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 1995, Mexican-American singer Selena Quintanilla-Perez, 23, was shot to death in Corpus Christi, Texas, by the founder of her fan club, Yolanda Saldivar, who was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.
- In 2004, four American civilian contractors were killed in Fallujah, Iraq; frenzied crowds dragged the burned, mutilated bodies and strung two of them from a bridge.
- In 2005, Terri Schiavo, 41, died at a hospice in Pinellas Park, Florida, 13 days after her feeding tube was removed in a wrenching right-to-die court fight.
- In 2009, Benjamin Netanyahu took office as Israel's new prime minister after the Knesset approved his government.
- In 2014, an umpire's call was overturned for the first time under Major League Baseball's expanded replay system, with Milwaukee Brewers star Ryan Braun ruled out instead of safe in a game against the Atlanta Braves. (The Brewers won, 2-0.)
Ten years ago: President Barack Obama threw open a huge swath of East Coast waters and other protected areas in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska to oil drilling. A Chechen militant claimed responsibility for deadly attacks on the Moscow subway two days earlier that claimed 40 lives; the claim came hours after two more suicide bombers struck in the southern Russian province of Dagestan, killing a dozen people.
Five years ago: Lawyers for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev rested their case in his federal death penalty trial, a day after they began presenting testimony designed to show his late older brother, Tamerlan, was the mastermind of the 2013 terror attack. Muhammadu Buhari, a former general who once rose to power in a military coup, won Nigeria's presidential election, defeating President Goodluck Jonathan.
One year ago: Rapper Nipsey Hussle was fatally shot outside the clothing store he had founded to help rebuild his troubled South Los Angeles neighborhood; he was 33. Former Vice President Joe Biden defended his interactions with women; saying he didn't believe he had ever acted inappropriately. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced a 30-day plan to ration electricity, following nationwide power cuts that had inflicted misery on millions of people and ignited protests.
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. Actress Rhea Perlman is 72. Actor Ed Marinaro is 70. Rock musician Angus Young (AC/DC) is 65. Actor Marc McClure is 63. Actor William McNamara is 55. Alt-country musician Bob Crawford (The Avett Brothers) is 49. Actress Erica Tazel is 45. Actress Judi Shekoni is 42. Actress Kate Micucci is 40. Actor Brian Tyree Henry (TV: "Atlanta" Stage: "Book of Mormon") is 38. Actress Melissa Ordway is 37. Jazz musician Christian Scott is 37. Actress Jessica Szohr is 35.
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).
- The Associated Press