This Day Trivia - march 30

Events

2003 Iraq War Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on Weapons of Mass Destruction: "We know where they are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat."
Rumsfeld on how long the fighting will last: "Oh, goodness, you know, I've never -- we've never had a timetable. We've always said it could be days, weeks, or months and we don't know. And I don't think you need a timetable."

1993 DOS 6.0 is released by Microsoft Corp.

1991 William Kennedy Smith takes his date to the Kennedy estate. She later charged him with rape, for which he was acquitted.

1987 Record amount paid for a single work of art One of Vincent van Gogh's Sunflowers sells for $39.9 million. There are some experts who now believe this to be a fake.

1984 Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous with host Robin Leach debuts.

1981 Pres. Reagan and James Brady are shot by John W. Hinckley, Jr. He was trying to impress actress Jodie Foster.

1972 Vietnam War North Vietnamese forces launch a major attack across the demilitarized zone, the largest assault since 1968.

1965 U.S. Embassy in Saigon is destroyed by a car bomb, killing 22.

1965 Ku Klux Klan The House Committee on Un-American Activities begins investigating the Klan. This was the committee's first public investigation which didn't concern communism.

1950 Invention of the phototransistor is announced by Dr. Shive of Bell Laboratories.

1907 First flight of a commercially-built airplane built by the French aircraft company Voisin Freres.

1891 First U.S. national forest Shoshone National Forest in Wyoming, is established.

1880 Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City opens.

1867 Alaskan Purchase The U.S. buys Alaska from the Russians at the bargain price of 2¢ an acre by U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward. This was called Seward's Folly by the press at the time.

1867 15th Amendment The amendment goes into effect, giving blacks the right to vote.

1858 First pencil with an attached eraser is patented.

1842 First operation under general anesthesia Diethyl ether is used by Dr. Crawford Williamson Long to remove a neck tumor.

Births

1970 Secretariat d. 1989 American thoroughbred racehorse, Triple Crown winner (1973), and the first horse to finish the Kentucky Derby in under two minutes (1:59.4).

1968 Céline Dion Canadian Grammy and Oscar-winning singer.

1964 Tracy Chapman American Grammy-winning singer. Music: Fast Car (1988), Talkin' Bout a Revolution (1988), and Baby Can I Hold You? (1988).

1962 M.C. Hammer (Stanley Kirk Burrell), American rap artist.

1958 Maurice LaMarche Canadian voice actor. TV: Pinky and the Brain (voice of Brain) and Toucan Sam (Kellogg's commercial).

1957 Paul Reiser American stand-up comedian, actor. TV: Mad About You.

1945 Eric Clapton British singer, guitarist. Music: I Shot the Sheriff (1974, #1), Slowhand (1977), and Lay Down Sally (1978).

1937 Warren Beatty American actor. Film: Bonnie and Clyde (1967, Clyde). TV: The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (Milton Armitage).

1930 John Astin American actor. TV: The Addams Family (Gomez Addams).

1929 Richard Dysart American actor. TV: L.A. Law (Leland McKenzie).

1927 Peter Marshall American game show host. TV: Hollywood Squares.

1917 Herbert Anderson d. 1994 American actor. TV: Dennis the Menace (Dennis' father).

1913 Marc Davis d. 2000 American animator. He is the designer of many Disney characters, such as Thumper in Bambi, Cinderella, Tinker Bell, and Cruella De Vil.

1913 Frankie Laine (Frank LoVecchio), American Oscar-winning singer. Music: Mule Train (#1) and High Noon (1952, Oscar). He also sang the theme to TV's Rawhide.

1902 Ted Heath d. 1969 British band leader, one of the U.K.'s most famous bandleaders.

1853 Vincent van Gogh d. 1890 Dutch ear-cutting (actually it was only the lobe) postimpressionist painter. Although his paintings now sell for millions, he sold only one during his lifetime.

1820 Anna Sewell d. 1878 English author. Writings: Black Beauty (1877).

1746 Francisco Goya d. 1828 (Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes), Spanish painter.

1135 Maimonides d. 1204 Jewish rabbi, Talmudic scholar, philosopher. His teachings greatly influenced the Christian religion. Source: An Almanac of the Christian Church

Deaths

2004 Alistair Cooke b. 1908 (Alfred Alistair), English-born journalist, Emmy-winning host of TV's Masterpiece Theatre. His bones were reportedly stolen by body snatchers working for a tissue recovery firm.

2002 Elizabeth b. 1900 Queen of England (1936-52), widow of King George VI, and mother of Queen Elizabeth II.

1986 James Cagney b. 1899 American Oscar-winning actor. Film: Mr. Roberts (1955, the captain). He started his career as a female impersonator in a New York revue.

1981 DeWitt Wallace b. 1889 American publisher. He and his wife Lila founded Reader's Digest (1921). It obtained the largest magazine circulation in the world.

1975 Florence Lowe Barnes b. 1901 American aviator. She was the first woman stunt pilot in motion pictures (1929 Hell's Angels).

1949 Friedrich Bergius b. 1884 German Nobel-winning chemist. He invented the process of extracting oil from coal and discovered a process for converting wood into sugar.

1911 Ellen Henrietta Swallow Richards b. 1842 American chemist, the first woman admitted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1870). She earned her B.S. degree (1873) and became the first female professional chemist in the U.S. In 1884, she became MIT's first woman faculty member.