This day in history

[March 28, 2011]  (AP)  Today is Monday, March 28, the 87th day of 2011. There are 278 days left in the year.

Today's highlight in history:

On March 28, 1979, America's worst commercial nuclear accident occurred inside the Unit 2 reactor at the Three Mile Island plant near Middletown, Pa.

On this date:

In 1834, the U.S. Senate voted to censure President Andrew Jackson for the removal of federal deposits from the Bank of the United States.

In 1854, during the Crimean War, Britain and France declared war on Russia.

In 1898, the Supreme Court, in United States v. Wong Kim Ark, ruled that a child born in the United States to Chinese immigrants was a U.S. citizen.

In 1930, the names of the Turkish cities of Constantinople and Angora were changed to Istanbul and Ankara.

In 1935, the notorious Nazi propaganda film "Triumph des Willens" (Triumph of the Will), directed by Leni Riefenstahl, premiered in Berlin with Adolf Hitler present.

In 1939, the Spanish Civil War effectively ended as Madrid fell to the forces of Francisco Franco.

In 1941, novelist and critic Virginia Woolf, 59, drowned herself near her home in Lewes, East Sussex, England.

In 1942, during World War II, British naval forces raided the Nazi-occupied French port of St. Nazaire in Operation Chariot.

In 1969, the 34th president of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower, died in Washington, D.C., at age 78.

In 1978, in Stump v. Sparkman, the U.S. Supreme Court voted 5-3 to uphold the judicial immunity of an Indiana judge against a lawsuit brought by a young woman who'd been ordered sterilized by the judge when she was a teenager.

Ten years ago: The authors of a book on the Oklahoma City bombing revealed that during prison interviews, Timothy McVeigh had shown no remorse for what happened, and called the 19 children who died on April 19, 1995 "collateral damage."

Five years ago: President George W. Bush replaced longtime chief of staff Andy Card with budget director Joshua Bolten. More than one million people poured into streets across France and strikers disrupted air, rail and bus travel in the largest nationwide protest over a youth labor law. The Kadima (kuh-DEE'-muh) Party won Israel's parliamentary elections. Former Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger died in Bangor, Maine, at age 88.

One year ago: President Barack Obama secretly visited Afghanistan near the front lines of the increasingly bloody 8-year-old war he was expanding. Actress-writer June Havoc, 97, whose childhood in vaudeville was immortalized in the movie "Gypsy," died in Stamford, Conn. Jazz guitarist Herb Ellis died in Los Angeles at age 88.

Today's birthdays: Former White House national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski (ZBIG'-nyef breh-ZHIN'-skee) is 83. Country musician Charlie McCoy is 70. Movie director Mike Newell is 69. Actress Conchata Ferrell is 68. Actor Ken Howard is 67. Actress Dianne Wiest (weest) is 63. Country singer Reba McEntire is 56. Olympic gold medal gymnast Bart Conner is 53. Rapper Salt (Salt-N-Pepa) is 45. Actress Tracey Needham is 44. Actor Max Perlich is 43. Movie director Brett Ratner is 42. Country singer Rodney Atkins is 42. Actor Vince Vaughn is 41. Rapper Mr. Cheeks (Lost Boyz) is 40. Actor Ken L. is 38. Rock musician Dave Keuning is 35. Actress Annie Wersching is 34. Actress Julia Stiles is 30. Singer Lady Gaga is 25.

Thought for today: "Those who say they give the public what it wants begin by underestimating public taste and end by debauching it." -- T.S. Eliot, American-Anglo poet and critic (1888-1965)

[Associated Press]

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