This day in history

[March 05, 2013]  (AP)  Today is Tuesday, March 5, the 64th day of 2013. There are 301 days left in the year.

Today's highlight in history:

On March 5, 1963, country music performers Patsy Cline, Cowboy Copas and Hawkshaw Hawkins died in the crash of their plane, a Piper Comanche, near Camden, Tenn., along with pilot Randy Hughes (Cline's manager).

On this date:

In 1770, the Boston Massacre took place as British soldiers who'd been taunted by a crowd of colonists opened fire, killing five people.

In 1868, the Senate was organized into a Court of Impeachment to decide charges against President Andrew Johnson, who was later acquitted.

In 1933, in German parliamentary elections, the Nazi Party won 44 percent of the vote; the Nazis joined with a conservative nationalist party to gain a slender majority in the Reichstag.

In 1934, the first Mothers-in-Law Day celebration and parade took place in Amarillo, Texas.

In 1946, Winston Churchill delivered his "Iron Curtain" speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Mo.

In 1953, Soviet dictator Josef Stalin died after three decades in power. Composer Sergei Prokofiev died in Moscow at age 61.

In 1960, Cuban newspaper photographer Alberto Korda took the now-famous picture of guerrilla leader Ernesto "Che" Guevara during a memorial service in Havana for victims of a ship explosion. Elvis Presley was discharged from the U.S. Army.

In 1970, the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons went into effect after 43 nations ratified it.

In 1979, NASA's Voyager 1 space probe flew past Jupiter, sending back photographs of the planet and its moons.

In 1982, comedian John Belushi was found dead of a drug overdose in a rented bungalow in Hollywood; he was 33.

In 1983, Country Music Television (CMT) made its debut with the video "It's Four in the Morning," performed by Faron Young.

In 1993, Palair Macedonian Airlines Flight 301, a Fokker 100, crashed after taking off from Skopje (SKOHP'-yah) Airport, killing 83 of the 97 persons aboard.

Ten years ago: In a blunt warning to the United States and Britain, the foreign ministers of France, Germany and Russia said they would block any attempt to get U.N. approval for war against Iraq. Thousands of students around the U.S. walked out of classes to protest a possible war. A suicide bus bombing in Haifa, Israel, killed 17 people, including an American teenager. A Kuwaiti policeman was sentenced to 15 years in prison for a 2002 attack that wounded two U.S. soldiers on a Kuwaiti desert highway. Comedian George Miller died in Los Angeles.

Five years ago: John McCain, having sewn up the Republican presidential nomination, got a White House embrace from President George W. Bush, who praised the Arizona senator's "incredible courage and strength of character and perseverance."

One year ago: President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met at the White House, where Obama urged pressure and diplomacy to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear bomb while Netanyahu emphasized his nation's right to a pre-emptive attack. Assailants waving the battle flag of al-Qaida gunned down 25 policemen in the western Iraqi town of Haditha. Songwriter Robert B. Sherman, 86, who'd collaborated with his brother Richard on such movie musicals as "Mary Poppins" and "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang," died in London. "Lipstick Killer" William Heirens, 83, died in Chicago after serving more than six decades in prison.

Today's birthdays: Actor James Noble is 91. Actor James B. Sikking is 79. Actor Dean Stockwell is 77. Actor Fred Williamson is 75. Actress Samantha Eggar is 74. Actor Michael Warren is 67. Actor Eddie Hodges is 66. Singer Eddy Grant is 65. Rock musician Alan Clark (Dire Straits) is 61. Actress-comedian Marsha Warfield is 59. Magician Penn Jillette is 58. Actress Adriana Barraza is 57. Rock singers Craig and Charlie Reid (The Proclaimers) are 51. Rock musician John Frusciante (froo-SHAN'-tee) is 43. Singer Rome is 43. Actor Kevin Connolly is 39. Actress Jill Ritchie is 39. Actress Jolene Blalock is 38. Actress Eva Mendes is 38. Model Niki Taylor is 38. Actor Sterling Knight is 24. Actor Jake Lloyd is 24.

Thought for today: "To force opinion is like pushing the magnetized needle round by brute strength until it points to where we wish the North Star stood, rather than to where it really is." -- Dorothy Canfield Fisher, American author and essayist (1879-1958)

[Associated Press]

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