Today is Tuesday, March 31, the 91st day of 2020. There are 275 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On March 31, 1968, at the conclusion of a nationally broadcast address on Vietnam, President Lyndon B. Johnson stunned listeners by declaring, “I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President.”
On this date:
In 1811, German scientist Robert Bunsen, who helped develop the Bunsen burner, was born.
In 1880, Wabash, Ind., became the first town in the world to be illuminated by electrical lighting.
In 1931, Notre Dame college football coach Knute Rockne, 43, was killed in the crash of a TWA plane in Bazaar, Kan.
In 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Emergency Conservation Work Act, which created the Civilian Conservation Corps.
In 1943, “Oklahoma!,” the first musical play by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, opened on Broadway.
In 1975, “Gunsmoke” closed out 20 seasons on CBS with its final first-run episode, “The Sharecroppers.”
In 1976, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that Karen Ann Quinlan, a young woman in a persistent vegetative state, could be disconnected from her respirator. (Quinlan, who remained unconscious, died in 1985.)
In 2009, Benjamin Netanyahu took office as Israel’s new prime minister after the Knesset approved his government.
Today’s Birthdays: Actor William Daniels is 93. Actor Richard Chamberlain is 86. Actress Shirley Jones is 86. Musician Herb Alpert is 85. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., is 80. Former U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., is 80. Actor Christopher Walken is 77. Comedian Gabe Kaplan is 76. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, is 76. Rock musician Mick Ralphs (Bad Company; Mott the Hoople) is 76. Former Vice President Al Gore is 73. Author David Eisenhower is 72. Actress Rhea Perlman is 72. Actor Robbie Coltrane is 70. Actor Ed Marinaro is 70. Rock musician Angus Young (AC/DC) is 65. Actor Marc McClure is 63.
Thought for Today: “An optimist may see a light where there is none, but why must the pessimist always run to blow it out?” — Rene Descartes, French philosopher (born this date in 1596, died 1650).
