This Day Trivia - march 20

Events

2003 Iraq War The U.S. begins bombing Iraq after announcing the beginning of the war the previous day.

1987 First AIDS Drug AZT is approved by the FDA.

1976 Patty Hearst is convicted of bank robbery and sentenced to seven years. She participated in the crime with Symbionese Liberation Army who had abducted her in 1974.

1969 The Beatles John Lennon marries Yoko Ono.

1907 Typhoid Mary Mary Mallon is apprehended in New York. She was suspected of causing 53 cases of the disease while working as a cook.

1899 First Woman Executed in the Electric Chair Martha M. Place is executed for the murder of her stepdaughter.

1897 First comic book The Yellow Kid, by Richard Felton Outcault, is released.

1886 First U.S. alternating current (AC) power plant to go into commercial operation, Great Barrington, Massachusetts.

1856 First U.S. governor removed from office by a state supreme court. W.A. Barstow of Wisconsin for election irregularities.

1852 Uncle Tom's Cabin, by Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, is published in book form. It became the first American novel to sell 1,000,000 copies. It had previously been published as a serial in a Washington D.C. anti-slavery newspaper.

1841 The Murders in the Rue Morgue, by Edgar Allen Poe, is published, establishing the literary genre of the detective story.

1833 First U.S. treaty with a Far Eastern country the Treaty of Amity and Commerce with Siam, is signed. It was ratified in 1836.

1782 Lord North resigns as Prime Minister of England, due to pressure from the peace faction in Parliament.

Births

1958 Holly Hunter American Oscar-winning actress. Film: Broadcast News (1987), Raising Arizona (1987), and The Piano (Oscar).

1957 Spike Lee (Shelton Jackson Lee), American actor, director. Film: She's Gotta Have It (1986), School Daze (1988), Do the Right Thing (1989), and Jungle Fever (1991). In 1992, he took out an ad in Rolling Stone magazine claiming that AIDS is a government plot, against gays, blacks, and Hispanics, that went out of control.

1951 Carl Palmer British Drummer, with Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Music: Lucky Man (1970), Tarkus (1971), and Brain Salad Surgery (1974).

1950 William Hurt American Oscar-winning actor. Film: Altered States (1980), Body Heat (1981), Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985, Oscar), and Broadcast News (1987).

1945 Pat Riley American basketball coach, coached the Lakers to four NBA championships and was twice named NBA Coach of the Year.

1943 Paul Junger Witt American Emmy-winning film producer, Brian's Song, and The Golden Girls.

1937 Jerry Reed d. 2008 (Jerry Hubbard), American Grammy-winning country musician, actor. Music: Lord, Mr. Ford (1973, #1) and She Got the Goldmine (I Got the Shaft). Film: Smokey and the Bandit (1977).

1935 Ted Bessel d. 1996 American actor, director. TV: That Girl (1966-71, Marlo Thomas' character's boyfriend) and The Tracey Ullman Show (director).

1931 Hal Linden (Harold Lipshitz), American Emmy-winning actor, singer. TV: Barney Miller (title role).

1928 Fred M. Rogers d. 2003 American children's entertainer. TV: Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood. One of his sweaters is on display at the Smithsonian.

1922 Ray Goulding d. 1990 of the comedy team Bob & Ray.

1922 Carl Reiner American actor, writer. He created the Dick Van Dyke Show and co-created, with Mel Brooks, the 2,000-year-old man.

1919 Vera Lynn (Vera Welch), British singer. She became the first British artist to hit #1 on the American Billboard chart (1952) with Auf Wiederseh'n, Sweetheart.

1918 Jack Barry d. 1984 American game-show host, Joker's Wild and Twenty-One, which was involved in the '50s game show scandals.

1907 Ozzie Nelson d. 1975 (Oswald George Nelson), American actor, musician. TV: The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (creator and star).

1904 B.F. Skinner d. 1990 (Burrhus Frederic Skinner), American psychologist, pioneer in behaviorism. He worked on WWII Project Pigeon, which attempted to use pigeons for missile guidance systems.

1903 Edgar Buchanan d. 1979 American actor. TV: Petticoat Junction (Uncle Joe) and Green Acres (Uncle Joe).

1856 Frederick Winslow Taylor d. 1915 America's first efficiency expert, called the father of scientific management.

1741 Jean Antoine Houdon d. 1828 French sculpture, created the bust of George Washington (1788) that now appears on the U.S. quarter.

43 B.C. Ovid d. A.D. 18 (Publius Ovidius Naso), Roman poet. Writings: Metamorphoses and Heroides.

Deaths

1995 Sidney Kingsley b. 1906 (Sidney Kirshner), American Pulitzer-winning playwright. Writings: Men in White (1933, Pulitzer) and Night Life (1962).

1974 Chet Huntley b. 1911 (Chester Robert Huntley), American newsman. TV: NBC's Huntley-Brinkley Report. "Goodnight, Chet."

1932 Ilya Ivanovich Ivanov b. 1870 Soviet biologist, specializing in artificial insemination. He tried to create a human-ape hybrid via artificial insemination as part of Stalin's quest for a super-warrior.

1928 James Ward Packard b. 1863 American inventor, automobile maker.

1908 Sgt. William Harvey Carney b. 1842 American soldier, the first black to receive the Medal of Honor (1900) for bravery in 1863. During the Civil War assault on Fort Wagner in Charleston, South Carolina, Carney, although wounded four times, struggled across the battlefield and retrieved the Union flag. This battle is portrayed in the film Glory (1989).

1727 Sir Isaac Newton b. 1642 English mathematician, philosopher, astronomer. He discovered the three laws of motion, the law of gravity, and invented calculus.

1413 Henry IV b. 1367 King of England (1399-1413).