On March 24, 1663, King Charles II of England awards a charter for lands south of the Virginia Colony to 8 English nobleman (collectively known as the Lords Proprietors) for their loyalty and support. To be known as the Province of Carolina ("Carolus" is the Latin version of "Charles"), the province theoretically stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, though France claimed the land west of the Mississippi River. As it was, the Province took in not only the entirety of the present states of North and South Carolina, but parts of Florida, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi. On March 24, 1905, French novelist Jules Verne dies in Amiens, France of diabetes and complications from a stroke, at the age of 77. The son of a lawyer and well educated from early on in life, Verne's imagination was fired by an early boarding school teacher who was the widow of a sea captain, and who claimed her husband had been shipwrecked and returned home after decades of isolation in Robinson Crusoe fashion; many of the tales this teacher told found their way into some of Verne's earliest stories. His first published work, at age 21, was a play on which he collaborated with the son of famed playwright Alexander Dumas. At age 48 he published the first in his novel sequence called "Voyages extraordinaires", a futuristic and well researched string of books that included Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Journey to the Center of the Earth and Around the World in 80 Days. Sometimes called the father of science fiction (fans of H.G. Welles would beg to differ), Verne is the second-most translated author in the world behind Agatha Christie. Several books intended for the "Voyages extraordinaires" series were unpublished at the time of Verne's death; his son Michel saw to their publication in the ensuing years, though it was later learned Michel made extensive changes to the stories. The Jules Verne Society had the original versions of these stories published in the late 20th century.
On March 25, 1807, King George III gives Royal Assent to the Abolition of Slave Trade Act. Abolitionists hoped the Slave Trade Act of 1807 would outlaw slavery outright in the British Empire. That would not happen for a few more decades, though it did spark the Empire to begin using its diplomatic influence to begin coercing other nations to abolish their slave trades. On March 25, 1894, about 100 unemployed men, organized and led by Ohio businessman Jacob Coxey, depart Massilon, OH on foot, bound for Washington DC. Their intent (it was the height of a 4-year nationwide economic depression) was to lobby the government to create public works projects such as road construction to end the depression. Other groups launched similar marches around the country and by April 30 - the date Coxey's group arrived in DC, "Coxey's Army" had grown to around 6,000. The march quickly fell apart when Coxey and other leaders approached the Capitol building the next day and were arrested for walking on the grass. Although the march was unsuccessful in the immediate time, President Franklin D. Roosevelt would incorporate Coxey's proposal into his "New Deal" economic strategy of 1932. (Coxey speaking at the US Capitol during a 1914 workers' demonstration) On March 25, 1961, Elvis Presley performs a benefit concert near Pearl Harbor, HI, to help raise funds for the USS Arizona memorial. It was just his second concert since being discharged from the army a year earlier, and he would not sing in public again for another 7 years, as he focused his attentions on his movie career and his romance with Priscilla Beaulieu. No film footage exists of the performance (the photo below is from the benefit show; it was also the last time he performed in his trademark gold lame' dinner jacket), but it raised $54,000 for the project, and along with a sizable personal donation, helped the memorial to be completed and dedicated on Memorial Day, 1962.
On March 31, 1918, the United States sets clocks forward one hour, implementing Daylight Savings Time for the first time. It was an effort to conserve energy as the war effort ramped up. Daylight Savings Time was first observed in the Roman Empire, which varied the observed length of the first hour after sunrise to maximize daylight for farming. Popular lore has Benjamin Franklin first proposing Daylight Savings Time in America. This is untrue, although he did write a letter to a Parisian newspaper during his time as a French envoy, proposing the time shift to save on candle wax. A standardized measure of time across America really didn't become necessary until the mid 19th century with the advance of cross country communications and railroads. Today an estimated 34% of the world observes DST; the latest polls show a majority of Americans favor doing away with the practice. On March 31, 1657, Parliament offers Oliver Cromwell the throne of England. Following the execution of King Charles I in 1649, the monarchy was replaced by a Commonwealth form of government. Cromwell, a Minister of Parliament already, led military campaigns to unite the British Isles, leading to his designation of Lord Protectorate. Cromwell would turn down the throne, stating he could better serve the nation as a "constable" of the Commonwealth. He died about a year later of malaria possibly brought on by kidney stones. Without his leadership, the Commonwealth soon fell to Charles II and the monarchy was re-established. A year and a half after Cromwell's death (and on the anniversary of Charles I's execution), Charles had his body exhumed and symbolically "executed" by hanging, then beheading. On March 31, 1995, Tejano music superstar Selena is shot and killed by a former business associate at age 23. Selena Quintanilla-Perez was born in south Texas in 1971 (the attending OB/GYN was future Congressman Ron Paul). By age 12 she had gained a massive following by singing on street corners and performing private affairs in Corpus Christi, and her father removed her from school in the eighth grade to pursue a full time musical career. She won the Tejano Music Award for Female Vocalist of the Year nine years in a row beginning in 1987, and became the first Tejano artist to win a Grammy (1994). She also started a chain of fashion boutiques, putting Yolanda Saldivar, president of her fan club, in charge. Selena's father fired Saldivar when he learned she was embezzling from both the boutiques and the fan club; Saldivar kept many of the boutique's financial records. On 3/31/95, Selena met with Saldivar in a hotel room in Corpus, where Saldivar shot her after Selena demanding the records be turned over. Saldivar was sentenced for first degree murder (eligible for parole this year); in 2020, Billboard magazine placed Selena third on its list of the greatest Latino artists of all time.
