On This Day March 24

2003
Iraq War: Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on weapons of mass destruction: "We have seen intelligence over many months that they have chemical and biological weapons, and that they have dispersed them and that they're weaponized and that, in one case at least, the command and control arrangements have been established."

1989
Valdez disaster: An Exxon tanker spills more than 10,000,000 gallons of oil. This was the largest oil spill in U.S. history.

1958
Elvis Presley: The King of Rock 'n' Roll is inducted into the U.S. Army, where he took an approximate $100,000 pay cut.

1934
Congress grants independence to the Philippines with the passing of the Tydings-McDuffie Act. The Philippine legislature approved it in May and independence was proclaimed in 1946.

1898
Only U.S. Battleship not named for a State: The USS Kearsarge (BB-5) is launched.

1880
Salvation Army - First U.S. post: George Scott Railton and 7 women volunteers establish a branch of the organization which had been started in England by William Booth in 1865. (Source: An Almanac of the Christian Church)

1954
Donna Pescow, American actress. TV: All My Children (child psychologist Lynn Carson), Out of This World (Donna Garland).

1930 d. 1980
Steve McQueen, American actor. Film: The Blob (1958) and The Great Escape (1963).

1909 d. 1934
Clyde Barrow, American bank robber, of Bonnie and Clyde fame. He and Bonnie Parker were killed by a Texas ranger and his posse, who riddled their car with hundreds of bullets.

1902 d. 1971
Thomas E. Dewey, American politician. As governor of New York, he enacted the nation's first state law banning racial and religious discrimination in employment. His loss of the 1948 presidential election to Truman surprised many, including the newspapers.

1901 d. 1971
Ub Iwerks, American Oscar-winning animator, one the original artists for Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse (1928). He supervised the animation and special effects of numerous Disney films.

1890 d. 1984
John C. Rock, American physician. He and Mirian Menkin achieved the first in vitro fertilization of a human ovum (1944) and he co-developed the birth control pill (1956).

1887 d. 1933
Fatty Arbuckle (Roscoe Conkling Arbuckle), American actor, director.

1874 d. 1926
Harry Houdini (Ehrich Weiss), American magician, escape artist, "The Handcuff King." He also made Australia's first successful airplane flight.

1855 d. 1937
Andrew William Mellon, American financier. He donated his art collection for the establishment of the National Gallery of Art.

1820 d. 1915
Fanny Crosby (Frances Jane Crosby), American hymn writer. Blind since an infant, she composed over 5,000 hymns including Safe in the Arms of Jesus, Blessed Assurance, and To God Be the Glory. (Source: An Almanac of the Christian Church)

1809 d. 1882
Joseph Liouville, French mathematician. He discovered the first proof of transcendental numbers (1844).

1494 d. 1555
Georgius Agricola, German scholar, the "Father of Mineralogy." His writings served as a guide for metallurgist for over 200 years.

1993 b. 1914
John Hersey, Chinese-born American Pulitzer-winning author, journalist, A Bell for Adano (1944, Pulitzer).

1962 b. 1884
Auguste Piccard, Swiss physicist, pioneer in ballooning and diving vehicles, and identical twin of Jean Felix. He and his twin established many records, including the highest ascent into the stratosphere and lowest descent into the ocean.

1946 b. 1892
Aleksandr Alekhine, Russian chess master, world champion (1927-35, 1937-46).

1905 b. 1828
Jules Verne, French science fiction author. Writings: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870) and Around the World in Eighty Days (1873).

1882 b. 1807
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, American poet. Writings: The Courtship of Miles Standish (1858).

1661 b. ????
William Leddra, American Quaker. He was the last Quaker executed in Boston. He was hanged for returning to Boston after banishment, which for Quakers was punishable by death. (Source: An Almanac of the Christian Church)

1603 b. 1533
Elizabeth I, Queen of England, and for whom the Elizabethan Era is named.

March 24

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