By The Associated Press
Today in History
Today is Thursday, March 23, the 82nd day of 2023. There are 283 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On March 23, 1919, Benito Mussolini founded his Fascist political movement in Milan, Italy.
On this date:
In 1775, Patrick Henry delivered an address to the Virginia Provincial Convention in which he is said to have declared, “Give me liberty, or give me death!”
In 1806, explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, having reached the Pacific coast, began their journey back east.
In 1933, the German Reichstag adopted the Enabling Act, which effectively granted Adolf Hitler dictatorial powers.
In 1942, the first Japanese-Americans evacuated by the U.S. Army during World War II arrived at the internment camp in Manzanar, California.
In 1965, America’s first two-person space mission took place as Gemini 3 blasted off with astronauts Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom and John W. Young aboard for a nearly 5-hour flight.
In 1981, the U.S. Supreme Court, in H.L. v. Matheson, ruled that states could require, with some exceptions, parental notification when teenage girls seek abortions.
In 1993, scientists announced they’d found the renegade gene that causes Huntington’s disease.
In 1994, Aeroflot Flight 593, an Airbus A310, crashed in Siberia with the loss of all 75 people on board; it turned out that a pilot’s teenage son who was allowed to sit at the controls had accidentally disengaged the autopilot, causing loss of control.
In 1998, “Titanic” tied an Academy Awards record by winning 11 Oscars, including best picture, director (James Cameron) and song (“My Heart Will Go On”).
In 2003, during the Iraq War, a U.S. Army maintenance convoy was ambushed in Nasiriyah (nah-sih-REE’-uh); 11 soldiers were killed, including Pfc. Lori Ann Piestewa (py-ES’-tuh-wah); six were captured, including Pfc. Jessica Lynch, who was rescued on April 1, 2003.
In 2010, claiming a historic triumph, President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act, a $938 billion health care overhaul.
In 2020, President Donald Trump said he wanted to reopen the country for business in weeks, not months; he asserted that continued closures could result in more deaths than the coronavirus itself. Britain became the latest European country to go into effective lockdown, as Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered the closure of most retail stores and banned public gatherings.
Ten years ago: President Barack Obama concluded a four-day visit to the Middle East as he marveled at the beauty of one of the region’s most stunning sites, the fabled ancient city of Petra in Jordan. Pope Francis traveled from the Vatican to Castel Gandolfo south of Rome to have lunch with his predecessor, Benedict XVI. Boris Berezovsky, 67, a self-exiled and outspoken Russian tycoon who’d had a bitter falling out with Russian President Vladimir Putin, was found dead at his home in Ascot, England.
Five years ago: A French-Moroccan gunman killed four people before being killed by police in southern France who stormed a supermarket where he had taken hostages; the victims included a police officer who had swapped himself for a hostage being held in the supermarket. President Donald Trump released an order banning most transgender troops from serving in the military except under “limited circ*mstances.” The online classified ads site Craigslist removed its personals section; the action came after the U.S. Senate passed an anti-sex-trafficking bill that could hold the website and others responsible for illegal activity.
One year ago: NATO estimated that 7,000 to 15,000 Russian soldiers were killed in four weeks of fighting in Ukraine, where the country’s defenders put up stiffer-than-expected resistance and denied Moscow the lightning victory it hoped for. Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson faced a barrage of Republican questioning about her sentencing of criminal defendants, as her history-making bid to join the Supreme Court veered from lofty constitutional questions to attacks on her motivations as a judge. Madeleine Albright, a child refugee from Nazi- and then Soviet-dominated eastern Europe who rose to become the first female U.S. secretary of state and a mentor to many current and former American statesmen and women, died of cancer at 84.
Today’s Birthdays: Movie director Mark Rydell is 94. International Motorsports Hall of Famer Craig Breedlove is 86. Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is 71. Singer Chaka Khan is 70. Actor Amanda Plummer is 66. Actor Catherine Keener is 64. Actor Hope Davis is 59. Actor Richard Grieco is 58. Actor Marin Hinkle is 57. Rock singer-musician Damon Albarn (Blur) is 55. Actor Kelly Perine is 54. Actor-singer Melissa Errico is 53. Rock musician John Humphrey (The Nixons) is 53. Bandleader Reggie Watts (TV: “The Late Late Show With James Corden”) is 51. Actor Randall Park is 49. Actor Michelle Monaghan is 47. Actor Keri Russell is 47. Actor Anastasia Griffith is 45. Gossip columnist-blogger Perez Hilton is 45. Actor Nicholle Tom is 45. Actor Brandon Dirden is 45. Country singer Brett Young is 42. Actor Nicolas Wright is 41. Actor Ben Rappaport is 37. NBA point guard Kyrie Irving is 31.
