March 23

In the day of my trouble I shall call upon Thee, For Thou My mouth is filled with your praise, declaring your splendor all day long. NIV


Psalm  78:1

March is:

Irish-American Heritage Month - The month of Saint Patrick's Day.

Mental Retardation Awareness Month - Promotes the needs and abilities of America's citizens with mental retardation. Sponsor: The Arc National Headquarters.

Music in Our Schools Month - Music has been a part of public school curriculums since 1838; it is an important aspect of a balanced education. Sponsor: Music Educators National Conference

March 23 is:

Birthday of the Spoon - Sometime around 1900 B.C. the useful eating utensil was invented Slurp some soup today! Sponsor: Pilgrim's Almanac.

Dixie Cup Birthday - The Dixie Cup was invented 1912. Contact: Dixie Container Corporation

First human in space twice (1965) - Gemini 3 carried the first person to at go into space more than once. Contact; NASA. 

First passenger elevator installed (1857) - Elisha Otis installed the first passenger elevator in New York. 

World Meteorological Day To study and teach about weather. Sponsor: United Nations.

Liberty Day - In 1775, Patrick Henry spoke in favor of arming the Virginia Militia against the British. At the end of his speech, he said ''Give me liberty or give me death.''

Near Miss Day - In 1989, an asteroid came within 500,000 miles of hitting Earth.

Rally for Decency Anniversary - The Rally for Decency, which protested the on-stage nudity of Jim Morrison of the Doors, took place in Miami, Florida in 1969.

Saint Turibius Feast Day - Saint Turibius, archbishop of Lima, championed native rights in South America. As a result, he is a patron saint of native rights.

Born on this Day

• 1430: Margaret of Anjou, Queen of England
  

• 1596: Bevil Grenville
  

• 1857: Cookery expert Fannie Farmer was born in Boston, Massachusetts. She later edited "The Boston Cooking School Cook Book," which ran into 21 editions before her death in 1915.
  

• 1908: Actress Joan Crawford
  

• 1910: Japanese film maker Akira Kurosawa
  

• 1912: Werner von Braun, rocket scientist
  

• 1922: Comedian Marty Allen
  

• 1926: Martha Wright (in Seattle, Washington)
  

• 1929: Roger Bannister, the first person to run the mile in less than four minutes
  

• 1934: Movie director Mark Rydell
  

• 1938: Race car driver Craig Breedlove
  

• 1949: Singer-producer Ric Ocasek (Cars)
  

• 1953: Singer Chaka Khan (Yvette Marie Stevens)
  

• 1954: Moses Malone, basketball player
  

• 1957: Actress Amanda Plummer
  

• 1965: Actor Richard Grieco.
  

• 1966: Singer Marti Pellow
  

• 1968: Rock singer-musician Damon Albarn (Blur)
  

• 1970: Rock musician John Humphrey (The Nixons)
  

• 1976: Actress Keri Russell ("Felicity")
  

• 1977: Actress Nicholle Tom ("The Nanny")
  

• 1990: British Princess Eugenie in 1990. (daughter of Prince Andrew and Fergie)      
     

Events in History on this day
  

• 0752: Pope Stephen the Second was elected to succeed Pope Zacharias; however, Stephen died only two days later.
  

• 1169: Death of Shirkuh, Caliph of Egypt
  

• 1281: Coronation of Martin IV as Pope
  

• 1324: Excommunication of Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor
  

• 1402: Yann V becomes Duke of Brittany
  

• 1534: The Pope declares Henry VIII of England "truly married" to Catherine of Aragon
  

• 1540: Waltham Abbey, the last remaining monastery in England, seized by Henry VIII, King of England
  

• 1555: Death of Pope Julius II
  

• 1606: Death of St. Toribio of Lima
  

• 1703: Vivaldi entered the priesthood. He had asthma attacks, or faked them, when he said Mass. But he never had the same problem while conducting a church orchestra or choir.
  

• 1743: George Frideric Handel's oratorio "Messiah" had its London premiere after which the first "standing ovation" was recorded. King George was so "inspired" he jumped to his feet after which everyone else followed suit.
  

