Wednesday, March 31st
The 090th day of 2010.
There are 275 days left in the year.
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Today's Highlights in History
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On March 31, 1968,President Johnson stunned the country by announcing he would not run for another term of office. (Go to article.)
On March 31, 1927, Cesar Chavez, who became the leader of migrant American farm workers, was born. Following his death on April 23, 1993, his obituary appeared in The Times. (Go to obit. | Other Birthdays)
Editorial Cartoon of the Day
On March 31, 1883, Harper's Weekly featured a cartoon about a strike by New York dairy farmers. (See the cartoon and read an explanation.)
On this date in:
1492 King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain issued an edict expelling Jews unwilling to convert to Christianity.
1889 French engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel unfurled the French tricolor from atop the Eiffel Tower to mark its completion.
1917 The United States took possession of the Virgin Islands from Denmark.
1943 The Rodgers and Hammerstein musical "Oklahoma!" opened on Broadway.
1945 "The Glass Menagerie" by Tennessee Williams opened on Broadway.
1976 The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that coma patient Karen Anne Quinlan could be disconnected from her respirator. (Quinlan remained comatose and died in 1985.)
1992 The U.N. Security Council voted to ban flights and arms sales to Libya, branding it a terrorist state for shielding six men accused of blowing up Pan Am Flight 103 and a French airliner.
1995 Singer Selena, 23, was shot to death in Corpus Christi, Texas, by the founder of her fan club.
1995 Baseball players agreed to end a 232-day strike after a judge granted a preliminary injunction against club owners.
1999 Four New York City police officers were charged with murder for killing Amadou Diallo, an unarmed African immigrant, in a hail of bullets. (The officers were acquited in 2000.)
2004 Four American civilian contractors were killed in Fallujah, Iraq; frenzied crowds dragged their burned, mutilated bodies and strung two of them from a bridge.
2005 Terri Schiavo died at a hospice in Pinellas Park, Fla., 13 days after her feeding tube was removed in a right-to-die dispute that engulfed the courts, Congress and the White House.
Current Birthdays
Barney Frank turns 70 years old today.
AP Photo/Susan Walsh Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., turns 70 years old today.
82 Gordie Howe
Hockey Hall of Famer
76 Richard Chamberlain
Actor
76 Shirley Jones
Actress ("The Partridge Family")
75 Herb Alpert
Musician
70 Patrick Leahy
U.S. senator, D-Vt.
67 Christopher Walken
Actor
65 Gabe Kaplan
Actor, comedian ("Welcome Back Kotter")
62 Al Gore
Former vice president, Nobel Peace Prize winner
62 Rhea Perlman
Actress ("Cheers")
60 Ed Marinaro
Actor ("Hill Street Blues")
55 Angus Young
Rock musician (AC/DC)
27 Christian Scott
Jazz trumpeter
Historic Birthdays
Cesar Chavez
3/31/1927 - 4/23/1993
American organizer and leader of migrant American farm workers
(Go to obit.)
53 Rene Descartes
3/31/1596 - 2/11/1650
French mathematician, scientist and philosopher
77 Franz Joseph Haydn
3/31/1732 - 5/31/1809
Austrian composer of the Classical period
74 Edward Fitzgerald
3/31/1809 - 6/14/1883
English writer and translator ("Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam")
87 James M. Cox
3/31/1870 - 7/15/1957
American newspaper publisher and governor of Ohio (1913-15, 1917-21)
50 Arthur Griffith
3/31/1872 - 8/12/1922
Irish journalist and principal founder of Sinn Fein movement
57 Serge Diaghilev
3/31/1872 - 8/19/1929
Russian impresario; created Ballets Russes in 1909
68 Jack Johnson
3/31/1878 - 6/10/1946
American boxer; heavyweight champion
81 Sir Lawrence Bragg
3/31/1890 - 7/1/1971
Australian-born English Nobel Prize-winning physicist
93 John McCloy
3/31/1895 - 3/11/1989
American diplomat, lawyer, and presidential adviser
84 Octavio Paz
3/31/1914 - 4/19/1998
Mexican Nobel Prize-winning poet, writer and diplomat
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SOURCE: The Associated Press
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