Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Today is Monday, March 8, the 67th day of 2010 with 298 to follow.
The moon is waning. The morning stars are Mercury, Neptune and Jupiter. The evening stars are Venus, Mars, Saturn and Uranus.
Those born on this date are under the sign of Pisces. They include U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. in 1841; Scottish children's writer Kenneth Grahame, author of "The Wind in the Willows," in 1859; American printer and type designer Frederic William Goudy in 1865; German nuclear chemist Otto Hahn, discoverer of nuclear fission, in 1879; actress/dancer Cyd Charisse in 1921; actors Sam Jaffe in 1891; Louise Beavers in 1902, Claire Trevor in 1910, Alan Hale, Jr. in 1921; Susan Clark in 1940 (age 70) and Lynn Redgrave in 1943 (age 67); former Monkee Micky Dolenz in 1945 (age 65); songwriter Carole Bayer Sager in 1947 (age 63); Baseball Hall of Fame member Jim Rice, 1953 (age 57); actors Aidan Quinn in 1959 (age 51) and Camryn Manheim in 1961 (age 49); Freddie Prinze Jr. in 1976 (age 34) and James Van Der Beek in 1977 (age 33).
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On this date in history:
In 1817, the New York Stock Exchange was established.
In 1913, the Internal Revenue Service began to levy and collect income taxes in the United States.
In 1917, strikes and riots in St. Petersburg marked the start of the Russian Bolshevik revolution.
In 1921, after Germany failed to make its first war reparation payment, French troops occupied Dusseldorf and other towns on the Ruhr River in Germany's industrial heartland.
In 1957, Egypt reopened the Suez Canal to international traffic after Israel withdrew from occupied Egyptian territory.
In 1965, nearly 4,000 U.S. Marines landed in South Vietnam.
In 1983, U.S. President Ronald Reagan referred to the Soviet Union an "evil empire" in a speech before the British House of Commons.
In 1990, Colombia's M-19 leftist guerrilla group surrendered its arms, ending 16 years of insurrection.
In 1992, Menachem Begin, the stern, hunted Israeli underground leader who went on to win the Nobel Prize as prime minister for making peace with Egypt, died of heart failure.
In 1998, James McDougal, a former business partner of then-Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton, died in prison. He had been convicted in connection with the Whitewater land scandal.
In 1999, the U.S. Energy Department fired a Chinese-born computer scientist from the Los Alamos, N.M., National Laboratory in the theft of U.S. nuclear secrets.
Also in 1999, baseball great Joe DiMaggio died at age 84.
In 2002, as charges of child abuse by Roman Catholic clergy emerged across the United States and dozens of priests resigned or were suspended, the bishop of Palm Beach, Fla., stepped down after admitting he had abused a teenage seminary student in the 1970s. His predecessor had resigned in 1999 admitting he had molested five boys.
In 2003, Israeli helicopters fired missiles at a car in the Gaza Strip, killing a top Hamas leader and three bodyguards.
In 2004, writer and actor Spalding Gray, missing for almost two months, was found in New York's East River, a suspected suicide.
Also in 2004, as revenge killings continued in Haiti, Boniface Alexandre, the Supreme Court chief justice, was named interim president.
In 2005, thousands of Lebanese protested the pullout of Syrian forces.
In 2006, an official of the World Health Organization expressed strong concern that bird flu spreading to humans could cause a massive pandemic.
Also in 2006, three Alabama college students reportedly looking for cheap thrills were arrested on charges they set fire to nine rural Baptist churches.
In 2007, eight children and an adult died in a four-story house fire near Yankee Stadium in New York.
Also in 2007, the British House of Commons approved a measure requiring the House of Lords to be elected by the people rather than appointed.
In 2008, U.S. President George W. Bush vetoed legislation that would have outlawed severe interrogation methods such as waterboarding used by the CIA. Bush said the proposal would eliminate "one of the most valuable tools in the war on terror."
In 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama said the United States may try reconciliation with Taliban moderates in an effort to turn around the Afghan war.
Also in 2009, a man on a motorcycle drove into a crowd of Baghdad police recruits and detonated an explosive vest, killing 28 people and wounding almost 60 others.
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A thought for the day: Spencer Johnson said, "Happiness is not having what you want, it's wanting what you have."
