March 26
Today in America's Present Past
1649 | Pilgrim leader John Winthrop died.
1749 | Founder William Blount was born.
1773 | Mathematician Nathaniel Bowditch was born.
1790 | Congress: Passed the Naturalization Act.
1804 | Congress: Orders removal of Indians east of Mississippi to Louisiana.
1830 | Civil Rights: The Book of Mormon was published in Palmyra, New York.
1838 | Mathematician Nathaniel Bowditch died.
1862 | Civil War: Battle of La Glorieta Pass, New Mexico Territory.
1863 | Civil Rights: Voters in West Virginia approved gradual emancipation of slaves.
1850 | Novelist Edward Bellamy was born.
1872 | Thomas J. Martin received a pipe and valve fire extinguisher system patent.
1874 | Poet Robert Frost was born.
1878 | Hastings College of Law founded in San Francisco, California.
1885 | Eastman Film manufactured first commercial motion picture film.
1892 | Poet Walt Whitman died.
1904 | Mythologist Joseph Campbell was born.
1910 | U.S. barred immigration of criminals, anarchists, paupers and the sick.
1911 | Author Tennessee Williams was born.
1914 | General William Westmoreland was born.
1930 | SCOTUS: Justice Sandra Day O’Connor was born.
1931 | Actor Leonard Nimoy was born.
1940 | Actor James Caan was born.
1941 | Congress: Speaker Nancy Pelosi was born.
1943 | Author and CIA operative Bob Woodward was born.
1943 | WWII: Elsie S. Ott was the first woman awarded the Air Medal.
1944 | Entertainer Diana Ross was born in Detroit, Michigan.
1948 | Musician Steven Tyler was born.
1951 | POTUS: Democrat President Truman adopted the United States Air Force flag design.
1953 | Jonas Salk announced he had successfully tested a vaccine to prevent polio.
1962 | Inventor Marjorie Colton died.
1968 | Musician Kenny Chesney was born.
1969 | Author John Kennedy Toole died.
1973 | Entrepreneur Larry Page was born in East Lansing, Michigan.
1977 | Focus on the Family was founded by Dr. James Dobson.
1982 | Vietnam War: Ground was broken for the building of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.
1996 | Entrepreneur David Packard died.
1997 Thirty-nine bodies found in the Heaven’s Gate cult suicides in Rancho Santa Fe, California.
2003 | Politician Daniel Patrick Moynihan died.
2011 | Politician Geraldine Ferraro died.
2011 | Entrepreneur Harry Coover died.
2016 | Author Jim Harrison died.
2024 | Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore collapsed after being struck by a cargo ship.