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Thomas Jefferson was
appointed minister to France. |
Today's Highlight in History:
On March tenth, 1876, the first successful voice
transmission over Alexander Graham Bell's telephone took place in Boston
as his assistant heard Bell say, "Mr. Watson, come here. I want
you."
On this date:
In 1785, Thomas
Jefferson was appointed minister to France, succeeding Benjamin Franklin.
In 1848, the Senate ratified the Treaty of Guadalupe
Hidalgo, ending the war with Mexico.
In 1864, Ulysses S. Grant became commander of the Union
armies in the Civil War.
In 1880, the Salvation Army arrived in the United States
from England.
In 1948, the body of the anti-Communist foreign minister
of Czechoslovakia, Jan Masaryk, was found in the garden of Czernin Palace
in Prague.
In 1949, Nazi wartime broadcaster Mildred E. Gillars,
also known as "Axis Sally," was convicted in Washington DC of treason.
(She served 12 years in prison.)
In 1965, Neil Simon's play "The Odd Couple," starring
Walter Matthau as Oscar Madison and Art Carney as Felix Unger, opened on
Broadway.
In 1969, James Earl Ray pleaded guilty in Memphis,
Tennessee, to the assassination of Martin Luther King Junior. (Ray later
repudiated that plea, maintaining his innocence until his death.)
In 1980, "Scarsdale Diet" author Dr. Herman Tarnower was
shot to death in Purchase, New York. (Jean Harris, convicted of murder,
served nearly 12 years in prison before being released in January 1993.)
In 1985, Konstantin U. Chernenko, Soviet leader for just
13 months, died at age 73.
Ten years ago: Haitian ruler Lieutenant General Prosper
Avril resigned during a popular uprising against his military regime.
Five years ago: The Labor Department reported the
nation's unemployment rate for February dropped to five-point-four
percent, down three-tenths of a percentage point from the month before.
The Clinton administration released three billion dollars to support
Mexico's faltering economy. Former Mexican President Carlos Salinas de
Gortari fled to the United States.
One year ago: During a visit to Guatemala, President
Clinton acknowledged the US role in Central America's "dark and painful
period" of civil wars and repression.