On March 19, 2003, the United States, along with coalition forces primarily from the United Kingdom, initiates war on Iraq. President Bush and his advisors built much of their case for war on the idea that Iraq, under dictator Saddam Hussein, possessed or was in the process of building weapons of mass destruction. On March 19,1931, the Nevada state legislature, in an attempt to lift the state out of the hard times of the Great Depression, votes to legalize gambling. On March 19, 1966, Texas Western College defeats the University of Kentucky in the NCAA men’s college basketball finals. It is the first time an all-black starting five had won the NCAA championship.
Interesting EVERYONE from HRC to Putin to the Brits and French even his generals were convinced Saddam had WMDs. While they have not been found I still think there were some chemical weapons around. I supported the invasion and attempt to reform Iraq. Think W did the right thing until he totally screwed up the occupation.
Screw reforming Iraq. Those people are content to continue their centuries old tribal hatred and feuds no matter how many we give rights to. I think they had WMDs. Not huge bombs and missiles but chemical war stuff and weaponized anthrax type WMDs. I heard this former soldier on the radio one time, and take it for what it's worth, I think it was the Coast to Coast show but he described finding a huge underground cache of barrels of a deadly chemical not to far from the base. His commander ordered him to lock it back up and say nothing to nobody.
On March 20, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson notifies Alabama’s Governor George Wallace that he will use federal authority to call up the Alabama National Guard in order to supervise a planned civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery. A federal judge had informed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference under Martin Luther King, Jr. 2 days earlier that the march could take place. Governor George Wallace, a hard line segregationist, tried to play both sides of the field, informing LBJ that he would send in the guard for protection, then went on TV and demanded the president send in federal troops. On March 20, 1854, former members of the Whig Party meet and establish a new party to oppose the spread of slavery into the western territories. The Whig Party, which was formed in 1834 to oppose the “tyranny” of President Andrew Jackson, had shown itself incapable of coping with the national crisis over slavery. The new party will be called the Republican Party. On March 20, 1345, the planets align - literally. It is “a triple conjunction of Saturn, Jupiter and Mars in the 40th degree of Aquarius,″ and later supposed scholars at the University of Paris will blame this planetary alignment for the Black Death, which would begin sweeping across Europe the following year. In reality, it is parasites carried by fleas that will kill an estimated 25 million people across Europe, the Middle East and Asia, and evidence suggests it actually began in Mongolia 25 years before the celestial event that freaked out the scholars.
40 years ago today, March 20th 1980 a truck driver from Texas entered the offices of a New York City record company and demanded to see The Eagles. He wanted them to give him $2500 to fix his wrecked truck. He gave up when he heard the Eagles song Desperado on the radio. https://ultimateclassicrock.com/eagles-desperado-hostage/
On March 21, 1980, after the Soviet Union fails to comply with a deadline set by President Jimmy Carter to pull its troops from Afghanistan, Carter announces that the U.S. will boycott the Olympic Games in Moscow that summer. Canada, West Germany and Japan will eventually join the boycott. On March 21, 1965, 3200 civil rights demonstrators led by Martin Luther King begin a historic march from Selma, Alabama to the state capital at Montgomery. It is the third attempt to begin the march. State police broke up the first two attempts, but this march is escorted by federalized Alabama National Guardsmen. The demonstrators will reach Montgomery on March 25. On March 21, 1952, Cleveland radio station WJW presents the Moondog Coronation Ball, now regarded as history's first rock concert. With popular DJ "Moondog" Alan Freed in the lead, WJW had switched from a format of classical music to the new offshoot of blues that Freed would dub "rock and roll" a year before. The Moondog Coronation Ball is to be a live dance event, but due to massive ticket counterfeiting, more than 20,000 people show up at a venue that can only hold 10,000. When the overflow crowd attempts to break through the gates, police shut down the event less than an hour after it starts.
On March 23, 1775, Patrick Henry, in a speech before the second Virginia Convention, responds to the increasingly oppressive British rule over the American colonies by declaring, “I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” On March 23, 1983, President Ronald Reagan proposes that the United States embark on a program to develop antimissile technology that would make the country nearly impervious to attack by nuclear missiles. Reagan’s speech marked the beginning of what came to be known as the controversial Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). Detractors called it "Star Wars" but that didn't stop Congress from pumping $30 billion into it. The downfall of the Soviet Union 4 years later eliminated the urgency for such a system, and it went mostly undeveloped.
