Epic Idiot's what happened
On This Day

March 26

1992
Mike Tyson is sentenced to six years in prison and fined $30,000 for raping beauty contestant Desiree Washington.

1953
Dr. Jonas Salk announces he has successfully tested an anti-polio vaccine on 90 adults and children.

1911
First black assistant U.S. attorney general: William Henry Lewis of Massachusetts begins serving.

1889
First use of the term "fans," by the Kansas Times and Star to describe baseball followers.

1790
First naturalization act passed by Congress, provided for uniform naturalization based on a two year residency.

1788
Slavery: Massachusetts prohibits slave trade.

1957
Leeza Gibbons, American reporter. TV: Entertainment Tonight (co-anchor).

1954
Curtis Sliwa, American crime fighter, founder of the Guardian Angels (1978), an unarmed anti-crime unit.

1951
Martin Short, Canadian Emmy-winning comedian. TV: Saturday Night Live and Ed Grimley on SCTV.

1950
Teddy Pendergrass, American singer, Never Knew Love Like This Before (1980).

1949
Vicki Lawrence, American actress. TV: Mama's Family (Mama). She also recorded the song The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia (1972).

1944
Diana Ross, American singer, Supreme.

1943
Bob Woodward (Robert Upshur), American journalist. He and Carl Bernstein uncovered the Watergate scandal while working for the Washington Post.

1939
James Caan, American actor. Film: Brian's Song (1971, the dying football player) and The Godfather (1972, Sonny Corleone).

1934
Alan Arkin, American Tony-winning actor, director. Stage: Enter Laughing (1963, Tony). Film: Catch 22 (1970).

1931
Leonard Nimoy, American actor. TV: Star Trek (Spock).

1930
Sandra Day O'Connor, American lawyer, U.S. Supreme Court Justice. She was the first woman associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1981).

1923
Bob Elliott, American Peabody-Emmy-winning comic actor, member of the radio comedy team Bob & Ray. TV: Get a Life (as the bathrobe-wearing father - he is also Chris' real-life father).

1911     d. 1983
Tennessee Williams (Thomas Lanier Williams), American Pulitzer-winning playwright. Writings: The Glass Menagerie (1944), A Streetcar Named Desire (1947, Pulitzer), and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955, Pulitzer).

1908     d. 1958
Betty MacDonald, American author. Writings: The Egg and I (1945), which was made into the 1947 film featuring Ma and Pa Kettle.

1874     d. 1963
Robert Frost, American Pulitzer-winning poet. Writings: A Boy's Will and North of Boston.

2004     b. 1941
Jan Berry, American singer, with Jan and Dean.

1973     b. 1899
Sir Noel Pierce Coward, English playwright, composer, actor, director. Writings: Mad Dogs and Englishmen.

1969     b. 1937
John Kennedy Toole, American author. Writings: A Confederacy of Dunces (written in 1963, but not published until 11 years after his death), which won the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

1923     b. 1844
Sarah Bernhardt (Rosine Bernard), French actress, called Divine Sarah. She is considered the first great actress to appear in a motion picture (1900). She continued her successful career after her leg was amputated in 1915.

1916     b. 1843
Susan Elizabeth Blow, American educator, "Mother of American Kindergartens," established the first American public kindergarten (1873).

1902     b. 1853
Cecil John Rhodes, English colonial statesman. He established Rhodesia and Rhodes scholarships. His will declared that his estate should be used to secure British world domination, and that Rhodes scholars should strive to unify English-speaking people.

1892     b. 1819
Walt Whitman, American poet. Writings: Leaves of Grass.

1831     b. 1760
Richard Allen, American clergyman. Born a slave, he helped establish the first black U.S. church (1816), the African Methodist Episcopal Church of Philadelphia, of which he was bishop, making him the first black bishop in the U.S. (Source: An Almanac of the Christian Church)

1827     b. 1770
Ludwig van Beethoven, German composer. He is considered the greatest composer in the history of music; his 5th and 9th symphonies are unequalled.

1814     b. 1738
Joseph Ignace Guillotin, French physician. His campaign for the use of a machine to provide humane executions led to the invention of the guillotine by a German mechanic.

1649     b. 1588
John Winthrop, English colonizer. He was the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony (1630) and the first president of the united colonies of New England (1645).

1378     b. ????
Gregory XI, French-born religious leader, 201st Pope (1370-78).

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