FOLKLORE-L Archives

Archiver > FOLKLORE > 1999-03 > 0920719853


From: Mary Minnich< >
Subject: [FOLKLORE-L] Today in History - March 6th
Date: Sat, 6 Mar 1999 06:30:53 -0500


Today is Saturday, March sixth, the 65th day of 1999.
There are 300 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:
On March sixth, 1836, the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, fell to Mexican
forces after a 13-day siege.

On this date:
In 1834, the city of York in Upper Canada was incorporated as Toronto.

In 1853, Verdi's opera "La Traviata" premiered in Venice, Italy.

In 1857, in its "Dred Scott" decision, the Supreme Court held that Scott, a
slave, could not sue for his freedom in federal court.

In 1933, a nationwide bank holiday declared by President Roosevelt went into
effect.

In 1935, retired Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Junior died in
Washington.

In 1944, US heavy bombers staged the first American raid on Berlin during
World War Two.

In 1957, the former British African colonies of the Gold Coast and Togoland
became the independent state of Ghana.

In 1983, in a case that drew much notoriety, a woman in New Bedford,
Massachusetts, reported being gang-raped atop a pool table in a tavern
called Big Dan's; four men were later convicted of the attack.

In 1987, 189 people died when the British ferry "Herald of Free Enterprise"
capsized off the Belgian port of Zeebrugge (zay-BRUKH'-ah).

Ten years ago: With nearly 90 percent of its pilots honoring the picket
lines of striking machinists, Eastern Airlines shut down operations on all
but three routes.

Five years ago: Two top Clinton administration officials, Vice President Al
Gore and White House adviser George Stephanopoulos, appeared on the Sunday
TV talk shows to blame Republican sniping for much of the furor over
Whitewater. Greek actress-turned-politician Melina Mercouri died in New
York.

One year ago: The Army honored three Americans who risked their lives and
turned their weapons on fellow soldiers to stop the slaughter of Vietnamese
villagers at My Lai (mee ly) in 1968. A Connecticut state lottery accountant
shot to death three supervisors and the lottery chief before killing
himself.

Today's Birthdays:
TV personality Ed McMahon is 76.
Conductor Sarah Caldwell is 75.
Former FBI and CIA director William Webster is 75.
Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan is 73.
Former Washington DC Mayor Marion S. Barry Junior is 63.
Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova is 62.
Country singer Doug Dillard is 62.
Senator Christopher Bond (Republican, Missouri) is 60.
Actress-writer Joanna Miles is 59.
Actor Ben Murphy is 57.
Opera singer Dame Kiri Te Kanawa is 55.
Singer Mary Wilson (The Supremes) is 55.
Actor-director Rob Reiner is 52.
Singer Kiki Dee is 52.
Actor Tom Arnold is 40.
Country songwriter Skip Ewing is 35.
Actress Moira Kelly is 31.
Actress Amy Pietz ("Caroline in the City") is 30.
Basketball player Shaquille O'Neal is 27.

Thought for Today:

"Le sens commun n'est pas si commun." (Common sense is not so common.)
-- Voltaire, French author and philosopher (1694-1778).

(Copyright 1999 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

This thread: