March 31
Today in America's Present Past
1736 | Bellevue, the first public hospital in the US, opened in New York.
1776 | Encouraging her husband John to remember women when writing laws in the Continental Congress, Abigail Adams, wrote him “remember the ladies.”
1835 | The start of the Toledo War between Michigan and Ohio.
1850 | Politician John C. Calhoun died.
1870 | Thomas Mundy Peterson was the first recorded African American voter under the 15th Amendment. Peterson lived in Perth Amboy, New Jersey.
1880 | Wabash, Indiana, became the first US city to deploy electric street lighting.
1878 | Boxer Jack Johnson was born.
1913 | Entrepreneur J.P. Morgan died.
1918 | First daylight savings time in the US went into effect.
1927 | Activist Cesar Chavez was born.
1929 | Entrepreneur Liz Claiborne was born.
1930 | The Motion Pictures Production Code was instituted.
1931 | Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne died in a plane crash.
1932 | Ford publicly unveiled the first commercial V-8 engine.
1933 | Congress: The Civilian Conservation Corps was authorized.
1943 | Broadway: “Oklahoma” debuted.
1948 | Congress: Enacted the Marshall Aid Act.
1949 | Politician Al Gore was born.
1955 | Chase and Manhattan Bank merge.
1962 | SCOTUS: Justice Charles Whittaker resigned.
1968 | POTUS: Democrat President Johnson authorized a troop surge in Vietnam also announcing “I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President.”
1975 | TV: The show “Gunsmoke” ended.
1980 | POTUS: Democrat President Jimmy Carter deregulated the banking industry.
1980 | Olympian Jesse Owens died.
1995 | Entertainer Selena was murdered.
1999 | Film: “The Matrix” debuted.
2020 | Psychoanalyst Richard Friedman died.