Today is Wednesday, March 24, the 83rd day of 2021. There are 282 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On March 24, 1976, the president of Argentina, Isabel Peron, was deposed by her country’s military.
On this date:
In 1765, Britain enacted the Quartering Act, requiring American colonists to provide temporary housing to British soldiers.
In 1882, German scientist Robert Koch (kohk) announced in Berlin that he had discovered the bacillus responsible for tuberculosis.
In 1965, Ranger 9, a lunar probe launched three days earlier by NASA, crashed into the moon (as planned) after sending back more than 5,800 video images.
In 1989, the supertanker Exxon Valdez (vahl-DEEZ’) ran aground on a reef in Alaska’s Prince William Sound and began leaking an estimated 11 million gallons of crude oil.
In 1995, after 20 years, British soldiers stopped routine patrols in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
In 1999, NATO launched airstrikes against Yugoslavia, marking the first time in its 50-year existence that it had ever attacked a sovereign country. Thirty-nine people were killed when fire erupted in the Mont Blanc tunnel in France and burned for two days.
In 2015, Germanwings Flight 9525, an Airbus A320, crashed into the French Alps, killing all 150 people on board; investigators said the jetliner was deliberately downed by the 27-yearold co-pilot, Andreas Lubitz.
In 2019, Attorney General William Barr reported that special counsel Robert Mueller did not find evidence that President Donald Trump’s campaign “conspired or coordinated” with Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election, but reached no conclusion on whether Trump obstructed justice. Democrats pointed out that Mueller had found evidence for and against obstruction, and they demanded to see his full report. (The report would be released in April.)
Ten years ago: The Census Bureau released its first set of national-level findings from the 2010 count on race and migration, showing that Hispanics accounted for more than half of the U.S. population increase over the previous decade, exceeding estimates in most states as they crossed a new census milestone: 50 million, or 1 in 6 Americans.
Five years ago: A U.N. war crimes court convicted former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic of genocide and nine other charges for orchestrating a campaign of terror that left 100,000 people dead during the 1992-95 war in Bosnia; Karadzic was sentenced to 40 years in prison. (The sentence was later increased to life in prison.)
One year ago: Former President Donald Trump said he hoped the United States would be reopened by Easter, even as some public health officials called for tougher, not looser, restrictions. Amid hopes of a deal on a relief package for businesses and ordinary Americans, stocks soared, with the Dow industrials surging more than 2,100 points, or 11.4%, for their best day since 1933. Three of America’s best-known national parks – Yellowstone, Grand Teton and Great Smoky Mountains – closed their gates to visitors.