• 1765: The British Parliament passed the Stamp Act for taxing the American colonies, an action that became a major grievance for rebellious colonials.
  

• 1775: In a speech to the Virginia Provincial Convention, Patrick Henry made his famous plea for American independence from Britain, saying, "Give me liberty, or give me death!" Henry was 38 years old.
  

• 1792: Joseph Haydn's Symphony No. 94 in G Major, also known as the "Surprise Symphony," was performed publicly for the first time, in London.
  

• 1794: Josiah G. Pierson received a patent for a rivet machine.
  

• 1806: Explorers Lewis and Clark, having reached the Pacific coast, began their journey back east.
  

• 1839: H-F Chorley, a London reviewer reported on Berlioz's "Symphonie fantastique": "A Babel, and not a Babylon of music."
  

• 1840: The most widely used Americanism "O.K." was first used in the New York publication "The New Era" by the Democratic OK Club. They got the name from Old Kinderhook, NY, where President Martin Van Buren was born.
  

• 1858: Eleazer A. Gardner of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, received a patent for the cable street car.
  1861: John D. Defrees became the first Superintendent of the United States Government Printing Office.
  

• 1862: Battle of Kernstown, VA - Jackson begins his Valley Campaign.
  

• 1862: Count Karl Robert Nesselrode, foreign minister of imperial Russia from 1822-56, died. His policies helped bring about the Crimean war.
  

• 1880: John Stevens of Neenah, Wisconsin, patented the grain crushing mill. The machine allowed flour production to increase by 70% and to sell for $2 per barrel.
  

• 1901: Dame Nellie Melba, Australian Opera Singer, reveals secret of her now famous toast.
  

• 1918: The giant German gun, "Big Bertha," shelled Paris from 75 miles away.
  

• 1919: Benito Mussolini founded his Fascist political movement in Milan, Italy.
  

• 1925: The State of Tennessee made it a crime for a teacher in any state-supported public school or college to teach any theory that contradicted the Bible's account of man's creation.
  

• 1929: First telephone installed in the White House.
  

• 1933: The German Reichstag adopted the Enabling Act, which effectively granted Adolf Hitler dictatorial legislative powers.
  

• 1937: Los Angeles Railway Co starts using PCC streetcars.
  

• 1942: Japanese-Americans were forcibly moved from their homes along the Pacific Coast to inland internment camps.
  

• 1956: Pakistan became an independent Islamic Republic within the British Commonwealth with Maj. Gen. Iskander Mirza as its first provisional President.
  

• 1964: Peter Lorre (Laszlo Loewenstein), Hungarian-born U.S. film actor who starred in gangster and horror films, died.
  

• 1965: America's first two-person space flight began as "Gemini Three" blasted off from Cape Kennedy with astronauts Virgil I. Grissom and John W. Young aboard.
  

• 1966: Pope Paul VI met Britain's archbishop of Canterbury at the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, the first meeting between the heads of the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches in 400 years.
  

• 1981: The US Supreme Court ruled that states could require, with some exceptions, parental notification when teen-age girls seek abortions.
  

• 1981: British "Great Train Robbery" suspect Ronald Biggs was taken into custody in Barbados after his abduction in Brazil.
  

• 1983: President Reagan first proposed development of technology to intercept enemy missiles -- a proposal that came to be known as the Strategic Defense Initiative, as well as "Star Wars."
  

• 1983: Dr. Barney Clark, recipient of a permanent artificial heart, died at the University of Utah Medical Center after 112 days with the device.
  

• 1985: Patricia Roberts Harris, who served in two Cabinet posts in the Carter administration, died in Washington at age 60.
  

• 1985: Billy Joel married model Christie Brinkley in New York City. They "parted" in 1994.
  

• 1986: Tens of thousands of people filled the streets of Pusan, South Korea, as they cheered political opposition leader Kim Young-sam in the biggest anti-government rally in six years.
  

• 1987: Jerry Collins, a millionaire greyhound race track owner, donated one-point-three million dollars to help evangelist Oral Roberts reach his goal of raising eight million dollars for medical scholarships.
  

• 1988: President Reagan announced he would visit the Soviet Union for the first time, from May 29th until June second, for his fourth summit meeting with Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev.
  

