This Dat Trivia - march 24

Events

2003 Iraq War Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on weapons of mass destruction: "We have seen intelligence over many months that they have chemical and biological weapons, and that they have dispersed them and that they're weaponized and that, in one case at least, the command and control arrangements have been established."

1989 Valdez disaster An Exxon tanker spills more than 10,000,000 gallons of oil. This was the largest oil spill in U.S. history.

1958 Elvis Presley The King of Rock 'n' Roll is inducted into the U.S. Army, where he took an approximate $100,000 pay cut.

1949 First Non-American Film to Win Best Picture Oscar Laurence Olivier's Hamlet, which went on to win a total of four Oscars. It was also the first time an individual directed himself in an Oscar-winning performance (Laurence Olivier, best Actor).

1940 First religious TV broadcast W2XBS of New York City airs an Easter service. Source: An Almanac of the Christian Church

1934 Philippine Independence Act Congress passes the Tydings-McDuffie Act which granted independence from the U.S. after a 12-year transition period. The Philippine legislature approved it in May and independence was proclaimed in 1946.

1900 Carnegie Steel Company is incorporated, in New Jersey.

1898 Only U.S. Battleship not named for a State The USS Kearsarge (BB-5) is launched.

1882 Tuberculosis German physician Robert Koch announces the discovery of the bacterium that causes TB. For this, he received the Nobel Prize.

1880 Salvation Army - First U.S. post George Scott Railton and 7 women volunteers establish a branch of the organization which had been started in England by William Booth in 1865. Source: An Almanac of the Christian Church

1663 The Carolina Colony is created by a grant from King Charles I.

Births

1970 Lara Flynn Boyle actress. TV: Twin Peaks (Donna Hayward).

1954 Robert Carradine American actor. Film: Revenge of the Nerds (1984).

1954 Donna Pescow American actress. TV: All My Children (child psychologist Lynn Carson), Out of This World (Donna Garland).

1930 Steve McQueen d. 1980 (Terrence Steven McQueen), American actor, "The King of Cool." Film: The Blob (1958), The Magnificent Seven (1960), The Great Escape (1963), Papillon (1973), and The Towering Inferno (1974).

1924 Norman Fell d. 1998 American actor, member of the Rat Pack. TV: Three's Company (Mr. Roper, the landlord). He also played a landlord in the movie The Graduate.

1909 Clyde Barrow d. 1934 American bank robber, of Bonnie and Clyde fame. He and Bonnie Parker were killed by a Texas ranger and his posse, who riddled their car with hundreds of bullets.

1902 Thomas E. Dewey d. 1971 American politician. As governor of New York, he enacted the nation's first state law banning racial and religious discrimination in employment. His loss of the 1948 presidential election to Truman surprised many, including the newspapers - The Chicago Daily Tribune mistakenly ran "DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN" as its front page headline.

1901 Ub Iwerks d. 1971 American Oscar-winning animator, one the original artists for Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse (1928). He supervised the animation and special effects of numerous Disney films.

1890 John C. Rock d. 1984 American physician. He and Mirian Menkin achieved the first in vitro fertilization of a human ovum (1944) and he co-developed the birth control pill (1956).

1887 Fatty Arbuckle d. 1933 (Roscoe Conkling Arbuckle), American actor, director. He was involved in what is considered the First Hollywood Celebrity Scandal. During a three-day party, a young starlet became ill and died a few days later. Arbuckle was tried for manslaughter, and although eventually acquitted, he and his films were blacklisted. See Scandal.

1874 Harry Houdini d. 1926 (Ehrich Weiss), American magician, escape artist, "The Handcuff King." He also made Australia's first successful airplane flight.

1855 Andrew William Mellon d. 1937 American financier. He donated his art collection for the establishment of the National Gallery of Art.

1820 Fanny Crosby d. 1915 (Frances Jane Crosby), American hymn writer. Blind since an infant, she composed over 5,000 hymns including Safe in the Arms of Jesus, Blessed Assurance, and To God Be the Glory. Source: An Almanac of the Christian Church

1809 Joseph Liouville d. 1882 French mathematician. He discovered the first proof of transcendental numbers (1844).

1494 Georgius Agricola d. 1555 German scholar, the "Father of Mineralogy." His writings served as a guide for metallurgist for over 200 years.

Deaths

1993 John Hersey b. 1914 Chinese-born American Pulitzer-winning author, journalist, A Bell for Adano (1944, Pulitzer).

1962 Auguste Piccard b. 1884 Swiss physicist, pioneer in ballooning and diving vehicles, and identical twin of Jean Felix. He and his twin established many records, including the highest ascent into the stratosphere and lowest descent into the ocean.

1946 Aleksandr Alekhine b. 1892 Russian chess master, world champion (1927-35, 1937-46).

1905 Jules Verne b. 1828 French science fiction author. His writings foreshadowed many things that were to come, such as air conditioning, gas-powered automobiles, and television. Writings: A Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1864), Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870), and Around the World in Eighty Days (1873).

1882 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow b. 1807 American poet. Writings: The Courtship of Miles Standish (1858).

1661 William Leddra b. ???? American Quaker. He was the last Quaker executed in Boston. He was hanged for returning to Boston after banishment. At the time, it was crime in Boston to be a Quaker. Source: An Almanac of the Christian Church

1603 Elizabeth I b. 1533 Queen of England, and for whom the Elizabethan Era is named.

1455 Nicholas V b. ???? religious leader, 208th Pope (1447-55).