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 Today's
highlight in history:
On March 25, 1965, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. led 25,000 marchers to the state capitol in Montgomery, Ala., to protest the denial of voting rights to blacks.
On this date:
In 1634, English colonists sent by Lord Baltimore arrived in present-day Maryland.
In 1865, during the Civil War, Confederate forces attacked Fort Stedman in Virginia, but were forced to withdraw by counterattacking Union troops.
In 1894, Jacob S. Coxey began leading an "army" of unemployed from Massillon, Ohio, to Washington to demand help from the federal government.
In 1908, movie director David Lean ("Brief Encounter," "The Bridge on the River Kwai," "Lawrence of Arabia," "Doctor Zhivago") was born in Croydon, England.
In 1918, French composer Claude Debussy died in Paris.
In 1911, 146 people, mostly female immigrants, were killed when fire broke out at the Triangle Shirtwaist Co. in New York.
In 1947, a coal mine explosion in Centralia, Ill., claimed 111 lives.
In 1975, King Faisal of Saudi Arabia was shot to death by a nephew with a history of mental illness. (The nephew was beheaded in June 1975.)
In 1988, in New York City's so-called "Preppie Killer" case, Robert Chambers Jr. pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter in the death of 18-year-old Jennifer Levin. (Chambers received a sentence of 5 to 15 years in prison; he was released in February 2003.)
In 1990, 87 people, most of them Honduran and Dominican immigrants, were killed when fire raced through an illegal social club in New York City.
Ten years ago: Shaken by horror stories from the worst genocide since World War II, President Clinton grimly acknowledged during his Africa tour that "we did not act quickly enough" to stop the slaughter of up to a million Rwandans four years earlier. The FCC netted $578.6 million at auction for licenses for new wireless technology.
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Five years ago: The Senate voted to slash President Bush's proposed $726 billion tax-cutting package in half, handing the president a defeat on the foundation of his plan to awaken the nation's slumbering economy. Former Waterbury, Conn., mayor Philip Giordano was convicted by a federal jury of violating the civil rights of two preteen girls by sexually abusing them. (Giordano was later sentenced to 37 years in federal prison.)
One year ago: Iran announced it was partially suspending cooperation with the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, citing what it called "illegal and bullying" Security Council sanctions imposed on the country for its refusal to stop enriching uranium. Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi won Mauritania's first free presidential election.
Today's birthdays: Modeling agency founder Eileen Ford is 86. Former astronaut James Lovell is 80. Movie reviewer Gene Shalit is 76. Feminist activist and author Gloria Steinem is 74. Singer Anita Bryant is 68. Singer Aretha Franklin is 66. Actor Paul Michael Glaser is 65. Singer Elton John is 61. Actress Bonnie Bedelia is 60. Actress-comedian Mary Gross is 55. Actor James McDaniel is 50. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., is 50. Rock musician Steve Norman (Spandau Ballet) is 48. Actress Brenda Strong is 48. Actor Fred Goss is 47. Actor-writer-director John Stockwell is 47. Actress Marcia Cross is 46. Actress Lisa Gay Hamilton is 44. Actress Sarah Jessica Parker is 43. Baseball pitcher Tom Glavine is 42. Olympic bronze medal figure skater Debi Thomas is 41. Singer Melanie Blatt (All Saints) is 33. Actor Lee Pace is 29. Actor Sean Faris is 26. Auto racer Danica Patrick is 26. Singer Katharine McPhee ("American Idol") is 24. Actress-singer Aly (AKA Alyson) Michalka is 19.
Thought for today: "Uninterpreted truth is as useless as buried gold."
-- Lytton Strachey, English biographer (1880-1932)
[Associated Press]
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