• 1989: The most expensive wedding dress in history was presented by Helen Gainville in Paris. It featured embroidered diamonds by Alexander Reza and was valued at over $7 million.
  

• 1989: Fawn Hall, former secretary to onetime National Security Council aide Oliver North, completed two days of testimony at North's Iran-Contra trial.
  

• 1990: Former Exxon Valdez Captain Joseph Hazelwood was sentenced by a judge in Anchorage, Alaska, to help clean up Prince William Sound and pay $50,000 in restitution for his role in the 1989 oil spill.
  

• 1991: Iraqi President Saddam Hussein shuffled his Cabinet, but kept in place his hard-line ministers of interior and defense to direct a crackdown on rebellion against his rule.
  

• 1991: L.A. Kings hockey center Wayne Gretzky and Kings owner Bruce McNall bought a 1910 Hinus Wagner baseball card at Sotheby's auction for $451,000, breaking a 1989 record: $115,000 for another Honus Wagner card.
  

• 1992: The president of the United Nations Security Council announced that Libya had offered to surrender two men suspected in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 to the Arab League (however, Libya reversed itself two days later).
  

• 1993: Alex Ross of the New York Times gave a favorable review to a recent Lincoln Center performance by the Prism Quartet, a foursome not of strings but of saxophones. They premiered Michael Ruszczynski's "Fantasy Quartet," which Ross liked very much.
  

• 1993: In his first formal news conference since taking office, President Clinton suggested restricting the duty assignment of homosexuals in the military as a way of allowing openly gay personnel; however, the idea was quickly abandoned.
  

• 1993: Scientists announced they'd found the renegade gene that causes Huntington's disease.
  

• 1994: Luis Donaldo Colosio, Mexico's leading presidential candidate, was assassinated in Tiajuana.
  

• 1994: 23 paratroopers were killed when a F-16 fighter jet and a C-130 transport plane collided while landing at Pope Air Force Base in North Carolina and the F-16 skidded into another transport on the ground.
  

• 1994: Wayne Gretzky broke Gordie Howe's National Hockey League career record with his 802nd goal.
  

• 1994: Actress Giulietta Masina died in Rome at age 73.
  

• 1995: Secretary of State Warren Christopher met with Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev in Geneva; afterward, Kozyrev said the U.S.-Russia "honeymoon has come to an end," referring to disagreements over Chechnya and nuclear sales to Iran.
  

• 1996: Taiwan held its first direct presidential elections; incumbent Lee Teng-hui was the landslide victor.
  

• 1997: Amid renewed violence, Israel's Cabinet called on the Palestinian Authority to crack down on Islamic militant groups, but stopped short of suspending peace talks.
  

• 1997: The American Cancer Society recommended that women begin annual mammograms at age 40.
  

• 1998: President Clinton hailed "the new face of Africa" as he opened a historic six-nation tour in Ghana.
  

• 1998: The US Supreme Court allowed term limits for state lawmakers.
  

• 1998: Russian President Boris Yeltsin fired his Cabinet.
  

• 1998: The greatest ship that ever sank found a berth in Hollywood history night as "Titanic" sailed off with 11 Oscars, tying the record for most Academy Awards won by a single film. James Cameron, the film's co-producer, screenwriter, co-editor and director picked up three awards for the picture - best director, best picture and best editing. Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt, the odd couple in "As Good as It Gets," walked off with the top acting awards. It was Nicholson's third Oscar.
  

• 1998: Britain placed all ports of entry on alert for Iraqi biological weapons after intelligence sources warned of a plot to smuggle lethal anthrax in bottles of perfume and alcohol.
  

• 1999: NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana gave the formal go-ahead for airstrikes against Serbian targets following the failure of Kosovo peace talks.
  

• 2000: Pope John Paul the Second paid his respects at Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust memorial.
  

•  2000: President Clinton visited the western Indian village of Nayla. 
  

• 2000: In a first, Speaker Dennis Hastert named a Catholic priest, the Reverend Daniel Coughlin, as the new House chaplain. 

   

  
  
  
  Today's Daily Miscellany

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