On March 12, 1947, President Harry Truman addresses a joint session of Congress, asking for $400 million to assist the Greek and Turkish governments in fighting communist incursion. The British government had informed Truman a month earlier that it could no longer assists those two nations, as it had done since the end of WWII. Congress approved Truman's request, which came to be known as the Truman Doctrine, two months later. Many historians consider today to be the official beginning of the Cold War.


On March 12, 1864, the doomed Red River Campaign begins. A flotilla of 20 Union gunboats sails off the Mississippi into its tributary, the Red, in central Louisiana, supporting a ground force of 27,000 Union soldiers. The plan was to seize control of the river and the cotton producing regions of northwest Louisiana and Texas. But General Nathaniel Banks, in charge of the infantry, moved too slowly and strayed too far from the river for the gunboats to offer support, and he was soon routed by rebel forces. The flotilla, meanwhile, became stranded when the river ran low between Alexandria and Shreveport. The campaign was called off, having accomplished nothing but distracting Confederate troops that were needed elsewhere. (gunboats tied up on the banks of the Red River, 1864)


On March 12, 2003, in Sandy, Utah, police locate Elizabeth Smart and arrest her alleged kidnappers, the husband and wife pair of Brian Mitchell and Wanda Barzee. Nine months earlier, the 14-year old Smart had been abducted from her Salt Lake City home by Mitchell, a drifter who had briefly worked for Smart's parents. Mitchell, Barzee and Smart would live in various campsites in the region over the next nine months, the couple even taking Smart into town on several occasions disguised with a wig and veil. She was finally recognized on one such occasion and the police quickly moved in for the arrest. Mitchell was convicted of kidnapping, burglary and sexual assault and sentenced to life in prison; Barzee got 15 years for her role. Smart is married with children and is a renowned advocate for child safety. (Smart at 14 and today)

I thought we became the leaders by spearheading the western front in Europe and single-handedly whipping Japan. Agree with your take on the Russians....note I said "many historians", which would not include me.

On March 13, 1881, a peasant revolutionary movement called People's Will finally succeeds in assassinating Russian Czar Alexander II, with a bomb thrown in his direction. The Russian ruler since 1855, Alexander was a "my way or the highway" type, and his way was often good for the people. But he vigorously resisted any suggestions of government reform, especially those that would affect his direct powers. People's Will rose up in that atmosphere in 1879, and they made several attempts on his life before succeeding. The assassins were arrested and hanged, and the movement suppressed by Alexander's successor.


On March 13, 1865, the Confederacy reluctantly approves the employment of black troops. The issue had been under debate for some time, with one politician admitting that if slaves made good soldiers, the entire philosophy of slavery was wrong. But in the desperate final months of the war, the government finally acquiesced, though it rejected Robert E. Lee's suggestion that slaves volunteering for service be granted their freedom. Several thousand blacks would serve in the Confederate army in the war's final months.


On March 13, 1965, dissatisfied with his band's move from a rock-blues sound to a more pop feel, English guitarist Eric Clapton ends his two year-long association with The Yardbirds. The split triggers a career odyssey for the hyper-talented Clapton, who would be a member of seven different bands while also pursuing his solo career, and studio appearances with numerous artists. He has won 18 solo Grammys and been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 3 times, as a solo artist and as a member of both The Yardbirds and Cream. On his departure from The Yardbirds, he recommended that his friend, studio musician Jimmy Page replace him, but Page declined. The band settled on Jeff Beck, who fronted The Yardbirds to their most successful period. Page would join the band later, giving The Yardbirds one of rock's all-time great guitar duos before Beck left the group shortly before it disbanded in 1968.

On March 14, 1964 in the first televised courtroom verdict in U.S. history, Jack Ruby is convicted of the murder of John F. Kennedy's assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, and sentenced to death in the electric chair. Ruby, a Dallas nightclub owner with some minor ties to organized crime, had joined the crowd gathered to witness Oswald's transfer from Dallas police headquarters to a more secure jail and shot him at point blank range. In October 1966, the Texas Court of Appeals would find procedural problems with the trial and overturn Ruby's conviction. He died of lung cancer 3 months later while awaiting a new trial.
Lee Harvey Oswald shot by Jack Ruby - YouTube

On March 14, 1991, the so-called "Birmingham Six" are released from prison. On November 21, 1974, bombs set off in two Birmingham (UK) pubs killed 21 people and injured hundreds. The Irish Republican Army claimed responsibility. Six Irishmen were arrested, but the IRA disavowed any connection with the suspects. All six were convicted, but critics maintained for years that the forensic evidence against them was questionable. Seven years after the Birmingham Six were released, a court of appeals formally overturned their conviction.


