On March 24th...

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1603 Queen Elizabeth I of England and Ireland died.

1643 Roger Williams was granted a charter to colonize what is now Rhode Island.

1663 The Carolina Charter granted what is now North and South Carolina to eight men.

1735 American statesman Rufus King was born.

1754 Author Joel Barlow was born.

1765 Great Britain enacted the Quartering Act, requiring colonists to provide temporary housing to British soldiers.

1834 Poet William Morris was born.

1837 Canada gave black citizens the right to vote.

1855 Banker/philanthropist/Secretary of the Treasury Andrew W. Mellon was born.

1874 Escape artist Harry Houdini was born.

1882 Poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow died.

1887 Silent film actor "Fatty" Arbuckle was born.

1893 Baseball player George Sisler was born.

1900 New York City, New York, Mayor Robert Anderson Van Eyck broke ground for an underground "Rapid Transit Railroad" linking Manhattan and Brooklyn.

1902 American politician Thomas Dewey was born.

1903 George Dewey became the first and only U. S. naval officer to be named Admiral of the Navy.

1909 Criminal Clyde Barrow was born.

1911 Cartoonist Joseph Barbera was born.

1920 The first U.S. Coast Guard air station was established, at Morehead City, North Carolina.

1924 Actor Norman Fell was born.

1930 The planet Pluto was officially named.
1930 Actor Steve McQueen was born.

1934 The U. S. Congress passed the Tydings-McDuffie Act, declaring the Philippines independent after a period of 10 years.

1937 The National Gallery of Art was established by the U. S. Congress.

1944 Actor R. Lee Ermey was born.

1947 John D. Rockefeller, Jr., donated land on the East River to the United Nations.

1949 Singer Nick Lowe was born.

1951 Fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger was born.

1953 Comedian Louie Anderson was born.

1954 Actor Robert Carradine was born.

1958 Elvis Presley was inducted into the U.S. Army in Memphis, Tennessee.
1958 All 20 persons aboard an Indian Airlines DC-3 were killed when it crashed in Nepal.
1958 A Braniff International Airways DC-7C bound for Panama crashed and burned soon after taking off from Miami, Florida, killing 9 of the 24 persons aboard.

1961 The Karachi Express derailed at Kotri, Pakistan, killing 22 persons.
1961 The New York Senate approved $55 million for a baseball stadium at Flushing Meadows.

1962 Cincinnati defeated Ohio State 71-59 for the NCAA Basketball Championship.
1962 Benny "Kid" Paret suffered fatal injuries while losing his welterweight boxing crown to Emile Griffith.

1964 The Kennedy half-dollar was issued.

1965 Wrestler Mark William Calaway, aka "The Undertaker," was born.

1970 Actress Lara Flynn Boyle was born.

1974 North Carolina State defeated Marquette 76-64 for the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship.

1976 Argentine President Isabel Martinez de Perón was deposed in a military coup.
1976 Football player Peyton Manning was born.
1976 British General Bernard Montgomery died.

1978 Members of the United Mine Workers ratified a new contract with the Bituminous Coal Operators' Association, ending a 109-day nationwide strike.

1980 Louisville defeated UCLA 59-54 for the the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship.

1981 "Nightline with Ted Koppel" premiered on ABC-TV.

1984 Actor Sam Jaffe died.

1989 The Exxon Valdez ran aground in Prince William Sound, Alaska, and subsequently released 11.3 million gallons of oil into the ocean.

1998 Two students, ages 11 and 13, fired upon teachers and students at Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Arkansas, killing five and wounding ten.
1998 A tornado killed about 250 people and injured 3,000 others in Dantan, India.

1999 NATO commenced air bombardment against Yugoslavia, marking the first time NATO has attacked a sovereign country.
1999 39 people died when a Belgian transport truck carrying flour and margarine caught fire in the Mont Blanc Tunnel.

2008 Bhutan held its first ever general election.
2008 Actor Richard Widmark died.

2010 Actor Robert Culp died.

2013 A suicide bomber killed 17 soldiers at a military checkpoint in North Waziristan, Pakistan.
2013 Gunmen killed 25 persons in Adamawa State, Nigeria.

2016 Comedian Garry Shandling died.

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This page was last updated on March 23, 2018.