Today’s Highlight in History:
On March 18, 1940, Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini met at the Brenner Pass, where the Italian dictator agreed to join Germany’s war against France and Britain.
On this date:
In 1766, Britain repealed the Stamp Act of 1765.
In 1922, Mohandas K. Gandhi was sentenced in India to six years’ imprisonment for civil disobedience. (He was released after serving two years.)
In 1925, the Tri-State Tornado struck southeastern Missouri, southern Illinois and southwestern Indiana, resulting in some 700 deaths.
In 1937, in America’s worst school disaster, nearly 300 people, most of them children, were killed in a natural gas explosion at the New London Consolidated School in Rusk County, Texas.
In 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order authorizing the War Relocation Authority, which was put in charge of interning Japanese-Americans, with Milton S. Eisenhower (the younger brother of Dwight D. Eisenhower) as its director.
In 1963, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Gideon v. Wainwright, ruled unanimously that state courts were required to provide legal counsel to criminal defendants who could not afford to hire an attorney on their own.
In 1965, the first spacewalk took place as Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov went outside his Voskhod 2 capsule, secured by a tether.
In 1974, most of the Arab oil-producing nations ended their 5-month-old embargo against the United States that had been sparked by American support for Israel in the Yom Kippur War.
In 2002, Brittanie Cecil died two days short of her 14th birthday after being hit in the head by a puck at a game between the host Columbus Blue Jackets and Calgary Flames; it was apparently the first such fan fatality in NHL history.
In 2016, police in Brussels captured Europe’s most wanted fugitive, Salah Abdeslam, who was the prime suspect in the deadly 2015 Paris attacks.
In 2018, Vladimir Putin rolled to a crushing reelection victory for six more years as Russia’s president.
In 2020, the U.S. and Canada agreed to temporarily close their shared border to nonessential travel.
Ten years ago: Mitt Romney scored an overwhelming win in Puerto Rico’s Republican presidential primary, trouncing chief rival Rick Santorum.
Five years ago: Chuck Berry, rock ’n’ roll’s founding guitar hero and storyteller who defined the music’s joy and rebellion in such classics as “Johnny B. Goode,” “Sweet Little Sixteen” and “Roll Over Beethoven,” died at his home west of St. Louis at age 90.
One year ago: The European Union’s drug regulatory agency said that the AstraZeneca vaccine was not linked to an overall increase in the risk of blood clots and that the benefits of use outweighed the risks, paving the way for European countries to resume administering the shots. The Senate confirmed veteran diplomat William Burns as director of the CIA and California Attorney General Xavier Becerra as President Joe Biden’s health secretary. The NBA said it was easing some of its health and safety protocols for individuals who were fully vaccinated.
Today’s Birthdays: Composer John Kander is 95. Actor Brad Dourif is 72. Jazz musician Bill Frisell is 71. Singer Irene Cara is 63.
Alt-country musician Karen Grotberg (The Jayhawks) is 63. Movie writer-director Luc Besson is 63. Actor Geoffrey Owens is 61. Actor Thomas Ian Griffith is 60. Singer-songwriter James McMurtry is 60. TV personality Mike Rowe is 60. Singer-actor Vanessa L. Williams is 59. Olympic gold medal speedskater Bonnie Blair is 58. Actor David Cubitt is 57. Rock musician Jerry Cantrell (Alice in Chains) is 56. Rock singer-musician Miki Berenyi (ber-EN’-ee) is 55. Actor Michael Bergin is 53. Rapper-actor-talk show host Queen Latifah is 52. Former White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus (ryns PREE’-bus) is 50. Actor-comedian Dane Cook is 50. Country singer Philip Sweet (Little Big Town) is 48. Rock musician Stuart Zender is 48. Singers Evan and Jaron Lowenstein are 48. Actor-singer-dancer Sutton Foster is 47. Rock singer Adam Levine (Maroon 5) is 43. Rock musician Daren Taylor (Airborne Toxic Event) is 42. Olympic gold medal figure skater Alexei Yagudin is 42. Actor Adam Pally is 40. Actor Cornelius Smith Jr. is 40. Actor Duane Henry (TV: “NCIS”) is 37. Actor Lily Collins is 33. Actor-dancer Julia Goldani Telles is 27. Actor Ciara Bravo is 25. Actor Blake Garrett Rosenthal is 18.
