This day in history

[March 24, 2009]  (AP)  Today is Tuesday, March 24, the 83rd day of 2009. There are 282 days left in the year.

Today's highlight in history:

On March 24, 1989, the supertanker Exxon Valdez ran aground on a reef in Alaska's Prince William Sound and began leaking 11 million gallons of crude oil.

On this date:

In 1765, Britain enacted the Quartering Act, requiring American colonists to provide temporary housing to British soldiers.

In 1882, German scientist Robert Koch announced in Berlin that he had discovered the bacillus responsible for tuberculosis.

In 1909, Irish author and playwright J.M. Synge ("The Playboy of the Western World") died in Dublin at age 37.

In 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a bill granting future independence to the Philippines.

In 1944, in occupied Rome, the Nazis executed more than 300 civilians in reprisal for an attack by Italian partisans the day before that had killed 32 German soldiers.

In 1955, the Tennessee Williams play "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" opened on Broadway.

In 1958, Elvis Presley was inducted into the Army in Memphis, Tenn.

In 1976, the president of Argentina, Isabel Peron, was deposed by her country's military.

In 1980, one of El Salvador's most respected Roman Catholic church leaders, Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero, was shot to death by gunmen as he celebrated Mass in San Salvador

.

In 1995, after 20 years, British soldiers stopped routine patrols in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Ten years ago: NATO launched airstrikes against Yugoslavia, marking the first time in its 50-year existence that it had ever attacked a sovereign country. Thirty-nine people were killed when fire erupted in the Mont Blanc tunnel in France and burned for two days. The National Transportation Safety Board concluded that Boeing 737 rudder problems caused two fatal airline crashes and nearly triggered a third.

Five years ago: Former top terrorism adviser Richard Clarke, testifying before the federal 9/11 Commission, accused the Bush administration of scaling back the campaign against Osama bin Laden before the attacks and undermining the fight against terrorism by invading Iraq. The European Union slapped Microsoft with a $613 million fine for abusively wielding its Windows software monopoly.

One year ago: President George W. Bush pledged to ensure "an outcome that will merit the sacrifice" of those who have died in Iraq, offering both sympathy and resolve as the U.S. death toll in the five-year war hit 4,000. The FBI said authorities had recovered the remains of two U.S. contractors who were kidnapped in Iraq more than a year earlier. Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was charged with perjury, misconduct and obstruction of justice. (Before his trial was to begin, Kilpatrick pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and no contest to a separate charge of assault; he stepped down in September 2008 and served 99 days in jail.) Actor Richard Widmark died in Roxbury, Conn., at age 93.

Today's birthdays: Fashion and costume designer Bob Mackie is 70. Actor R. Lee Ermey is 65. Movie director Curtis Hanson is 64. Rock musician Lee Oskar is 61. Singer Nick Lowe is 60. Rock musician Dougie Thomson (Supertramp) is 58. Comedian Louie Anderson is 56. Actress Donna Pescow is 55. Actor Robert Carradine is 55. Actress Kelly LeBrock is 49. Rhythm-and-blues DJ Rodney "Kool Kollie" Terry (Ghostown DJs) is 48. TV personality Star Jones is 47. Country-rock musician Patterson Hood (Drive-By Truckers) is 45. Rock singer-musician Sharon Corr (The Corrs) is 39. Actress Lara Flynn Boyle is 39. Rapper Maceo (P.A. Pasemaster Mase) is 39. Actor Jim Parsons is 36. Actress Alyson Hannigan is 35. Colts QB Peyton Manning is 33. Rock musician Benj Gershman (O.A.R.) is 29. Actress Keisha Castle-Hughes is 19.

Thought for today: "Man must cease attributing his problems to his environment, and learn again to exercise his will -- his personal responsibility in the realm of faith and morals." -- Albert Schweitzer, German-born missionary and Nobel laureate (1875-1965).

[Associated Press]

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