On March 14, 1958, the Recording Industry Association of America awards the first official Gold Record to Perry Como for his smash hit single, "Catch A Falling Star." The RIAA formed in 1952 as a trade organization to oversee copyright issues and for research. The original Gold Record designation was for a million copies of a single sold, or a million dollars in sales for an album. A stipulation for a half million album copies sold was added in 1975. In '76, the RIAA created the Platinum designation for a million album copies sold or two million copies of a single. The scale for singles was reduced in '84 for a half million sales for Gold and a million for Platinum. Laurie London received the second Gold Record awarded for her single "He's Got the Whole World In His Hands." In August of 1958 Elvis Presley received the first Gold Record presented for a rock and roll single, "Hard Headed Woman."
Perry Como - Catch a Falling Star (Audio) - YouTube

On March 15, 1620, Maine is admitted to the Union as a free state. As part of the Missouri Compromise, Maine is admitted to offset the entrance of Missouri as a slave state. First settled by Sir Ferdinando Gorges, a member of the Plymouth Colony, the Massachusetts Bay Colony claimed jurisdiction on Gorges' death in 1677. Maine had existed as a province of Massachusetts since.


On March 15, 1937, Cook County Hospital in Chicago opens the first facility created for the long-term storage of human blood for later transfusions. Dr. Bernard Fantus, head of the team that conceived the facility, also gives it a name, a "blood bank." Successful human-to-human blood transfusions had been first performed during WWI. By 1937, advances in preservation allowed for human blood to be stored up to 10 days and still be viable for transfusion. Today, blood transfusions benefit roughly 5 million Americans annually. Fantus was also an innovator in pharmaceuticals, having invented the candy coating that made pills easier to swallow.


On March 15, 1985, Symbolics, Inc, a Massachusetts-based computer company, registers symbolics.com with the U.S. Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPANET). It is the first domain name, a concept ARPANET had conceived two years earlier as a replacement for numeric internet addresses. By 2021 standards, the concept is slow to catch on; almost a year to the day later (March 5, 1986), BellCore.com becomes just the 10th registered domain name. There are now more than 330 million registered domain names world-wide. As for Symbolics, Inc; that company went out of business in 1986, but symbolics.com still exists as an online museum of internet history, and proudly proclaims its heritage on its home page.
Symbolics.com – The first and oldest registered .com on the Internet.

On March 16, 1802, President Thomas Jefferson signs the Military Peace Establishment Act of 1802 which, among other things, formally establishes the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, NY. In those early days, there was no formal pattern of education and training set down for the Academy; the curriculum was based on the needs of the Army. Some students were graduated after as little as 6 months, or it could take up to 6 years. Students as young as 10 years old were admitted. In 1817, Superintendent Sylvanus Thayer - later known as the Father of West Point - reorganized the Academy, instituting a formal curriculum and strict code of honor. Today West Point admits roughly 1,300 new cadets a year, about 1,000 of whom will graduate.


On March 16, 1945, the Pacific Island of Iwo Jima is declared secured by the U.S. Marine Corps, 25 days after the initial landings. Taking the island, which gave the Air Corps a base of operations close enough to Japan to permit bombing of its home islands, cost the lives of 6,000 Marines. Virtually all of the roughly 21,000 Japanese soldiers defending the island were killed, though some held out in the island's vast network of man-made caves and tunnels. The last defender surrendered in January, 1949. The island was returned to Japanese control in 1968.


On March 16, 1850, American author Nathaniel Hawthorne publishes The Scarlet Letter. It is a work of historical fiction, set in colonial America, and described the tribulations of Hester Prynne, an adulterous woman who bears a child from her affair and is condemned to wear a scarlet "A" (for adulterer) on her bosom for the rest of her life. One of the first books to be mass produced in America, The Scarlet Letter was immediately popular, and today is considered one of America's great works of literature.