Today is Tuesday, March 13, the 72nd day of 2007. There are 293 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On March 13, 1925, a law went into effect in Tennessee prohibiting the teaching of the theory of evolution.
On this date:
In 1781, the planet Uranus was discovered by Sir William Herschel.
In 1884, Congress adopted Eastern Standard Time for the District of Columbia.
In 1901, the 23rd president of the United States, Benjamin Harrison, died in Indianapolis.
In 1933, banks began to reopen after a “holiday” declared by President Roosevelt.
In 1947, the Lerner and Loewe musical “Brigadoon” opened on Broadway.
In 1964, bar manager Catherine “Kitty” Genovese, 28, was stabbed to death near her New York City home; the case generated controversy over charges that Genovese’s neighbors had failed to respond to her cries for help.
In 1969, the Apollo 9 astronauts splashed down, ending a mission that included the successful testing of the Lunar Module.
In 1980, Ford Motor Co. Chairman Henry Ford II announced he was stepping down.
In 1980, a jury in Winamac, Ind., found Ford Motor Co. innocent of reckless homicide in the fiery deaths of three young women riding in a Ford Pinto.
In 1996, a gunman burst into an elementary school in Dunblane, Scotland, and opened fire on a class of kindergartners, killing 16 children and one teacher before killing himself.
Ten years ago: A Jordanian soldier fired on Israeli junior high school girls on a field trip, killing seven of them. (The soldier, Corp. Ahmed Daqamseh, was later sentenced by a military court to life in prison.) In a southern Egyptian village, four masked militants shot and killed 14 people before escaping.
Five years ago: President Bush declared at a news conference that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was a menace “and we’re going to deal with him,” and said Osama bin Laden had been reduced to a marginal figure in the war on terrorism.
One year ago: Deadly tornadoes raked the Midwest while wildfires scorched the Texas Panhandle. Publisher McClatchy Co. agreed to buy Knight-Ridder, but planned to immediately sell 12 of its newspapers. Black Sabbath and Blondie entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Actress Maureen Stapleton died in Lenox, Mass., at age 80; game show host Peter Tomarken, 63, and his wife, Kathleen, were killed when their small plane crashed into California’s Santa Monica Bay.
Today’s Birthdays: Jazz musician Roy Haynes is 82. Country singer Jan Howard is 77. Songwriter Mike Stoller is 74. Singer-songwriter Neil Sedaka is 68. Actor William H. Macy is 57. Actress Deborah Raffin is 54. Comedian Robin Duke is 53. Actress Glenne Headly is 52. Actress Dana Delany is 51. Rock musician Adam Clayton (U2) is 47. Jazz musician Terence Blanchard is 45. Actor Christopher Collet is 39. Actress Annabeth Gish is 36. Actress Tracy Wells is 36. Rapper Common is 35. Rapper Khujo (Goodie Mob, The Lumberjacks) is 35. Singer Glenn Lewis is 32. Actor Danny Masterson is 31. Actor Emile Hirsch is 22. Singers Natalie and Nicole Albino (Nina Sky) are 21.
Thought for Today: “The history of the world is the verdict of the world.” — Friedrich von Schiller, German author (1759-1805).