March 12
Today in America's Present Past
1664 | New Jersey became a British colony when Charles II deeded his brother, the Duke of York, the land.
1755 | The first steam engine in America was installed to pump water.
1773 | Explorer Jeanne Baptiste Pointe de Sable discovered a settlement now known as Chicago.
1806 | POTUS: Jane Appleton Pierce, future First Lady was born.
1831 | Entrepreneur Clement Studebaker was born.
1868 | Congress: The manufacturer’s tax was abolished.
1884 | Civil War: Mississippi established the first state college for women.
1888 | Activist Henry Bergh died.
1889 | SCOTUS: Justice John Archibald Campbell died.
1894 | For the first time, Coca-Cola was sold in bottles at a candy store in Vicksburg, Mississippi.
1895 | Entrepreneur John H. Balsley died.
1904 | Entrepreneur Andrew Carnegie established the Carnegie Hero Fund.
1910 | Entrepreneur Roger L. Stevens was born in Detroit, Michigan.
1912 | Juliette Gordon Low launches the Girl Scouts in Savannah, Georgia.
1914 | Entrepreneur George Westinghouse died.
1917 | WWI: Germany sunk the unarmed merchant ship the Algonquin.
1922 | Novelist Jack Kerouac was born.
1926 | Publisher Edward Wyllis Scripps died.
1928 | Author Edward Albee was born.
1932 | Politician Andrew Young was born.
1933 | POTUS: Democrat President Roosevelt conducts his first “fireside chat.”
1945 | Civil Rights: New York became the first to prohibit discrimination by race and creed in employment.
1946 | Entertainer Liza Minnelli was born.
1947 | POTUS: Democrat President Truman announced the “Truman Doctrine” to combat worldwide communism.
1947 | Politician Mitt Romney was born.
1948 | Entertainer James Taylor was born.
1955 | Entertainer Charlie “Bird” Parker died.
1970 | Congress: Passed the federal voting age limit lowering from 21 to 18 which was later incorporated into the 26th Amendment.
1975 | Vietnam War: The communist Vietcong captured Ban me Thuot, South Vietnam.
1980 | Serial killer John Wayne Gacy was convicted of the murder of 33 people.
2001 | Author Robert Ludlum died.