Today in History – March 19

1628 – Massachusetts Bay Colony was granted land by England

1687 – Explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle, searching for the mouth of the Mississippi River, was murdered by his own men

1748 – Naturalization Act was passed granting Jews the right to colonize North American colonies

1831 – 1st US bank robbery, the City Bank in New York robbed of $245,000

1863 – Confederate cruiser SS Georgiana destroyed on her maiden voyage with a cargo of munitions, and medicines then valued over $1,000,000. Wreck discovered exactly 102 years later by teenage diver and pioneer underwater archaeologist E. Lee Spence.

1915 – Pluto was photographed for the first time (although unknown at the time)

1918 – US Congress authorized time zones & approved daylight saving time

1928 – “Amos & Andy” debuted on radio (NBC Blue Network-WMAQ Chicago)

1931 – Nevada legalized gambling

1964 – Sean Connery’s first day of shooting on James Bond film “Goldfinger”

1965 – The wreck of the SS Georgiana, valued at over $50,000,000, said to have been most powerful Confederate cruiser, discovered by then teenage diver and pioneer underwater archaeologist E. Lee Spence exactly 102 years after its destruction.

1974 – Jefferson Starship began their 1st tour

1975 – Pennsylvania was the first state to allow girls to compete with boys in High School sports

1981 – Two workers killed in space shuttle Columbia accident

1987 – American televangelist Jim Bakker resigned amid rape accusation by his secretary, Jessica Hahn

2003 – Airstrikes by an American and British-led coalition signaled the beginning of the invasion of Iraq, without United Nations support and in defiance of world opinion

2012 – Wendy’s overtook Burger King to become the second best-selling hamburger chain

2020 – Italian death toll from COVID-19 at 3,405 surpassed China’s official total (3,245) making it then the worst-affected country in the world


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