Today is Friday, March 20, the 80th day of 2020. There are 286 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On March 20, 1854, the Republican Party of the United States was founded by slavery opponents at a schoolhouse in Ripon, Wisconsin.
On this date:
In 1413, England’s King Henry IV died; he was succeeded by Henry V.
In 1760, a 10-hour fire erupted in Boston, destroying 349 buildings and burning 10 ships, but claiming no lives.
In 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte returned to Paris after escaping his exile on Elba, beginning his “Hundred Days” rule.
In 1933, the state of Florida electrocuted Giuseppe Zangara for shooting to death Chicago Mayor Anton J. Cermak at a Miami event attended by President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt, the presumed target, the previous February.
In 1942, U.S. Army Gen. Douglas MacArthur, having evacuated the Philippines at the order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, told reporters in Terowie, Australia: “I came out of Bataan, and I shall return.”
In 1976, kidnapped newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst was convicted of armed robbery for her part in a San Francisco bank holdup carried out by the Symbionese Liberation Army. (Hearst was sentenced to seven years in prison; she was released after serving 22 months, and was pardoned in 2001 by President Bill Clinton.)
In 1995, in Tokyo, 12 people were killed, more than 5,500 others sickened when packages containing the deadly chemical sarin were leaked on five separate subway trains by Aum Shinrikyo cult members.
In 1996, a jury in Los Angeles convicted Erik and Lyle Menendez of first-degree murder in the shotgun slayings of their wealthy parents. (They were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.)
Today’s Birthdays: Singer Dame Vera Lynn is 103. Producer-director-comedian Carl Reiner is 98. Actor Hal Linden is 89. Former Canadian prime minister Brian Mulroney is 81. Country singer Don Edwards is 81. Basketball Hall of Fame coach Pat Riley is 75. Country singer-musician Ranger Doug (Riders in the Sky) is 74. Hockey Hall of Famer Bobby Orr is 72. Blues singer-musician Marcia Ball is 71. Actor William Hurt is 70. Rock musician Carl Palmer (Emerson, Lake and Palmer) is 70. Rock musician Jimmie Vaughan is 69. Country musician Jim Seales (formerly w/Shenandoah) is 66. Actress Amy Aquino is 63. Movie director Spike Lee is 63. Actress Theresa Russell is 63. Actress Vanessa Bell Calloway is 63. Actress Holly Hunter is 62. Rock musician Slim Jim Phantom (The Stray Cats) is 59. Actress-model-designer Kathy Ireland is 57. Actor David Thewlis is 57. Rock musician Adrian Oxaal (James) is 55. Actress Jessica Lundy is 54. Actress Liza Snyder is 52. Actor Michael Rapaport is 50.
Thought for Today: “Common sense is genius dressed in its working clothes.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson, American writer and poet (1803-1882).