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Today is Tuesday, March 9, the 68th day of 2010 with 297 to follow.
The moon is waning. The morning stars are Mercury, Neptune and Jupiter. The evening stars are Venus, Mars, Saturn and Uranus.
Those born on this date are under the sign of Pisces. They include Leland Stanford, railroad builder and founder of California's Stanford University, in 1824; English novelist and poet Victoria Sackville-West in 1892; composer Samuel Barber in 1910; detective novelist Mickey Spillane in 1918; Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, in 1934; actors Joyce Van Patten in 1934 (age 76), Marty Ingels in 1936 (age 74), Raul Julia in 1940 and Trish Van Devere in 1943 (age 67); country singer Mickey Gilley in 1936 (age 74); former world chess champion Bobby Fischer in 1943; rock musician Robin Trower in 1945 (age 65); actors Linda Fiorentino in 1960 (age 50), Juliette Binoche in 1964 (age 46) and Emmanuel Lewis in 1971 (age 39); Olympic gold medal skier Julia Mancuso in 1984 (age 26); and rapper and actor Bow Wow in 1987 (age 23).
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On this date in history:
In 1841, at the end of a historic case, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, with only one dissent, that the African slaves who seized control of the Amistad slave ship had been illegally forced into slavery and thus were free under U.S. law.
In 1862, the opposing ironclad ships, the Union's Monitor and the Confederate's Merrimac (renamed the Virginia), battled to a draw off Hampton Roads, Va.
In 1864, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant was appointed commander in chief of Union forces in the U.S. Civil War.
In 1917, several hundred Mexican guerrillas under the command of Francisco "Pancho" Villa crossed the U.S.-Mexican border and attacked the small border town of Columbus, N.M., killing 17 Americans.
In 1945, 343 American airplanes bombed Tokyo with incendiary bombs, killing 83,000 people and destroying some 250,000 buildings over 16 square miles.
In 1959, Barbie, the perennially popular doll, debuted in stores.
In 1967, the daughter of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, Svetlana, defected to the United States.
In 1986, the module containing the bodies of the seven astronauts killed in the Jan. 28 explosion of the shuttle Challenger was located off Florida.
In 1990, Haitian dictator Gen. Prosper Avril stepped down from power under pressure and the military agreed to turn the nation over to civilian rule.
In 1991, Israeli troops fired on Palestinian protesters in the occupied Gaza Strip, wounding 55.
In 1992, a federal judge in New York announced a final $1.3 billion agreement to settle the civil suits growing out of the 1989 collapse of Drexel Burham Lambert, once the most powerful firm on Wall Street.
In 1993, gunmen linked to the former Contra rebels stormed the Nicaraguan Embassy in Costa Rica and took the ambassador and at least 18 others hostage.
In 2004, John Allen Muhammad was sentenced to death for his part in one of the 10 Washington-area sniper killings in 2002.
Also in 2004, a government report warned that obesity could soon become the leading cause of preventable deaths in the United States.
In 2005, Dan Rather stepped down as anchor and managing editor of "CBS Evening News." His action followed acknowledgment of major flaws in a broadcast about U.S. President George Bush's National Guard service.
In 2006, scientists reported evidence of water on a Saturn moon.
In 2007, the Justice Department accused the FBI of misusing the USA Patriot Act in gathering information on thousands of U.S. citizens and foreign nationalists allegedly with suspected links to terrorism.
In 2008, Pakistani Leaders voted to strip President Pervez Musharraf of certain crucial powers and reinstate the Supreme Court he had fired a week earlier.
Also in 2008, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero was re-elected to a second term. During his first term, among other things, he removed Spanish troops from Iraq and legalized same-sex marriage.
In 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama lifted the U.S. limit on funding for embryonic stem-cell research, calling it an important advancement in the cause of science in America.
Also in 2009, the U.N. reported the cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe had claimed an estimated 4,000 lives with nearly 90,000 others having contracted the disease.
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A thought for the day: Napoleon said, "History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon."
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Today is Wednesday, March 10, the 69th day of 2010 with 296 to follow.
The moon is waning. The morning stars are Mercury, Neptune and Jupiter. The evening stars are Venus, Mars, Saturn and Uranus.
