Today’s Highlight in History:
On March 4, 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt took office as America’s 32nd president.
On this date:
In 1789, the Constitution of the United States went into effect as the first Federal Congress met in New York. (The lawmakers then adjourned for lack of a quorum.)
In 1863, the Idaho Territory was created.
In 1865, President Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated for a second term of office; with the end of the Civil War in sight, Lincoln declared: “With malice toward none, with charity for all.”
In 1917, Republican Jeannette Rankin of Montana took her seat as the first woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, the same day President Woodrow Wilson took his oath of office for a second term (it being a Sunday, a private ceremony was held inside the U.S. Capitol; a second, public swearing-in took place the next day).
In 1924, “Happy Birthday To You” published by Claydon Sunny. According to the 1998 Guinness World Records, it is the most recognized song in the English language.
In 1966, John Lennon of The Beatles was quoted in the London Evening Standard as saying, “We’re more popular than Jesus now,” a comment that caused an angry backlash in the United States.
In 1981, a jury in Salt Lake City convicted Joseph Paul Franklin, an avowed racist and serial killer, of violating the civil rights of two Black men, Ted Fields and David Martin, who’d been shot to death. (Franklin received two life sentences for this crime; he was executed in 2013 for the 1977 murder of a Jewish man, Gerald Gordon.)
In 1987, President Ronald Reagan addressed the nation on the Iran-Contra affair, acknowledging that his overtures to Iran had “deteriorated” into an arms-for-hostages deal.
In 1994, in New York, four extremists were convicted of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing that killed six people and injured more than a thousand. Actor-comedian John Candy died in Durango, Mexico, at age 43.
In 1998, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that sexual harassment at work can be illegal even when the offender and victim are of the same gender.
In 2015, the Justice Department cleared Darren Wilson, a white former Ferguson, Missouri, police officer, in the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, a Black 18-year-old, but also issued a scathing report calling for sweeping changes in city law enforcement practices.
In 2018, former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter were found unconscious on a bench in the southwestern English city of Salisbury; both survived what British authorities said was a murder attempt using a nerve agent.
In 2020, federal health officials investigated a suburban Seattle nursing home at the center of a coronavirus outbreak.
Ten years ago: President Barack Obama, in an address to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Washington, said he didn’t want war but that he would not hesitate to attack Iran if that were the only option left to stop it from getting a nuclear weapon. Vladimir Putin scored a decisive victory in Russia’s presidential election to return to the Kremlin and extend his hold on power. Nearly 300 people in the Republic of Congo were killed after a series of blasts at an arms depot in the capital Brazzaville.
Five years ago: President Donald Trump accused former President Barack Obama of tapping his telephones during the 2016 election; an Obama spokesman declared that the assertion was “simply false.” Tommy Page, a former pop star whose song “I’ll Be Your Everything” went to No. 1 in 1990 and who later became a record company executive, died in New York at age 46.
One year ago: Breaking from other Southern GOP governors, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey extended her state’s mask order for another month but said the requirement would end for good in April. Demonstrators in Myanmar protesting the previous month’s military coup returned to the streets, undaunted by the killing of at least 38 people a day earlier by security forces.
Today’s Birthdays: Actor Paula Prentiss is 84. Movie director Adrian Lyne is 81. Singer Shakin’ Stevens is 74. Author James Ellroy is 74. Former Energy Secretary Rick Perry is 72. Singer Chris Rea is 71. Actor/rock singer-musician Ronn Moss is 70. Actor Kay Lenz is 69. Musician Emilio Estefan is 69. Movie director Scott Hicks is 69. Actor Catherine O’Hara is 68. Actor Mykelti (MY’-kul-tee) Williamson is 65. Actor Patricia Heaton is 64. Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., is 64. Actor Steven Weber is 61. Rock musician Jason Newsted is 59. Actor Stacy Edwards is 57. Rapper Grand Puba is 56.
Rock singer Evan Dando (Lemonheads) is 55. Actor Patsy Kensit is 54. Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., is 54. Gay rights activist Chaz Bono is 53. Actor Andrea Bendewald is 52. Actor Nick Stabile (stah-BEEL’) is 52. Country singer Jason Sellers is 51. Jazz musician Jason Marsalis is 45. Actor Jessica Heap is 39. Actor Scott Michael Foster is 37. TV personality Whitney Port is 37. Actor Audrey Esparza is 36. Actor Margo Harshman is 36. Actor Josh Bowman is 34. Actor Andrea Bowen is 32. Actor Jenna Boyd is 29.
