Today is Friday, March 25, the 84th day of 2005. There are 281 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On March 25, 1965, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. led 25,000 marchers to the state capitol in Montgomery, Ala., to protest the denial of voting rights to blacks.
On this date:
In 1634, Maryland was founded by English colonists sent by the second Lord Baltimore.
In 1865, during the Civil War, Confederate forces captured Fort Stedman in Virginia.
In 1894, Jacob S. Coxey began leading an “army” of unemployed from Massillon, Ohio, to Washington, D.C., to demand help from the federal government.
In 1911, 146 immigrant workers were killed when fire broke out at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company in New York.
In 1913, the home of vaudeville, the Palace Theatre, opened in New York City.
In 1918, French composer Claude Debussy died in Paris.
In 1947, a coal mine explosion in Centralia, Ill., claimed 111 lives.
In 1957, the Treaty of Rome established the European Economic Community.
In 1975, King Faisal of Saudi Arabia was shot to death by a nephew with a history of mental illness. (The nephew was beheaded the following June.)
In 1990, 87 people, most of them Honduran and Dominican immigrants, were killed when fire raced through an illegal social club in New York City.
Ten years ago: Two Americans who’d strayed across the Kuwaiti border into Iraq were sentenced to eight years in prison (however, David Daliberti and William Barloon were released by Iraq the following July). Mike Tyson was released from the Indiana Youth Center after serving three years for the 1992 rape of Desiree Washington, a beauty pageant contestant.
Five years ago: President Clinton briefly visited Pakistan, where he met with the new military ruler, General Pervez Musharraf. A weary Pope John Paul II traveled the ancient streets of Nazareth, Jesus’ boyhood town, and celebrated Mass in the soaring Basilica of the Annunciation.
One year ago: Congress passed the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, making it a separate offense to harm a fetus during violent federal crime. The United States vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Israel’s assassination of Hamas leader Ahmed Yassin. Russian Evgeni Plushenko won his third world figure skating title, defeating French rival Brian Joubert.
Today’s Birthdays: Modeling agency founder Eileen Ford is 83. Former astronaut James Lovell is 77. Movie reviewer Gene Shalit is 73. Feminist author Gloria Steinem is 71. Singer Anita Bryant is 65. Singer Aretha Franklin is 63. Actor Paul Michael Glaser is 62. Singer Elton John is 58. Actress Bonnie Bedelia is 57. Singer Nick Lowe is 56. Actress-comedian Mary Gross is 52. Actor James McDaniel is 47. Actor-writer-director John Stockwell is 44. Actress Marcia Cross (“Desperate Housewives”) is 43. Actress Lisa Gay Hamilton is 41. Actress Sarah Jessica Parker is 40. Singer-musician Jeff Healey is 39. Olympic bronze medal figure skater Debi Thomas is 38. Singer Melanie Blatt (All Saints) is 30.
Thought for Today: “In every person, even in such as appear most reckless, there is an inherent desire to attain balance.” — Jakob Wassermann, German author (1873-1934).