Epic Idiot's what happened
On This Day

March 23

1994
Joey Buttafuoco: He is released from prison after serving four months for having sex with underage Amy Fisher.  Fisher had previously shot Buttafuoco's wife in the head.

1990
Dan Quayle: "If we do not succeed, then we run the risk of failure."

1983
Reagan: The U.S. President gives his famous "Star Wars" speech.

1965
First U.S. two-man space flight: Gemini 3 is launched.

1950
Beat the Clock debuts on CBS. This show provided a then unknown his first job in TV (1952), testing stunts. His name was James Dean.

1919
Benito Mussolini organizes the Fascio de Combattimento, which became the nucleus of the Fascist Party (1921).

1857
First passenger elevator is installed, by Elisha Graves Otis in the Hagwout Department Store in New York.

1775
American Revolution: Patrick Henry proclaims "I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"

1990
Princess Eugenie, second child of Prince Andrew and the Duchess of York.

1953
Chaka Khan (Yvette Marie Stevens), American singer, songwriter. Music: Tell Me Something Good (1974).

1929
Roger Bannister, British runner, first person to run a mile in under 4 minutes (1954).

1922
Marty Allen, American comedian, with his famous catchphrase "Hello Dere!"

1912
Wernher von Braun, German engineer. He launched the first long-range guided missile (Germany's V-2, 1942) and the first rocket to reach outer space (25 miles, 1949). He also led the team of German rocket scientists who developed the Saturn and the Mercury Redstone (which put the first U.S. astronaut in space in 1961).

1904     d. 1977
Joan Crawford (Lucille LeSueur), American actress. Film: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962).

1868     d. 1945
Elmer Smith, American baseball player. He hit the first World Series bases-loaded home run (1920).

1823     d. 1885
Schuyler Colfax, 17th U.S. Vice-President (1869-73).

1736     d. 1818
Arthur St. Clair, 15th president of the Continental Congress (1787-88).

1994     b. 1920
Giulietta Masina (Guilia Anna Masina), Italian actress, wife of Fellini. Film: La Strada (1954, Gelsomina) Nights of Cabiria (1956, Cannes Best Actress, as the prostitute).

1985     b. 1924
Patricia Roberts Harris, American lawyer, educator, first black woman U.S. ambassador (1965, Luxembourg) and the first woman to hold two cabinet positions (Secretary of Housing and Urban Development 1977-79 and Secretary of Health Education and Welfare 1979-81).

1985     b. 1925
John Haley "Zoot" Sims, American saxophonist. He played with Bobby Sherwood, Benny Goodman, and Woody Herman.

1983     b. 1921
Barney B. Clark, American dentist, first person to have a permanent artificial heart successfully implanted (Dec. 2, 1982).

1964     b. 1904
Peter Lorre (Laszlo Loewenstein), American actor. Film: The Maltese Falcon (1941), Casablanca (1942, Ugarte), and star of the Mr. Moto movies (1930s).

1914     b. 1856
Harry Thurston Peck, American educator, magazine editor, coined the word "Bestseller" (1895).

1888     b. 1816
Morrison Remick Waite, American jurist, chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1874-88).

1872     b. 1813
Samuel Gregory, American medical educator. He founded Boston Female Medical School (1848), the first medical school exclusively for women, because he was opposed to male doctors attending births.

1555     b. ????
Julius III, Italian religious leader, 221st Pope (1550-55).

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