Today is Wednesday, March 23, the 82nd day of 2011. There are 283 days left in the year.
Today’s highlight:
On March 23, 1775, Patrick Henry delivered an address to the Virginia Provincial Convention in which he is said to have declared, “Give me liberty, or give me death!”
On this date:
@History item:In 1743, George Frideric Handel’s oratorio “Messiah” had its London premiere.
In 1792, Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 94 in G Major (the “Surprise” symphony) was performed publicly for the first time, in London.
In 1806, explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, having reached the Pacific coast, began their journey back east.
In 1919, Benito Mussolini founded his Fascist political movement in Milan, Italy.
In 1933, the German Reichstag adopted the Enabling Act, which effectively granted Adolf Hitler dictatorial powers.
In 1956, Pakistan became an Islamic republic.
In 1965, America’s first two-person space flight began as Gemini 3 blasted off with astronauts Virgil I. Grissom and John W. Young aboard for a nearly 5-hour flight.
In 1981, the U.S. Supreme Court, in H.L. v. Matheson, ruled that states could require, with some exceptions, parental notification when teenage girls seek abortions.
In 1994, Wayne Gretzky broke Gordie Howe’s National Hockey League career record with his 802nd goal.
In 2001, Russia’s orbiting Mir space station ended its 15-year odyssey with a fiery plunge into the South Pacific. Russia said it was expelling 50 U.S. diplomats in retaliation for the expulsion of 50 Russians by the U.S. Newspaper columnist Rowland Evans died in Washington, D.C., at age 79.
In 2010, Claiming a historic triumph, President Barack Obama signed a $938 billion health care overhaul, declaring “a new season in America.”
Associated Press
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