Epic Idiot's what happened
On This Day

March 22

2006
Addwaita the 250-year-old giant tortoise dies. He was given as a gift in 1767 to Lord Robert Clive of the East India Company.

1993
Intel officially introduces the "pentium" processor chip, for IBM compatibles. It is approximately 300 times faster than the 8088 in the original IBM PC.

1987
The Mobro 4000, a barge filled with 3,168 tons of New York garbage, begins it 6,000-mile, 162-day voyage to find a port willing to take its load. New York City finally accepts.

1972
27th Amendment passed by the Senate, prohibiting discrimination based on sex.

1904
First color newspaper pictures, in the London Daily Illustrated Mirror.

1903
The Niagara Falls runs dry, following a drought.

1895
First public showing of a motion picture on a screen, by French inventors Auguste and Louis Lumiere.

1882
Polygamy is banned in the U.S. Those practicing, or approving of, polygamy were banned from voting and holding public office.

1871
First U.S. governor to be removed from office by impeachment: William Woods Holden of North Carolina.

1861
First U.S. nursing school to award a diploma: School of Nursing of the Woman's Hospital of Philadelphia is chartered. They issued their first diplomas in 1865.

1841
Cornstarch is patented, by Orlando Jones of England.

1834
The New Yorker is founded, by Horace Greeley and Jonas Winchester.

1622
First Indian massacre: 347 Virginian colonists are killed.

1948
Andrew Lloyd Webber, British musical composer. Stage: Evita (1976), Cats (1981), and The Phantom of the Opera (1986).

1931
William Shatner, Canadian actor. TV: Star Trek (Capt. James T. Kirk). T.J. Hooker (title role), and 911 (host).

1930
Stephen Joshua Sondheim, American musical composer, lyricist. Stage: West Side Story (1957).

1930
Pat Robertson (Marion Gordon Robertson), evangelist.

1923
Marcel Marceau, French mime.

1920     d. 2000
Werner Klemperer, German Emmy-winning actor. TV: Hogan's Heroes (Emmy, as Colonel Klink). He and his family fled the Nazis in 1933.

1920     d. 1981
Ross Martin (Martin Rosenblatt), Polish-born American actor. TV: The Wild, Wild West (Artemus Gordon).

1920     d. 1992
James L. Brown, American actor. TV: The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin (Lt. Rip Masters).

1912
Karl Malden (Malden Sekulovich), American Oscar-Emmy-winning actor. Film: A Streetcar Named Desire (1951, Oscar, Mitch). TV: The Streets of San Francisco (Lt. Stone).

1908     d. 1988
Louis Dearborn L'Amour, American author, his books - known for their authentic portrayal of frontier life - sold over 200,000,000 copies.

1907     d. 2005
Sister Lucy dos Santos (Lúcia de Jesus Rosa Santos), Roman Catholic Carmelite nun. She claims that at the age of ten she saw and was spoken to by the Virgin Mary near Fátima, Portugal (1917).

1891     d. 1961
Chico Marx (Leonard Marx), American comedian, piano-playing Marx Brother.

1459     d. 1519
Maximilian I, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (1493-1519).

2001     b. 1910
William Hanna, American Oscar-winning cartoonist. He and Joseph Barbera created Tom and Jerry, Yogi Bear, The Jetsons, The Flintstones, and Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? He also provided the screams and yelps of Tom in the Tom and Jerry cartoons.

1994     b. 1900
Walter Lantz, American cartoonist, creator of Woody Woodpecker, Andy Panda, and Chilly Willy.

1984     b. 1907
Paul Francis Webster, American Oscar-winning lyricist. Film: Calamity Jane (1953, Oscar), Love is a Many Splendored Thing (1955, Oscar), and The Sandpiper (1965, Oscar).

1978     b. 1905
Karl Wallenda, German tight-rope walker, with the Great Wallendas. He fell 100 feet to his death during a performance in Puerto Rico.

1958     b. 1907
Mike Todd (Avram Goldenbogen), American producer. Film: Oklahoma! (1955) and Around the World in 80 Days (1956). He died in a plane crash, in which his wife, Liz Taylor, would have also been a passenger had she not stayed home with a cold.

1820     b. 1779
Stephen Decatur, American naval officer, famous quote "My country-may she ever be right, but right or wrong, my country."

1687     b. 1632
Jean-Baptiste Lully (Giovanni Battista Lulli), Italian-born French composer. While conducting a Te Deum in honor of King Louis XIV's recent recovery from illness, he struck his toe with the staff he was using to keep beat. The wound turned gangrenous, but Lully refused to have his toe amputated and the gangrene spread resulting in his death several months later.

752     b. ????
Saint Zachary, Greek-born religious leader, 91st Pope (741-752).

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