Those born on this date are under the sign of Pisces. They include Italian scientist Marcello Malpighi in 1628; actor Barry Fitzgerald in 1888; French composer Arthur Honegger in 1892; jazz cornetist Bix Beiderbecke in 1903; poet Margaret Fishback in 1900; assassin James Earl Ray in 1928; playwright David Rabe and actor Chuck Norris, both in 1940 (age 70); college basketball coach Jim Valvano in 1946; Kim Campbell, the first woman prime minister of Canada, and journalist Bob Greene, both in 1947 (age 63); al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in 1957 (age 53); actors Sharon Stone in 1958 (age 52) and Jasmine Guy in 1964 (age 46); Olympic gold medal gymnasts Mitch Gaylord in 1961 (age 49) and Shannon Miller in 1977 (age 33); Britain's Prince Edward in 1964 (age 45); rapper Timbaland in 1971 (age 39); and country singer Carrie Underwood in 1983 (age 27).
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On this date in history:
In 515 B.C., the rebuilding of the great Jewish temple in Jerusalem was completed.
In 1862, the U.S. Treasury issued the first American paper money, in denominations from $5 to $1,000.
In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell transmitted the first telephone message to his assistant in the next room: "Mr. Watson, come here. I want you."
In 1880, the Salvation Army of the United States was founded in New York City.
In 1945, 300 U.S. bombers dropped almost 2,000 tons of incendiaries on Tokyo, destroying large portions of the Japanese capital and killing 100,000 people.
In 1969, James Earl Ray pleaded guilty to the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and was sentenced to 99 years in prison.
In 1977, astronomers discovered rings around Uranus.
In 1987, the Vatican condemned human artificial fertilization or generation of human life outside the womb and said all reproduction must result from the "act of conjugal love."
In 1992, U.S. President George H.W. Bush and Democratic challenger Bill Clinton got sweeping Southern victories in the Super Tuesday primaries.
In 1993, FBI agents arrested a third person, a 25-year-old Kuwaiti-born chemical engineer, in connection with the World Trade Center bombing.
Also in 1993, an anti-abortion rights demonstrator fatally shot a doctor at a Pensacola, Fla., clinic.
In 1994, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported the number of new AIDS cases in the United States had more than doubled in 1993.
In 1997, The Citadel announced that 10 male cadets had been disciplined for mistreating two female cadets. The women later resigned from the South Carolina military academy.
In 1998, Indonesian President Suharto was elected to a seventh term.
In 2003, The Palestinian Legislative Council created the position of prime minister but peace talks with Israel continued under the command of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
Also in 2003, Ivory Coast, torn by civil war for six months, got a new premier, Seydou Diarra, under a French-brokered peace accord.
2004, Lee Boyd Malvo, 19, was sentenced to life in prison without parole for his role in the 10 Washington-area sniper killings in 2002. His partner, John Allen Muhammad, considered the mastermind, was sentenced to death one day earlier.
In 2005, former U.S. President Bill Clinton underwent surgery to remove scar tissue and fluid from his chest. He had quadruple bypass surgery five months earlier.
Also in 2005, a suicide bomber killed at least 30 people and injured 27 at a funeral procession in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.
In 2006, the body of Tom Fox, a kidnapped U.S. Christian peace activist, was found near Baghdad, authorities report. Three others kidnapped with Fox were reported released.
Also in 2006, amid broad U.S. opposition, Dubai Ports World bowed out of an agreement to manage six U.S. ports on the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts. The matter would be turned over to a U.S. company, officials said.
In 2007, captured terrorist Khalid Sheik Mohammed, long suspected of masterminding the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, confessed to planning them and said he played a role in about 30 other attacks and plots.
Also in 2007, a federal court threw out a District of Columbia ban on keeping handguns in private homes as unconstitutional.
In 2008, New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, a former crusading state attorney general against white collar crime, was pressured to resign after being implicated in a high-priced prostitution ring.
Also in 2008, some 400 Buddhist monks took part in a protest march in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, to mark the failed uprising of 1959 that resulted in the Dalai Lama fleeing to India. As Chinese forces moved in, what had been a peaceful gathering turned violent.
In 2009, a rural Alabama man, identified as Michael McLendon, erupted on a shooting spree, killing at least 10 people, including his parents and several other family members before killing himself.