On March 24, 1989, the supertanker Exxon Valdez runs aground in Prince William Sound, Alaska, triggering one of the worst oil spills in U.S. history. An estimated 11 million gallons of oil spill into the sound, spread by wind and current to pollute more than 700 miles of Alaska coastline. Its later learned that Joseph Hazelwood, the captain of the Valdez, was drinking at the time of the accident and allowed an uncertified officer to steer the massive vessel. But thanks to a federal statute that grants freedom from prosecution to those who report an oil spill, Hazelwood walks away scot-free. Exxon itself is ordered to pay a penalty of $100 million and provide $1 billion over a 10-year period for the cost of the cleanup. But a 1991 agreement between the company and the state reduce the penalty to just $25 million. On March 24, 1603, Queen Elizabeth I of England dies after 44 years of rule. Nicknamed The Virgin Queen for her refusal to marry, Elizabeth leaves no proclaimed heir, and King James VI of Scotland, grandson of King Henry VII, ascends to the throne, uniting England and Scotland as King James I. Elizabeth's death marks the end of the Tudor Dynasty's 120-year hold on the throne; England became a world power under her reign. On March 24, 1765, Parliament passes the Quartering Act, outlining the locations and conditions in which British soldiers are to find room and board in the American colonies. The act requires the colonies to provide barracks for British soldiers, and to find suitable housing if inadequate barracks are available. Although the language of the act never ordered it, the image of colonists being evicted from their home for the use of Redcoats became a rallying point for dissension, particularly in New York.
March 25, 1911 is a seminal day in America's industrial history. The Triangle Shirtwaist Company factory in NYC burns down. The factory is a sweatshop in every sense of the word. Its located in the top 3 floors of a 10-story building, serviced by one operational elevator that can only hold 12 people. Most of the employees are immigrant teenage girls who don't speak English, working 12 hour days for $15 a week. And the owners, Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, have a history with suspicious factory fires. There were 600 workers present - on a Saturday - when the fire started; 146 will not escape. Blanck and Harris will not be found responsible, but the tragedy led to the development of a series of laws and regulations that better protected the safety of factory workers. On March 25, 1955, the first shipment of 520 copies of Allen Ginsberg's book, Howl, arrives from England, and is promptly confiscated by the U.S. Customs Department as being obscene. Ginsberg and his publisher, Lawrence Ferhlingetti, fight the charge in court and win a victory for the First Amendment. On March 25, 1634, a group of colonists arrive in the New World at a region east of the Potomac River that has been designated for settlement by George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore. The colonists call the settlement St. Mary’s, the region shall be named Maryland, after King Charles I's consort Henrietta Maria.
On March 26, 1953, American medical researcher Dr. Jonas Salk announces on a national radio show that he has successfully tested a vaccine against poliomyelitis, the virus that causes the crippling disease of polio. In 1952—an epidemic year for polio—there were 58,000 new cases reported in the United States, and more than 3,000 died from the disease. Following clinical trials, a nation-wide inoculation campaign began in 1955. By 1957, new cases had dropped to below 6,000, and polio is now virtually irradicated in the US. On March 26, 1979, Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin sign a historic peace agreement, ending three decades of hostilities between Egypt and Israel, and establishing diplomatic and commercial ties. It is the first peace agreement between Israel and one of its Arab neighbors, though it ultimately led to Sadat's assassination by Muslim extremists in 1981. On March 26, 1979 (yes, the same day as above), Michigan State beats Indiana State 75-64 in the men's basketball national championship. The game remains the highest rated TV college basketball game ever, but it is more noteworthy as the first ever on-court matchup between Ervin "Magic" Johnson and Larry Bird. They would both enter the NBA the following season and would meet head-to-head three times in the NBA Finals, with Johnson adding 2 titles to his NCAA win over Bird. Johnson would win a total of 5 NBA titles in his career to Bird's 3. "Magic vs Bird" remains perhaps the most compelling rivalry of individuals playing team sports in American history.
