 Today's highlight in history:
On March 15, 1972, "The Godfather," Francis Ford Coppola's epic
gangster movie based on the Mario Puzo novel and starring Marlon
Brando and Al Pacino, premiered in New York.
On this date:
In 44 B.C., Roman dictator Julius Caesar was assassinated by a group
of nobles that included Brutus and Cassius.
In 1493, Christopher Columbus returned to Spain, concluding his
first voyage to the Western Hemisphere.
In 1767, the seventh president of the United States, Andrew Jackson,
was born in Waxhaw, S.C.
In 1820, Maine became the 23rd state.
In 1919, members of the American Expeditionary Force from World War
I convened in Paris for a three-day meeting to found the American
Legion.
In 1944, during World War II, Allied bombers again raided
German-held Monte Cassino.
In 1956, the Lerner and Loewe musical play "My Fair Lady," based on
Bernard Shaw's "Pygmalion," opened on Broadway.
In 1962, a chartered Flying Tiger Line airplane carrying 107 people,
most of them U.S. Army personnel, disappeared while en route from
Guam to the Philippines. In a speech to Congress, President John F.
Kennedy called for legislation protecting consumers' rights. "No
Strings," Richard Rodgers' first musical following the death of
longtime collaborator Oscar Hammerstein II, opened on Broadway.
In 1964, actress Elizabeth Taylor married actor Richard Burton in
Montreal; it was her fifth marriage, his second.
In 1970, Expo '70, promoting "Progress and Harmony for Mankind,"
opened in Osaka, Japan.
In 1975, Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis died near Paris at
age 69.
In 1985, the first Internet domain name, symbolics.com, was
registered by the Symbolics Computer Corp. of Massachusetts.
Ten years ago: A Houston jury spared Andrea Yates' life after
prosecutors stopped short of demanding the death penalty for the
tormented mother who'd drowned her five children in the bathtub.
(The 37-year-old Yates was sentenced to life in prison; however, she
was later acquitted by reason of insanity in a retrial.) TV pioneer
Sylvester "Pat" Weaver, who'd created NBC's "Today" and "Tonight"
shows, died in Santa Barbara, Calif., at age 93.
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Five years ago: In the Senate, Republicans easily turned back
Democratic legislation requiring a troop withdrawal from Iraq to
begin within 120 days. Actress Angelina Jolie adopted a 3-year-old
boy from an orphanage in Vietnam (Pax Thien was her fourth child
with Brad Pitt). The body of 6-year-old Christopher Barrios was
found in Brunswick, Ga., a week after he'd gone missing. (A
neighbor, David Edenfield, was convicted of aggravated child
molestation and murder and was sentenced to death; his wife, Peggy,
pleaded guilty in connection with the case and faces a 60-year
prison sentence; their son, George, has been deemed mentally
incompetent to stand trial.) Former baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn
died in Jacksonville, Fla., at age 80.
One year ago: Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's forces
overwhelmed rebels in the strategic eastern city of Ajdabiya (ahj-DAH'-bee-yah),
hammering them with air strikes, missiles, tanks and artillery.
William Melchert-Dinkel (MEL'-kurt DINK'-ehl), a former nurse
accused of seeking out depressed people online and encouraging two
to kill themselves, was found guilty by a judge in Faribault, Minn.,
of aiding the suicides of an English man and Canadian woman. John
Baker became the first Alaska Native musher to win the Iditarod
Trail Sled Dog Race since Jerry Riley did it in 1976.
Today's birthdays: Musician DJ Fontana is 81. Former
astronaut Alan L. Bean is 80. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader
Ginsburg is 79. Actor Judd Hirsch is 77. Rock musician Phil Lesh is
72. Singer Mike Love (The Beach Boys) is 71. Rock singer-musician
Sly Stone is 69. Rock singer-musician Howard Scott (War; Lowrider
Band) is 66. Rock singer Ry Cooder is 65. Actor Craig Wasson is 58.
Rock singer Dee Snider (Twisted Sister) is 57. Actress Park Overall
is 55. Movie director Renny Harlin is 53. Model Fabio is 51. Singer
Terence Trent D'Arby (AKA Sananda Maitreya) is 50. Rock singer Bret
Michaels (Poison) is 49. Rhythm-and-blues singer Rockwell is 48.
Rock singer Mark McGrath (Sugar Ray) is 44. Actress Kim Raver is 43.
Rock musician Mark Hoppus is 40. Actress Eva Longoria is 37.
Rapper-musician will.i.am (Black Eyed Peas) is 37. Rock DJ Joseph
Hahn (Linkin Park) is 35. Rapper Young Buck is 31. Actor Sean
Biggerstaff is 29. Rock musician Ethan Mentzer is 29. Actress
Caitlin Wachs is 23.
Thought for today: "There are no hopeless situations; there
are only men who have grown helpless about them." -- Clare Boothe
Luce, American author, diplomat, member of Congress (1903-1987)
[Associated Press]
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