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A thought for the day: Dr. Karl Menninger said, "Love cures people -- both the ones who give it and the ones who receive it."
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Today is Thursday, March 11, the 70th day of 2010 with 295 to follow.
The moon is waning. The morning stars are Mercury, Neptune and Jupiter. The evening stars are Venus, Mars, Saturn and Uranus.
Those born on this date are under the sign of Pisces. They include silent movie star Dorothy Gish in 1898; bandleader Lawrence Welk in 1903; former British Prime Minister Harold Wilson in 1916; civil rights leader Ralph Abernathy in 1926; media mogul Rupert Murdoch in 1931 (age 79); television newsman Sam Donaldson in 1934 (age 76); U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in 1936 (age 74); musician Bobby McFerrin and filmmaker Jerry Zucker ("Airplane!," the "Naked Gun" movies), both in 1950 (age 60); author Douglas Adams ("Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy") in 1952; singer Lisa Loeb in 1968 (age 42), and actors Alex Kingston in 1963 (age 47) and Thora Birch in 1982 (age 28).
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On this date in history:
In 1824, the U.S. War Department created the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
In 1845, John Chapman, better known as Johnny Appleseed, died in Allen County, Ind.
In 1861, In Montgomery, Ala., delegates from South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas adopted the Permanent Constitution of the Confederate States of America.
In 1888, more than 200 people died as a four-day snowstorm crippled New York City.
In 1918, the first cases of "Spanish" influenza were reported in the United States. By 1920, the virus had killed as many as 22 million people worldwide, 500,000 in the United States.
In 1930, William Howard Taft became the first former U.S. president to be buried in the national cemetery at Arlington, Va.
In 1941, the Lend Lease Bill to help Britain survive attacks by Germany was passed by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
In 1942, after struggling against great odds to save the Philippines from Japanese conquest, U.S. Army Gen. Douglas MacArthur abandoned the island fortress of Corregidor under orders from U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, leaving behind 90,000 U.S. and Filipino troops.
In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev, 54, succeeded Konstantin Chernenko as leader of the Soviet Union.
In 1990, the Lithuanian Parliament declared the Baltic republic free of the Soviet Union and called for negotiations to make secession a reality.
Also in 1990, Gen. Augusto Pinochet stepped down as president of Chile, making way for an elected civilian leader for first time since the 1973 coup.
In 1993, Janet Reno won unanimous U.S. Senate approval to become the first female U.S. attorney general.
In 2001, one of the worst weeks in Wall Street history began with a 436.37-point -- 4.1 percent -- decline in the Dow Jones industrial average. By week's end, all the major indexes were down 6 percent.
In 2003, published reports said a six-man Arab ministerial committee planned to travel to Baghdad to ask Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to step down and go into exile.
In 2004, 10 bombs exploded almost simultaneously on four commuter trains in Madrid, Spain, killing 191 people and injuring 1,400.
In 2005, an accused rapist allegedly grabbed a gun from a sheriff's deputy in an eighth-floor Atlanta courtroom and killed a judge, a court reporter and a deputy. A federal agent died as the suspect, Brian Nichols, made his escape. Nichols surrendered the next day after holding a woman hostage overnight.
In 2006, Slobodan Milosevic, former president of Yugoslavia on trial for war crimes, was found dead in his cell at The Hague, an apparent heart attack victim.
Also in 2006, more than 100,000 immigrants and supporters rallied in Chicago in opposition to a federal bill that would put a fence at Mexico's border.
And, in France, proposed labor reform legislation sparked student riots across the nation.
In 2007, French President Jacques Chirac announced his retirement after more than 40 years in politics.
In 2008, the Federal Reserve outlined a $200 billion program that lets the biggest U.S. banks borrow Treasury securities at discount rates in an effort to avert a financial crisis.
In 2009, French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced that France, a founding member of NATO, would rejoin the alliance's military command structure after half a century.
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A thought for the day: U.S. President William Howard Taft said, "The constitutional purpose of a budget is to make government responsive to public opinion and responsible for its acts."
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Today is Friday, March 12, the 71st day of 2010 with 294 to follow.
The moon is waning. The morning stars are Mercury, Neptune and Jupiter. The evening stars are Venus, Mars, Saturn and Uranus.
Those born on this date are under the sign of Pisces. They include pioneer automaker Clement Studebaker in 1831; New York Times publisher Adolph Ochs in 1858; actor/singer Gordon MacRae in 1921; novelist Jack Kerouac in 1922; astronaut Wally Schirra in 1923; playwright Edward Albee in 1928 (age 82); former U.N. Ambassador and Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young in 1932 (age 78); singer/songwriter Al Jarreau in 1940 (age 70); actress Barbara Feldon in 1933 (age 77); singer Liza Minnelli in 1946 (age 64); singer/songwriter James Taylor in 1948 (age 62); former baseball player Darryl Strawberry in 1962 (age 48); actor Aaron Eckhart in 1968 (age 42); and musician Pete Doherty in 1979 (age 31).
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On this date in history:
In 1912, Juliette Gordon Low organized the first Girl Scouts of America troop in Savannah, Ga.
In 1930, Mahatma Gandhi began a campaign of civil disobedience against British rule in India.
In 1933, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt made the first of his Sunday evening "fireside chats" -- informal radio addresses from the White House to the American people.
In 1938, Nazi Germany invaded and occupied Austria.
In 1947, in a speech to Congress, U.S. President Harry Truman outlined what became known as the Truman Doctrine, calling for U.S. aid to countries threatened by communist revolution.
In 1963, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to grant former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill honorary U.S. citizenship.
In 1990, Exxon pleaded guilty to criminal charges and agreed to pay a $100 million fine in a $1.1 billion settlement of the Exxon Valdez oil spill.
Also in 1990, South African President F.W. de Klerk introduced legislation to revise land tenure laws and end racial discrimination in land ownership.
In 1993, more than 250 people were killed when a wave of bombings rocked Mumbai.
In 1994, the Church of England ordained its first women priests.
In 1999, former Soviet allies the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland joined NATO.
In 2000, Pope John Paul II apologized for the errors of the Roman Catholic Church during the past 2,000 years.
In 2001, six people, including five Americans, were killed when an errant bomb from a U.S. Navy fighter jet exploded at an observation post in Kuwait.
In 2002, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, speaking after Israeli raids killed 31 Palestinians, declared that Israel must end its "illegal occupation" of Palestinian land. That night, the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.
And in 2002, the Boston archdiocese said it would have to sell church property, take out loans and seek donations from wealthy supporters to cover the $100 million in settlements of lawsuits against priests in sexual abuse cases.
In 2003, Elizabeth Smart, 15, who had been kidnapped from her Salt Lake City home on June 2002, was found alive in the custody of a panhandler and his wife in nearby Sandy, Utah.
Also in 2003, the premier of Serbia, Zoran Djindjic, died after being shot by assassins.
In 2004, millions of Spaniards protested the Madrid train bombings of the day before that killed 191 and wounded more than 1,000 others.
In 2005, Iran rejected Washington's willingness to offer economic incentives if the Islamic state gives up its nuclear program.
Also in 2005, a gunman killed seven people and himself at an evangelical church meeting near Milwaukee.
In 2006, Iraq violence claimed at least 70 lives, including nearly 50 who died in six car bombings in Baghdad's major Shiite stronghold. Hundreds were wounded.
In 2008, New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer resigned after being caught up in a high-priced prostitution scandal. He was succeeded by Lt. Gov. David Paterson, New York's first African-American (and legally blind) governor.
In 2009, a 17-year-old youth, who felt "no one recognized my potential," killed 17 people at his former school in Winnenden, Germany, including nine students. The alleged shooter died in a police gun battle.
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A thought for the day: Andrew Young told Playboy magazine, "Once the Xerox copier was invented, diplomacy died."
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Today is Saturday, March 13, the 72nd day of 2010 with 293 to follow.
The moon is waning. The morning stars are Mercury, Neptune and Jupiter. The evening stars are Venus, Mars, Saturn and Uranus.
Those born on this date are under the sign of Pisces. They include English chemist Joseph Priestley, the discoverer of oxygen, in 1733; astronomer Percival Lowell in 1855; publisher Walter Annenberg in 1908; bandleader Sammy Kaye in 1910; L. Ron Hubbard, science fiction writer and founder of the Church of Scientology, in 1911; former CIA Director William Casey in 1913; cartoonist Al Jaffee in 1921 (age 89); Helen "Callaghan" Candaele Saint Aubin, known as the "Ted Williams of women's baseball," in 1929; singer/songwriter Neil Sedaka in 1939 (age 71); political commentator Charles Krauthammer in 1950 (age 60); and actors William H. Macy in 1950 (age 60), Dana Delany in 1956 (age 54) and Emile Hirsch in 1985 (age 25).
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On this date in history:
In 1639, Harvard College in Massachusetts was named for John Harvard.
In 1781, the planet Uranus was discovered by British astronomer William Herschel.
In 1868, the Republican-dominated U.S. Senate began impeachment proceedings against U.S. President Andrew Johnson, a Democrat and successor to Abraham Lincoln, climaxing a political feud following the Civil War. He was acquitted by one vote.
In 1881, Czar Alexander II, the ruler of Russia since 1855, was killed in a St. Petersburg street by a bomb thrown by a member of the revolutionary "People's Will" group.
In 1887, Chester Greenwood of Maine received a patent for earmuffs.
In 1933, in the depths of the Great Depression, banks throughout the United States began to reopen after a weeklong bank holiday declared by President Franklin Roosevelt in a successful effort to stop runs on bank assets.
In 1943, a plot by German officers to kill Hitler by blowing up his plane failed.
In 1974, the oil-producing Arab countries agreed to lift their five-month embargo on petroleum sales to the United States. The embargo, during which gasoline prices soared 300 percent, was in retaliation for U.S. support of Israel during the October 1973 Middle East War.
In 1989, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration quarantined all fruit imported from Chile after traces of cyanide were found in two Chilean grapes.
In 1990, the Soviet Congress of People's Deputies formally ended the Communist Party's monopoly rule, establishing a presidential system and giving Mikhail Gorbachev broad new powers.
In 1992, more than 400 people were killed when a powerful earthquake hit northeastern Turkey.
In 1994, the president of the independent black homeland of Bophuthatswana was deposed after repeatedly changing his mind about allowing his nation to participate in the upcoming South African elections. South Africa consequently took direct control of the area.
In 1996, a gun collector opened fire on a kindergarten class in Dunblane, Scotland, killing 16 children, their teacher and himself.
Also in 1996, Liggett, the fifth-biggest tobacco company, broke ranks with its rivals and settled a class-action cancer lawsuit.
And in 1996, world leaders -- including U.S. President Bill Clinton, Russia's Boris Yeltsin, King Hussein of Jordan and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat -- met in Cairo to reaffirm the Middle East peace process.
In 1997, a Jordanian soldier killed seven Israeli schoolgirls at the Israeli-Jordanian border.
In 2000, the Tribune Co. and the Times Mirror Co., media giants featuring two of the nation's oldest and largest newspapers (Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times), announced they would merge.
In 2001, the United States banned all imports of animals or animal products from EU countries to prevent the spread of foot-and-mouth disease.
In 2004, Iran called an indefinite halt to inspections of its nuclear facilities.
Also in 2004, the California Supreme Court ordered an end to same-sex marriages in San Francisco.
In 2005, Pope John Paul II was released from a Rome hospital where he was undergoing treatment for the flu and respiratory problems.
Also in 2005, the Pentagon was reported questioning some $108.4 million in expenditures Halliburton Co. charged the U.S. government for fuel delivery in Iraq.
In 2007, Mexican President Felipe Calderon expressed his opposition to the U.S-Mexican border fence the United States was building in an effort to control illegal immigration.
In 2008, in an effort to ease the U.S. credit crisis, the White House announced a plan to require states to tighten rules for mortgage brokers and calls on lenders to make full disclosure of payment terms to buyers.
Also in 2008, the body of Iraqi Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho, who led Mosul's Chaldean Catholic Church, was found in Mosul. He had been kidnapped in February.
And, gold prices on the New York Mercantile Exchange hit $1,000 per ounce for the first time.
In 2009, admitted Wall Street swindler Bernard Madoff, accused of defrauding thousands of clients of billions of dollars in a massive Ponzi scheme over 20 years, pleaded guilty to 11 counts that lawyers say could net him a 150-year prison sentence.
