March 23rd in History

On this day in history —

  • Patrick Henry declares, “Give me liberty, or give me death!” before the Virginia House of Burgesses (1755) — cover
  • The Lewis and Clark Expedition begins its return journey (1806)
  • The first “safety elevator” is installed in New York City by Elisha Otis (1857)
  • Claiming to be the Messiah of Christianity, the Mahdi of Islam, and the Kalki Avatar of Hinduism, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (ميرزا غلام أحمد) establishes the Ahmadiyya (أحمدية) movement (1889)
  • The Theriso Revolt (Η Επανάσταση του Θερίσου) begins in Crete (1905)
  • Teddy Roosevelt goes on a year-long safari in Africa, where he and his party will kill or trap over 11,000 animals (1909)
  • Hitler becomes dictator of Germany with the passage of Gesetz zur Behebung der Not von Volk und Reich (“Law to Remedy the Distress of the People and the Nation”), commonly known as the Enabling Act (1933)
  • Gemini 3 lifts off (1965)
  • Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann announce “cold fusion,” which was subsequently debunked by experimenters’ inability to repeat the experiment (1989)
  • The Sierra Leone civil war begins; it will last 11 years and kill over 50,000 (1991)
  • The Mir (Мир) space station is successfully deorbited and crashes into the Pacific Ocean (2001)

It’s the birthday of —

  • Perez Hilton, blogger (1978)
  • Keri Russell, actress (1976)
  • Jayson Blair, plagiarist (1976)
  • Joe Calzaghe, boxer (1972)
  • Amanda Plummer, actress (1957)
  • Moses Malone, basketball player (1955)
  • Kenneth Cole, fashion designer (1954)
  • Chaka Khan, singer (1953)
  • Kim Stanley Robinson, science fiction author (1952)
  • Ron Jaworski, quarterback and ESPN commentator (1951)
  • Ric Ocasek, car (1949)
  • Dave Grisman, mandolin player (1945)
  • Craig Breedlove, land speed record setter (1937)
  • Yevgeny Grishin (Евгений Гришин), speed skater (1931)
  • Bette Nesmith Graham, inventor of Liquid Paper and mother of a Monkee (1924)
  • Ugo Tognazzi, actor (1922)
  • Marty Allen, comedian (1922)
  • Vasily Zaytsev (Василий Зайцев), enemy at the gate, Stalingrad sniper (1915)
  • Wernher von Braun, rocket designer (1912)
  • Akira Kurosawa (黒澤 明), director (1910)
  • Joan Crawford, mommie dearest (1905 or 1908)
  • H. Beam Piper, science fiction author (1904)
  • Erich Fromm, psychologist (1900)
  • Juan Gris, painter (1887)
  • Josef Čapek, brother of playwright Karel Čapek and coiner of the word “robot” (1887)
  • “Texas Jack” Reed, outlaw (1862)
  • Pierre-Simon Laplace, mathematician (1749)

Deaths —

  • Elizabeth Taylor, actress (2011)
  • Cindy Walker, country singer (2006)
  • Eileen Farrell, soprano (2002)
  • Friedrich Hayek, libertarian saint (1992)
  • Arthur M. Okun, economist (1980)
  • Christóbal Balenciaga, fashion designer (1972)
  • Peter Lorre, actor (1964)
  • Stendhal, writer (1842)

Holidays —

  • World Meteorological Day (International)
  • Pakistan Day (یوم پاکستان) (Pakistan)
  • Day of Hungarian-Polish Friendship (Hungary and Poland)
  • Dia del Mar (Bolivia)
  • Otago Anniversary Day (New Zealand)
  • Lieldienas (ancient Latvia)
  • Tubilustrium (ancient Rome)