On April 1, 2004, Google launches Gmail, its integrated email service. The immediate appeal of Gmail is storage capacity; at a gigabyte per user, its far more capacity than offered by any competitor (Google would double the capacity on the service's one-year anniversary). Today Gmail is used by about 1.5 billion users worldwide, by far the largest email service available. On April 1, 1969, the Hawker Siddeley Harrier enters service with the Royal Air Force. It is the world's first V/STOL, a fixed wing aircraft capable of vertical or short take offs and landings. In development since the late 1950's, the Harrier achieves its helicopter-like flight characteristics from its Rolls Royce Pegasus engine capable of delivering about 8,000 horsepower to four jet nozzles that rotate to push its thrust from the vertical to horizontal, or any direction of 90 degrees in between. Used as a fighter and in ground attack, 278 Harriers were built in the late 60's and early 70's for the RAF and US Marine Corps, as well as the Spanish and Thai navies. All were out of service by 2006. On April 1, 1993, 38-year old Alan Kulwicki, NASCAR's "Polish Prince," dies when the corporate jet on which he was a passenger crashes short of the runway at Blountville, TN. The NTSB would cite pilot error in the crash. A Wisconsin native, Kulwicki was among the first of NASCAR's "foreign invaders," drivers not born and raised in the Deep South. He was also one of NASCAR's first college-educated drivers, with a degree in mechanical engineering. From '88 to '92 he won 5 Winston Cup races, each punctuated by a "Polish victory lap" in which he drove in the opposite direction so he could more easily wave to the fans, capping his cut-short career by winning the 1992 Winston Cup. He was posthumously inducted into several racing halls of fame, and at a time when corporate sponsorship of stock car racing was beginning to take off, inspired a short-lived revival of drivers owning their own race cars.
On April 21, 1509, Henry VIII ascends to the throne of England on the death of his father, Henry VII. He was 17 years old. His coronation would take place about two months later. Henry's 38-year reign would be marked by two ongoing issues, the first of which was his penchant for marrying and then annulling said marriages to cousins when they failed to give him a son. Henry would marry six times, all to distant cousins (the common ancestor was late 13th century King Edward I). Combined, the first three wives would become pregnant a total of 11 times, but only 3 children survived beyond a few weeks. Henry would annul the first two marriages, the third (the only one that produced a son) ended when Jane Seymour died of natural causes. He would also annul marriages number 4 and 5, and the sixth ended with his death in 1547. The repeated annulments (followed by executions in two instances) were among the problems that led to the second noteworthy issue of Henry's reign, his ongoing feud with the Catholic church, eventually leading to his excommunication. In his will, Henry bequeathed the throne to his only son, Edward VI, who died childless at age 15. Henry's will provided for that possibility; the throne then passed to his oldest daughter Mary. (Henry at the time of his coronation at age 17, and a second more familiar portrait later in life) On April 21, 1962, the Seattle World's Fair - formally known as the Century 21 Exhibition - officially opens. Nearly 10 million people would visit its six-month run. The Space Race was still in its infancy, and with Seattle-based Boeing Aircraft as a major contributor, the Fair's organizers produced an exhibition built around high-tech science and futuristic displays, the mission being to prove the US was not falling behind the Soviet Union in aerospace technology as many believed. Century 21 was one of the few World Expo's of the mid-20th century to turn a profit. The Fair's symbolic structure, the 605-foot (the tallest structure west of the Mississippi in the US at the time) Space Needle remains a focal point of the Seattle skyline, and a number of the Fair's more prominent exhibition halls were repurposed and are still in use.
