ex as noted.   

No comments: