Today is Wednesday, March 22, 2017 the 80th day of the year with 284 days remaining.
- Sunrise: 7:10am
- Sunset: 7:24pm
...giving us 12 hours and 14 minutes of daylight. 39% of the moon will be visible, setting at 2:04pm
Tides at the Golden Gate
- High: 7:36am/9:31pm
- Low: 1:58am/2:30pm
Special international celebrations today…
- Arab League Day - Syria
- Day of the People's Party - Laos
- Nauryz Meyrami (Traditional Spring Holiday) - Kazakhstan
- Novruz Bayram - Azerbaijan
- International Day of The Seal
- International Goof Off Day
It’s also…
- World Day for Water
- National Bavarian Crepes Day
- As Young As You Feel Day
- Education and Sharing Day
- National Goof-off Day
- Tuskegee Airmen Day
- National Puppy Day
- National Chia Day
- National Tamale Day
- Near Miss Day
On this day in…
1457 - Gutenberg Bible became the first printed book.
1622 - Indians attacked a group of colonist in the James River area ofVirginia. 347 residents were killed.
1630 - The first legislation to prohibit gambling was enacted. It was in Boston,MA.
1638 - Anne Hutchinsoon, a religious dissident, was expelled from theMassachusetts Bay Colony.
1719 - Frederick William abolished serfdom on crown property in Prussia.
1733 - Joseph Priestly invented carbonated water (seltzer).
1765 - The Stamp Act was passed. It was the first direct British tax on the American colonists. It was repealed on March 17, 1766.
1775 - Edmund Burke presented his 13 articles to the English parliament.
1790 -Thomas Jefferson became the firstU.S. Secretary of State.
1794 - TheU.S. Congress banned U.S. vessels from supplying slaves to other countries.
1822 - New York Horticultural Society was founded.
1841 - Englishman Orlando Jones patented cornstarch.
1871 - William Holden ofNorth Carolina became the first governor to be removed by impeachment.
1872 -Illinois became the first state to require sexual equality in employment.
1873 - Slavery was abolished in Puerto Rico.
1874 - The Young Men's Hebrew Association was organized in New York City.
1882 - TheU.S. Congress outlawed polygamy.
1888 - The English Football League was established.
1894 - The first playoff competition for theStanley Cup began. Montreal played Ottawa.
1895 - Auguste and Louis Lumiere showed their first movie to an invited audience in Paris.
1901 - Japan proclaimed that it was determined to keep Russia from encroaching on Korea.
1902 - Great Britain and Persia agreed to link Europe and India by telegraph.
1903 - Niagara Falls ran out of water due to a drought.
1903 - In Columbia, the region near Galera De Zamba was devastated by a volcanic eruption.
1904 - The first color photograph was published in the London Daily Illustrated Mirror.
1905 - Child miners in Britain received a maximum 8-hour workday.
1906 - France lost the first ever rugby game ever played against Britain.
1907 - Russians troops completed the evacuation of Manchuria in the face of advancing Japanese forces.
1907 - In Paris, it was reported that male cab drivers dressed as women to attract riders.
1910 - In Liberia, a telegraph cable linked Tenerife and Monrovia.
1911 - Herman Jadlowker became the first opera singer to perform two major roles in the same day at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City.
1915 - A German zeppelin made a night raid on Paris railway stations.
1919 - The first international airline service was inaugurated on a weekly schedule between Paris and Brussels.
1933 -U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a bill legalizing the sale and possession of beer and wine containing up to 3.2% alcohol.
1934 - The first Masters golf championship began in Augusta,GA.
1935 - In New York, blood tests were authorized as evidence in court cases.
1935 - Persia was renamed Iran.
1941 - The Grand Coulee Dam inWashington began operations.
1943 - The Dutch workweek was extended to 54 hours.
1943 - Obligatory work for woman ends in Belgium.
1945 - The Arab League was formed with the adoption of a charter in Cairo, Egypt.
1946 - The British granted Transjordan independence.
1946 - The first U.S. built rocket to leave the earth's atmosphere reached a height of 50-miles.
1947 - The Greek government imposed martial law in Laconia and southern Greece.
1948 - TheUnited States announced a land reform plan for Korea.
1948 - "The Voice of Firestone" became the first commercial radio program to be carried simultaneously on both AM and FM radio stations.
1954 - The first shopping mall opened in Southfield,Michigan.
1954 - The London gold market reopened for the first time since 1939.
1956 - Perry Como became the first major TV variety-show host to book a rock and roll act on his program. The act was Carl Perkins.
1960 - A.L. Schawlow & C.H. Townes obtained a patent for the laser. It was the first patent for any laser.
1965 - U.S. confirmed that its troops used chemical warfare against the Vietcong.
1972 - TheU.S. Senate passed the Equal Rights Amendment. It was not ratified by the states.
1974 - The Viet Cong proposed a new truce with theU.S. and South Vietnam. The truce included general elections.
1977 - The Dutch Den Uyl government fell.
1977 - Comedienne Lily Tomlin made her debut on Broadway in "Lily Tomlin on Stage" in New York.
1977 - Indira Ghandi resigned as the prime minister of India.
1978 - Karl Wallenda, of the Flying Wallendas, fell to his death while walking a cable strung between to hotels in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
1979 - TheNational Hockey League (NHL) voted to accept 4 WHA teams, the Oilers, Jets, Nordiques & Whalers.
1980 - People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) was founded by Ingrid Newkirk and Alex Pacheco.
1981 -U.S. Postage rates went from 15-cents to 18-cents an ounce.
1981 - RCA put its Selectra Vision laser disc players on the market.
1981 - A group of twelve Green Berets arrived in El Salvador. This brought the total number of advisors to fifty-four.
1981 - The first Mongolian entered space aboard the Russian Soyuz 39.
1982 - The Space Shuttle Columbia was launched into orbit on mission STS-3. It was the third orbital flight for the Columbia.
1987 - A barge loaded with 32,000 tons of refuse left Islip,NY, to find a place to unload. After being refused by several states and three countries space was found back in Islip.
1988 - The Congress overrodeU.S. President Reagan's veto of a sweeping civil rights bill.
1989 - Oliver North began two days of testimony at his Iran-Contra trial in Washington,DC.
1989 - TheU.S. House Ways and Means Committee reported the class gap was widening.
1990 - A jury in Anchorage,Alaska, found Captain Hazelwood not guilty in the Valdez oil spill.
1991 - Pamela Smart, a high school teacher, was found guilty inNew Hampshire of manipulating her student-lover to kill her husband.
1992 - A Fokker F-28 veered off a runway at New York's LaGuardia airport and into Flushing Bay, killing 27 people.
1993 - Cleveland Indians pitchers Steve Olin and Tim Crews were killed in a boating accident in Florida. Bob Ojeda was seriously injured in the accident.
1993 - Intel introduced the Pentium-processor (80586) 64 bits-60 MHz-100+ MIPS.
1995 - Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov returned to Earth after setting a record for 438 days in space.
1997 - Tara Lipinski, at 14 years and 10 months, became the youngest women's world figure skating champion.
2002 - TheU.S. Postal Rate Commission approved a request for a postal rate increase of first-class stamps from 34 cents to 37 cents by June 30. It was the first time a postal rate case was resolved through a settlement between various groups. The groups included theU.S. Postal Service, postal employees, mailer groups and competitors.
2002 - A collection of letters and cards sent by Princess Diana of Wales sold for $33,000. The letters and cards were written to a former housekeeper at Diana's teenage home.
Today’s birthday celebrants include (or included)...
- Sir Anthony Van Dyke 1599
- Johnny Evers 1883 - Baseball player
- Chico Marx 1887
- Louis L'Amour 1908 - Author
- Wilfrid Brambell 1912
- Karl Malden 1913 - Actor
- Virginia Grey 1917
- Ross Martin 1920
- Werner Klemperer 1920
- Marcel Marceau 1923 - Pantomimist
- Bill Wendell 1924
- Allen H. Neuharth 1924 - Founder of USA Today
- Easy Ed Macauley 1928
- Pat Robertson 1930
- Stephen Sondheim 1930 - Composer, lyricist
- William Shatner 1931 - Actor
- May Britt 1933
- J.P. McCarthy 1933
- M. Emmett Walsh 1935 - Actor
- Glen Campbell 1936
- Tom Flores 1937 - Football player
- Johnny Ferguson 1937
- Dave Keon 1940 - Hockey player
- Bruno Ganz 1941
- Barbara Parkins 1942
- George Benson 1943 - Singer, musician
- Keith Relf 1943 - Musician (Yardbirds)
- Jeremy Clyde 1944 - Actor, singer (Chad & Jeremy)
- Harry Vanda 1947 - Musician (The Easybeats)
- James Patterson 1947 - Author
- Wolf Blitzer 1948 - Broadcast journalist
- Andrew Lloyd Webber 1948 - Composer
- Randy Hobbs 1948 - Musician (The McCoys)
- Fanny Ardent 1949 - Actress
- Bob Costas 1952 - Sportscaster
- James House 1955 - Country singer
- Lena Olin 1955 - Actress ("Alias")
- Stephanie Mills 1957 - Actress, singer
- Matthew Modine 1959 - Actor
- Marcus Camby 1974 - Basketball player
- Cole Hauser 1975 - Actor
- Kellie Williams 1976 - Actress
- Reese Witherspoon 1976 - Actress ("Legally Blonde")
- John Otto 1977 - Musician (Limp Bizkit)
- Sonequa Martin-Green 1985 - Actress (TV: "The Walking Dead")
- Ike Davis 1987 - Baseball player
