On this day in history March 11, 1861 the Constitution of the Confederate States of America was adopted by the Confederate Congress in Montgomery, Ala. 1864 during the Civil War, the Union Army Ambulance Corps was established by the U.S. Congress. Dr. Mary Edwards Walker was appointed an assistant surgeon of the 52nd Ohio Infantry Regiment, the first woman assigned to such a post. 1888 the Blizzard of 88, also known as the Great White Hurricane, began inundating the northeastern United States, resulting in some 400 deaths. 1930 former President and Chief Justice William Howard Taft was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. 1942 as Japanese forces continued to advance in the Pacific during World War II, Gen. Douglas MacArthur left the Philippines for Australia. (MacArthur, who subsequently vowed, I shall return, kept that promise more than 2½ years later.) 1954 the U.S. Army charged that Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy, R-Wis., and his subcommittees chief counsel, Roy Cohn, had exerted pressure to obtain favored treatment for Pvt. G. David Schine, a former consultant to the subcommittee. (The confrontation culminated in the famous Senate Army-McCarthy hearings.) 1959 the Lorraine Hansberry drama A Raisin in the Sun opened at New Yorks Ethel Barrymore Theater. 1964 at the 21st Golden Globe Awards, The Cardinal was named best film drama of 1963 while Tom Jones won for best film musical or comedy. 1977 more than 130 hostages held in Washington, D.C. by Hanafi Muslims were freed after ambassadors from three Islamic nations joined the negotiations. 1989 the reality TV show COPS premiered on the Fox Network. 1993 Janet Reno was unanimously confirmed by the Senate to be attorney general. 2011 a magnitude-9.0 earthquake and resulting tsunami struck Japans northeastern coast, killing nearly 20,000 people and severely damaging the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power station. 2012 sixteen Afghan villagers — mostly women and children — were shot dead as they slept by U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, who later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Ten years ago: Ten bombs exploded in quick succession across the commuter rail network in Madrid, Spain, killing 191 people and wounding more than 2,000 in an attack linked to al-Qaida-inspired militants. Five years ago: President Barack Obama signed a $410 billion spending package to keep the government running through Sept. 2009, even as he called it imperfect because of the number of earmarks it contained. A teenager, Tim Kretschmer, went on a shooting rampage starting at a school in Winnenden, Germany, killing 15 people before committing suicide. One year ago: Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, a Democrat, was convicted of a raft of crimes, including racketeering conspiracy (he was later sentenced to 28 years in prison). North Korea said it was no longer bound by the 1953 armistice that ended the Korean War, following days of increased tensions over its latest nuclear test.
Posted on: Tue, 11 Mar 2014 10:24:42 +0000
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