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A thought for the day: William Casey was quoted as saying, "I pass the test that says a man who isn't a socialist at 20 has no heart and a man who is a socialist at 40 has no head."
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Today is Sunday, March 14, the 73rd day of 2010 with 292 to follow.
Daylight Saving Time begins in the United States at 2 a.m. local time.
The moon is waning. The morning stars are Mercury, Neptune and Jupiter. The evening stars are Venus, Mars, Saturn and Uranus.
Those born on this date are under the sign of Pisces. They include Thomas Marshall, U.S. vice president under Woodrow Wilson, in 1854; railroad engineer and hero of the ballad Casey Jones, whose real name was John Luther Jones, in 1863; physicist Albert Einstein in 1879; bandleader Les Brown in 1912; cartoonist Hank Ketcham ("Dennis the Menace") in 1920; astronaut Frank Borman in 1928 (age 82); actor Michael Caine and composer Quincy Jones, both in 1933 (age 77); comedian Billy Crystal in 1947 (age 63), Prince Albert of Monaco in 1958 (age 52); and Baseball Hall of Fame member Kirby Puckett in 1960.
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On this date in history:
In 1794, Eli Whitney was granted a patent for the cotton gin.
In 1812, the U.S. government authorized issue of America's first war bonds, to pay for military equipment for use against the British.
In 1950, the FBI's "10 Most Wanted Fugitives" list made its debut.
In 1951, Seoul, South Korea, was recaptured by U.N. troops during the Korean War.
In 1964, Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby was convicted of killing Lee Harvey Oswald, the assumed assassin of U.S. President John Kennedy. Ruby was sentenced to death but the conviction was overturned and he died of cancer while awaiting a new trial.
In 1985, the United States evacuated U.S. officials from Lebanon, leaving a small diplomatic presence in war-torn Beirut.
In 1989, the Bush administration announced it would ban imports of semi-automatic assault rifles indefinitely.
In 1991, scientists from around the world reported the discovery of the gene that triggers colon cancer.
Also in 1991, the emir of Kuwait returned to his country for the first time since the Iraq invasion.
In 1992, a U.S. aircraft carrier was sent to the Persian Gulf as U.N. officials pressed Iraq on the destruction of weapons in compliance with U.N. Security Council resolutions.
In 1997, U.S. President Bill Clinton underwent knee surgery at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland after injuring himself while visiting golfer Greg Norman in Palm Beach, Fla.
In 2001, British Prime Minister Tony Blair ordered a step-up in the slaughter of livestock as the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak continued.
In 2002, the U.S. Justice Department announced that the accounting firm Arthur Andersen had been indicted for destroying thousands of documents related to the investigation into the collapse of Enron, the energy-trading company.
In 2003, Philippine military officials said almost 200 separatist militants had been killed in three days of fighting on Mindanao.
Also in 2003, Hu Jintao was chosen to replace Jiang Zemin as president of China.
In 2004, Vladimir Putin easily won re-election as president of Russia.
Also in 2004, the Socialist Workers Party scored an upset victory in Spain's parliamentary elections.
In 2005, Spanish police were reported to have broken Europe's largest money-laundering ring with the arrest of seven lawyers and three notaries.
In 2006, U.S. President George W. Bush's approval rating fell to a record low of 33 percent in a Pew survey. It was 36 percent in the CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll.
Also in 2006, Israeli soldiers and special police surrounded a Jericho prison in the Gaza Strip to reclaim prisoners the Palestinians were planning to release. Five of the men had been jailed for the 2001 assassination of the Israeli tourism minister.
In 2007, a massive explosion in a Kabul, Afghanistan, bazaar where guns and ammunition are sold killed at least 13 people and injured 15 others. Authorities said the blast wasn't terror-related.
In 2008, Tibet's bitter resentment of Chinese dominance turned violent as rioters in Lhasa attacked ethnic Chinese residents and burned and looted Chinese and Muslim owned shops while battling Chinese forces. The death toll stood officially at 10 but Tibetan sources said more than 100 were killed.
In 2009, Australian authorities say a 230-ton oil spill from a Hong-Kong registered freighter caused an environmental disaster along nearly 40 miles of beach off the Queensland coast.
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A thought for the day: Albert Einstein wrote, "Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."
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