Jody Victor : Here are some events from history for this day, March 30th.

1842 - Anesthesia was used for the first time in an operation.

1856 - The Treaty of Paris was signed, ending the Crimean War.

1867 - A treaty for the purchase of Alaska from Russia for the sum of 7.2 million, approximately two cents an acre, was submitted to the U.S. Senate, passed, and the purchase was made.

1870 - The 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution went into effect, guaranteeing the right to vote regardless of race.

1909 - Queensboro Bridge opens, linking Manhattan and Queens.

1932 - Amelia Earhart is 1st woman to fly solo across the Atlantic.

1953 - Einstein announces revised unified field theory.

1981 - President Reagan shot and wounded by John W. Hinckley III.

2002 - The Queen Mother Elizabeth of England died at the age of 101.

Jody Victor

 

Jody Victor : Let's see what happened in history on this day, March 23rd.

1657 - France and England form an alliance against Spain.

1743 - Handel's Messiah is performed for the first time in London.

1775 - American revolutionary hero Patrick Henry, while addressing the House of Burgesses, declares "give me liberty, or give me death!"

1857 - Elisha Otis installs the first modern passenger elevator in a public building, at the corner of Broome Street in New York City.

1858 - Eleazer A. Gardner of Philadelphia patents the cable street car, which runs on overhead cables.

1880 - John Stevens of Neenah, Wis., patents the grain crushing mill. This mill allows four production to increase by 70 percent.

1903 - The Wright brothers obtain an airplane patent.

1909 - British Lt. Ernest Shackleton finds the magnetic South Pole.

1921 - Arthur G. Hamilton sets a new parachute record, safely jumping 24,400 feet.

1927 - Captain Hawthorne Gray sets a new balloon record soaring to 28,510 feet.

1933 - The Reichstag gives Adolf Hitler the power to rule by decree.

1942 - The Japanese occupy the Anadaman Islands in the Indian Ocean.

1908 - Joan Crawford, American actress, born.

1912 - Werner von Braun, German-born rocket pioneer, born.

Jody Victor

Jody Victor: Tomorrow, March 17, 2009, is St. Patrick's Day. Millions of people will wear green, and celebrate the Irish in, and around, them with parades, good cheer, and perhaps a pint of green beer. But few of St. Patrick's Day revelers have a clue about St. Patrick the man.

The real St. Patrick wasn't even Irish. He was born in Britain around A.D. 390 to an aristocratic Christian family with a townhouse, a country villa, and plenty of slaves. At 16 he was kidnapped and sent to the mountainous countryside of Ireland to tend sheep as a slave. During this time he converted to Christianity. According to folklore, a voice came to Patrick in his dreams, telling him to escape. He found passage on a pirate ship back to Britain, where he was reunited with his family.

The voice then told him to go back to Ireland where he became a priest then a bishop to the Irish people. It wasn't until centuries later that he was honored as the patron saint of Ireland. After he died on March 17, 461, a mythology slowly grew up around him. Some of the myths include that he banished snakes from Ireland (no snakes ever existed on the island and don't to this day). The snake myth and others, such as Patrick using three-leafed shamrocks to explain the Holy trinity, were likely spread by well-meaning monks centuries after St. Patrick's death.

St. Patrick's Day was basically invented in America by Irish-Americans. Eighteenth-century Irish soldiers fighting with the British in the Revolutionary War held the first St. Patrick's Day parades. Some soldiers, for example, marched through New York City in 1762 to reconnect with their Irish roots. Other parades followed in the years and decades after, including well-known celebrations in Boston, Philadelphia, and Chicago, primarily for flourishing Irish immigrant communities. It became a way to honor the saint but also to confirm ethnic identity and to create bonds of solidarity.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Jody Victor

Jody Victor :What happened on this day in history? Read the list below for some interesting facts!
March 9, 1862 - During the Civil War, the ironclads Monitor and Virginia (formerly Merrimac) clashed for five hours to a draw at Hampton Roads, VA.
1934 - Yury Gagarin, the world's first man in space, was born. Following his death on March 27, 1968, his obituary appeared in The Times.
1867 - Harper's Weekly featured a cartoon about black Americans.
1796 - Napoleon Bonaparte, the future emperor of France, married Josephine de Beauharnais.
1916 - Mexican raiders led by Pancho Villa attacked Columbus, N.M., killing more than a dozen people.
1933 - Congress, called into special session by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, began its 100 days of enacting New Deal legislation.
1945 - U.S. B-29 bombers launched incendiary bomb attacks against Japan during World War II, causing widespread devastation.
1954 - CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow critically reviewed Wisconsin Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy's anti-Communism campaign on "See It Now."
1959 - Mattel's Barbie doll, created by Ruth Handler, made its public debut at the American International Toy Fair in New York.
1975 - Work began on the Alaskan oil pipeline.
1977 - About a dozen armed Hanafi Muslims invaded three buildings in Washington D.C., killing one person and taking more than 130 hostages. The siege ended two days later.
1981 - Dan Rather made his debut as principal anchorman of "The CBS Evening News"; he signed off for the last time on the same date in 2005.
1989 - The Senate rejected President George H.W. Bush's nomination of John Tower to be defense secretary on a 53-47 vote.
1992 - Former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin died at age 78.
1996 - Comedian George Burns died at age 100.

Jody Victor

Jody Victor : Here are some highlights of historical dates and people for March 2nd.

On March 2, 1877 - Republican Rutherford B Hayes was declared the winner of the 1876 presidential election over Democrat Samuel J. Tilden, even though Tilden had won the popular vote.

On March 2, 1904 - Theodor Seuss Geisel, who wrote and illustrated the popular 'Dr. Seuss' children's books, was born. Following his death on Sept. 24, 1991, his obituary appeared in The Times.

1793 - Sam Houston, the first president of the Republic of Texas, was born near Lexington, Va.

1807 - Congress outlawed the importing of slaves to the united States, effective the following year.

1836 - Texas declared its independence from Mexico.

1899 - Congress established Mount Rainier National Park in Washington State.

1917 - Peurto Ricans were granted U.S. citizenship.

1933 - The movie "King Kong" had its world premiere in New York.

1949 - An American B-50 Superfortress, the Lucky Lady II, landed at Fort Worth, Texas, after completing the first non-stop, around-the-world flight.

1959 - Jazz trumpeter Miles Davis held the first of two recording sessions that yielded the album "Kind of Blue."

1962 - Wilt Chamberlain of the Philadelphia Warriors scored an NBA record 100 points in a game against the New York Knicks.

1965 - The movie version of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical "The Sound of Music" had its world premiere in New York.

1985 - The federal government approved a screening test for AIDS that detected antibodies to the virus, allowing possibly contaminated blood to be excluded from the blood supply.

2006 - President George W. Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced a landmark civilian nuclear cooperation deal in New Delhi.

Jody Victor