Today is Wednesday, March 22, the 81st day of 2023 with 284 to follow.
The moon is waxing. Morning stars are Mars and Saturn. Evening stars are Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Saturn, Uranus and Venus.
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Pfc. Jessica Lynch is put into an ambulance April 3, 2003, at Ramstein Air Base Germany on April 3, 2003. On March 22, 2003, 11 U.S. soldiers were killed and seven, including Lynch, were captured in an ambush on a maintenance convoy in Iraq. File Photo courtesy of the U.S. Air Force | License Photo
Those born on this date are under the sign of Aries. They include Flemish painter Anthony van Dyck in 1599; author Louis L'Amour in 1908; actor Leonard "Chico" Marx of the Marx Brothers comedy team in 1887; actor Karl Malden in 1912; French mime Marcel Marceau in 1923; newspaper executive Allen Neuharth in 1924; Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama in 1929 (age 94); composer Stephen Sondheim in 1930; televangelist Pat Robertson in 1930 (age 93); actor William Shatner in 1931 (age 92); former U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, in 1934; actor M. Emmet Walsh in 1935 (age 88); singer George Benson in 1943 (age 80); author James Patterson in 1947 (age 76); British composer Andrew Lloyd Webber in 1948 (age 75); television journalist Wolf Blitzer in 1948 (age 75); sportscaster Bob Costas in 1952 (age 71); actor Lena Olin in 1955 (age 68); actor Matthew Modine in 1959 (age 64); actor Keegan-Michael Key in 1971 (age 52); Canadian skater Elvis Stojko in 1972 (age 51); actor Guillermo Diaz in 1975 (age 48); actor Reese Witherspoon in 1976 (age 47); actor Constance Wu in 1982 (age 41); actor Dominique Fishback in 1991 (age 32); actor Nick Robinson in 1995 (age 28).
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On this date in history:
In 1765, the Stamp Act was passed by Britain's Parliament, introducing a tax on printed materials in the American colonies. Colonists believed this to be a violation of their rights and was a major grievance listed in the Declaration of Independence.
In 1794, President George Washington signed legislation forbidding slave trading with foreign nations.
In 1894, hockey teams played the first championship series to win Lord Stanley's Cup in Montreal, Canada.
In 1941, the Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River began producing electrical power for the Pacific Northwest.
In 1945, representatives from Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Transjordan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Yemen met in Cairo to establish the Arab League.
In 1968, U.S. President Lyndon Johnson recalled Army Gen. William Westmoreland as commander of U.S. troops in Vietnam and made him Army chief of staff. Gen. Creighton Abrams took over in Saigon.
In 1972, the U.S. Senate passed the Equal Rights Amendment and sent it to the states for ratification, which failed. The would-be 27th Amendment would have prohibited discrimination on the basis of sex.
In 1989, Pete Rozelle resigned as commissioner of the National Football League after holding the job 30 years.
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In 1992, a USAir plane skidded off a runway at New York's LaGuardia Airport during a snowstorm and landed in Flushing Bay. Twenty-seven people died.
In 2003, a U.S. Army maintenance convoy in Iraq made a wrong turn and was ambushed. Eleven soldiers were killed and seven, including Pfc. Jessica Lynch, were captured. Lynch later said she was erroneously praised for heroism: "I'm not a hero. I'm just a survivor."
In 2004, the founder and spiritual leader of the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas, Ahmed Yassin, was killed in an Israeli missile strike in the Gaza Strip.
In 2011, an Israeli court sentenced former President Moshe Katsav to seven years in prison for rape and sexual harassment.
In 2012, a group of military officers seized control of the Mali government and ousted President Amadou Toumani Toure, even though he had planned to step down the following month.
In 2014, a mudslide in Oso, Wash., left 43 people dead after a portion of a hill collapsed in the wake of weeks of rain.
In 2016, three coordinated bombings in Belgium -- two at Brussels Airport and one at Maalbeek metro station -- killed 35 people, including three attackers. The Islamic State claimed responsibility.
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In 2017, an attacker drove a vehicle into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge in London before abandoning the car, fatally stabbing an unarmed police officer and being shot and killed by another officer. Six people, including the attacker, died.
In 2021, a shooting at a Boulder, Colo., grocery store killed 10 people, including police officer Eric Talley.
A thought for the day: "Forget yourself. Become one with eternity. Become part of your environment." - Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama
