Today in History

Today is Sunday, March 24, the 84th day of 2024. There are 282 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On March 24, 1989, the supertanker Exxon Valdez (vahl-DEEZ’) ran aground on a reef in Alaska’s Prince William Sound and began leaking an estimated 11 million gallons of crude oil.

On this date:

In 1765, Britain enacted the Quartering Act, requiring American colonists to provide temporary housing to British soldiers.

In 1832, a mob in Hiram, Ohio, attacked, tarred and feathered Mormon leaders Joseph Smith Jr. and Sidney Rigdon.

In 1882, German scientist Robert Koch announced in Berlin that he had discovered the bacillus responsible for tuberculosis.

In 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a bill granting future independence to the Philippines.

In 1976, the president of Argentina, Isabel Peron, was deposed by her country’s military.

In 1980, one of El Salvador’s most respected Roman Catholic Church leaders, Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero, was shot to death by a sniper as he celebrated Mass in San Salvador.

In 1995, after 20 years, British soldiers stopped routine patrols in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

In 1999, NATO launched airstrikes against Yugoslavia, marking the first time in its 50-year existence that it had ever attacked a sovereign country.

In 2010, keeping a promise he’d made to anti-abortion Democratic lawmakers to assure passage of his historic health care legislation, President Barack Obama signed an executive order against using federal funds to pay for elective abortions covered by private insurance.

In 2013, hundreds of thousands marched in Paris protesting the imminent legalization of same-sex marriage. (It would be signed into law just over two months later).

In 2015, Germanwings Flight 9525, an Airbus A320, crashed into the French Alps, killing all 150 people on board; investigators said the jetliner was deliberately downed by the 27-year-old co-pilot, Andreas Lubitz.

In 2016, a U.N. war crimes court convicted former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic of genocide and nine other charges for orchestrating a campaign of terror that left 100,000 people dead during the 1992-95 war in Bosnia; Karadzic was sentenced to 40 years in prison. (The sentence was later increased to life in prison.)

In 2018, in the streets of the nation’s capital and in cities across the country, hundreds of thousands of teenagers and their supporters rallied against gun violence, spurred by a call to action from student survivors of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 people dead.

In 2020, the International Olympic Committee announced that the Summer Olympics in Tokyo would be postponed until 2021 because of the coronavirus.

In 2021, Jessica Walter, whose roles included a scheming matriarch on TV’s “Arrested Development” and a stalker in the film “Play Misty for Me,” died at 80.

Today’s Birthdays: Fashion and costume designer Bob Mackie is 85. Former Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire is 77. Rock musician Lee Oskar is 76. Singer Nick Lowe is 75. Rock musician Dougie Thomson (Supertramp) is 73. Fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger is 73. Actor Donna Pescow is 70. Actor Robert Carradine is 70. Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind., is 70. Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer is 68. Actor Kelly LeBrock is 64. TV personality Star Jones is 62. Country-rock musician Patterson Hood (Drive-By Truckers) is 60. Actor Peter Jacobson is 59. Rock singer-musician Sharon Corr (The Corrs) is 54. Actor Lauren Bowles is 54. Actor Lara Flynn Boyle is 54. Actor Megyn Price is 53. Actor Jim Parsons is 51. Christian rock musician Chad Butler (Switchfoot) is 50. Actor Alyson Hannigan is 50. Former NFL quarterback Peyton Manning is 48. Actor Amanda Brugel (TV: “The Handmaid’s Tale”) is 47. Actor Olivia Burnette is 47. Actor Jessica Chastain is 47. Actor Amir Arison is 46. Actor Lake Bell is 45. Rock musician Benj Gershman (O.A.R.) is 44. Neo-soul musician Jesse Phillips (St. Paul & the Broken Bones) is 44. Actor Philip Winchester (TV: “Strike Back”) is 43. Dancer Val Chmerkovskiy is 38. Actor Keisha Castle-Hughes is 34.