On This Day in History - March 14th - Almanac

Today is Thursday, March 14, the 73rd day of 2019 with 292 to follow.

The moon is waxing. Morning stars are Jupiter, Saturn and Venus. Evening stars are Mars and Uranus.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Pisces. They include Austrian composer Johann Strauss Sr. in 1804; Thomas Marshall, U.S. vice president under Woodrow Wilson, in 1854; Jonathan Luther Jones, railroad engineer who was the hero of the ballad "Casey Jones," in 1863; physicist Albert Einstein in 1879; cartoonist Hank Ketcham ("Dennis the Menace") in 1920; astronaut Frank Borman in 1928 (age 91); actor Michael Caine in 1933 (age 86); composer Quincy Jones in 1933 (age 86); astronaut (last man on the moon) Eugene Cernan in 1934; golf Hall of Fame member Bob Charles in 1936 (age 83); singer Michael Martin Murphey in 1945 (age 74); basketball Hall of Fame member Wes Unseld in 1946 (age 73); comedian Billy Crystal in 1948 (age 71); Prince Albert II of Monaco in 1958 (age 61); baseball Hall of Fame member Kirby Puckett in 1960; actor Grace Park in 1974 (age 45); actor Daniel Gillies in 1976 (age 43); actor Jamie Bell in 1986 (age 33); NBA star Stephen Curry in 1988 (age 31); actor Ansel Elgort in 1994 (age 25); U.S. Olympic gold gymnast Simone Biles in 1997 (age 22).

On this date in history:

In 1794, Eli Whitney was granted a patent for the cotton gin.

In 1812, the U.S. government authorized the issue of America's first war bonds -- to pay for military equipment for use against the British.

In 1950, the FBI's "10 Most Wanted Fugitives" list appeared for the first time.

In 1951, Seoul was recaptured by U.N. troops during the Korean War.

In 1964, Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby was convicted of killing Lee Harvey Oswald, the assumed assassin of U.S. President John F. Kennedy. Ruby was sentenced to death but the conviction was overturned and he died of cancer while awaiting a new trial.

In 1973, Navy pilot John McCain -- the future U.S. senator from Arizona -- and 107 other American prisoners of war were released by North Vietnam. He spent more than five years in a prison camp after his plane was shot down.

In 1991, scientists reported the discovery of the gene that triggers colon cancer.

In 1991, citing fresh evidence, a British appeals court overturned the convictions of the so-called Birmingham Six, who were sentenced to life in prison for the bombings of two pubs in 1974, the bloodiest assault by the Irish Republican Army on the British mainland. The false conviction of the six men, who were released, is seen one of the worst miscarriages of justice in modern British history.

In 2004, Vladimir Putin easily won re-election as president of Russia. He won a third term in 2012.

In 2009, Australian authorities said a 230-ton oil spill from a Hong Kong-registered freighter caused an environmental disaster along nearly 40 miles of beach off the Queensland coast.

In 2012, the International Criminal Court at The Hague, Netherlands, in its first verdict as a permanent war crimes tribunal, found Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga guilty of using children in war.

In 2013, Xi Jinping began his 10-year term as president of China.

In 2018, Finland was ranked the happiest place in the world to live and Burundi the unhappiest, the U.N. World Happiness Report said.

A thought for the day: First FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover: "The cure for crime is not the electric chair, but the high chair."