I can’t be bothered to format the table (from wikipedia)
The oldest existing .com domain was registered on this date in 1985
Main article: .com
Rank Date of registration Domain Registered to
1 March 15, 1985 symbolics.com Symbolics
https://www.npr.org/2013/03/31/175847684/living-memories-from-the-last-days-of-alcatraz
March 21, 1963 was the last day for Alcatraz as a prison. Some nice photos by a Life photographer in the linked NPR story.
21 years ago, it was fight night at the Joe. Epic hockey fisticuffs.
You went to a fight and a hockey game broke out?
1979 - the Bird vs Magic NCAA final.
https://www.si.com/more-sports/2009/03/26/magic-larry
The 24.1 Nielsen rating generated that night is still the highest rating for any basketball game, college or pro, in the history of the sport.
The 15th Amendment was adopted on this day in 1870.
19 days after McCarthy’s surprise showing in New Hampshire, LBJ gave a nationally televised speech mostly about Viet Nam. At the end, he dropped this:
Accordingly, I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President.
1982 invasion of Falkland Islands / Islas Malvinas
LON (London): HELLO THERE WHAT ARE ALL THESE RUMOURS WE HEAR THIS IS LON
FK (Falklands): WE HAVE LOTS OF NEW FRIENDS
LON: WHAT ABOUT INVASION RUMOURS
FK: THOSE ARE THE FRIENDS I WAS MEANING
LON: THEY HAVE LANDED
FK: ABSOLUTELY
LON: ARE YOU OPEN FOR TRAFFIC (i.e. normal telex service)
FK: NO ORDERS ON THAT YET ONE MUST OBEY ORDERS
LON: WHOSE ORDERS
FK: THE NEW GOVERNORS
LON: ARGENTINA
FK: YES
LON: ARE THE ARGENTINIANS IN CONTROL
FK: YES YOU CAN’T ARGUE WITH THOUSANDS OF TROOPS PLUS ENORMOUS NAVY SUPPORT WHEN YOU ARE ONLY 1800 STRONG. STAND BY PLEASE.
If you’ve flown on Southwest Airlines, you’ve flown on one. In fact, if you’ve flown on any airline, chances are you’ve flown on one, since they constitute about a quarter of the world’s active jet airliners. On April, 9,1967, the first of over 9,400 Boeing 737’s made its first flight.
It’s April 12th, which means it’s Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day!
Well, that takes care of today’s meal planning!
I’ll be sure to put extra shredded cheese into the arepas I make tonight!
April 17, 1970: Apollo 13 returned safely to Earth:
To pilots on both sides of the front, April 1918 was known as “Bloody April,” and on the 21st day of the month, Bloody April claimed the most renowned pilot of all. Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Baron, had 80 confirmed kills to his credit, the most of any WWI fighter pilot.
Richthofen, commanding his staffel of Fokker Triplanes, got into a swirling dogfight over the front with a squadron of Canadians flying Sopwith Camels. Wilfred “Wop” May was on his first combat sortie and he had been instructed by his squadron commander and friend, Roy Brown, to beat it for home if things got hot. Richthofen saw May’s Camel peel off from the fight at low level and set off after him. The Red Baron had boasted, with good reason, that any enemy who got in front of and below him had to die, and, as May desperately maneuvered his Camel he figured it was all over for him when he heard the chattering of the Triplane’s twin Spandau machine guns behind him.
Roy Brown had seen the all-red Triplane set off in pursuit of May and he followed as quickly as he could. As soon as his Camel reached maximum range he began firing. At the same time, a group of Australian soldiers on the ground also began firing their rifles at the all-red Fokker. The Triplane abruptly stopped firing and made a hard landing in a field near the soldiers. When the Aussies reached the airplane, they found the Red Baron slumped over dead in the cockpit. A single bullet had entered his side and exited through his chest.
Because the Camel’s Vickers machine guns and the Aussies’ Enfield rifles used the same ammunition, it has never been determined with certainty who killed the Red Baron, although forensic analysis leads to the conclusion that it was most probably one of the Australian soldiers. The British buried Manfred von Richthofen with full military honors.
Thanks for sharing that one; it’s a life I know very little about :)
On April 26, 1954, field trials began on the Salk polio vaccine. A little personal perspective: I’m old enough to have vague memories of receiving a Salk vaccine injection. As a little kid, I knew nothing of infectious diseases that had plagued humankind since time immemorial. I only knew that it was a shot and it hurt. A lot. In my mind’s eye, Jonas Salk looked something like this:
You know, an evil scientist who spent his day dreaming up ways to inflict pain on little kids.
Then, a few years later, the Sabin oral vaccine was introduced. And WOW! Instead of getting a painful shot in the arm, you swallowed a sugar cube! I thought there should be a statue of Sabin erected in every public park.
Of course, as an adult, I recognize the greatness of Salk’s achievement. But try telling that to a little kid.
My mother actually had polio when she was a teen (and thankfully recovered, or else you’d all be missing my scintillating conversation on QT3 and not even know it!). She viewed him as a visionary, but also told me some of the now-hilarious misunderstandings about the disease she heard growing up. My favorite was the “most likely way she contracted it” according to the family doctor; playing in sprinklers.
I remember people saying that you could contract it from going swimming. I’m surprised that even an MD would buy that old wives’ tale.
As a kid, I’d learned that that was how FDR contracted polio–by swimming. So I figured it was some kind of water-based disease. How does it work, then?