Monday, March 19, 2012

19th of March

Today is the 78th day of the year and there are only 287 days remaining.

1687 - Explorer Robert Cavalier de La Salle, searching for the mouth of the Mississippi River, is murdered by his own men.

1863 - The SS Georgiana, said to have been the most powerful Confederate cruiser, is destroyed on her maiden voyage with a cargo of munitions, medicines, and merchandise then valued at over $1,000.000.

1916 - Eight American planes take off in pursuit of Pancho Villa, the first United States air-combat mission in history.

1918 - Congress establishes time zones and approves daylight savings time.

1931 - Gambling is legalized in Nevada.

1941 - The 99th Pursuit Squadron also known as the Tuskegee Airmen, the first all-black unit of the Army Air Corp, is activated.

1943 - Frank Nittim the Chicago Outfit Boss after Al Capone, commit suicide at the Chicago Central Railroad.

1945 - Off the coast of Japan, a dive bomber hits the aircraft carrier USS Franklin, killing 724 of her crew.  Badly damaged, the ship is able to return to the United States under her own power.

1945 - Adolf Hitler issues his "Nero Decree" ordering all industries, military installations, shops, transportation facilities, and communications facilities in Germany are to be destroyed.

1954 - Joey Giardello knocks out Willie Troy in round seven at Madison Square Garden in the first televised prize boxing fight shown in color.

1965 - The wreck of the SS Georgiana, valued at over $50,000,000 and said to have been the most powerful Confederate cruiser, is discovered by then teenage diver and pioneer underwater archaeologist E. Lee Spence, exactly 102 years after its destruction.

1966 - Texas Western becomes the first college basketball team to win the Final Four with an all-black starting lineup.

1979 - The United States House of Representatives begins broadcasting its day-to-day business via the cable television C-SPAN.

2003 - United States President George W. Bush orders the start of war against Iraq.

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