| Easter falls on the first Sunday following the first ecclesiastical full moon that occurs on or after March 21 (the day of the ecclesiastical vernal equinox). Jesus (according to one tradition) was crucified on Friday, March 25 and was resurrected on Sunday, March 27, which should meet the definition of Easter. |
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| The original Half Moon (Halve Maen) was commissioned on March 25, 1609, for the Dutch East India Company. She was a ship of exploration and the spaceship of her age, designed to take a crew of twenty into unknown and uncharted waters. |  |
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| After entering Chesapeake Bay and reaching the Potomac, the settlers landed on March 25,1634 and offered a mass of thanksgiving. After several days of exploration, Governor Leonard Calvert, Lord Baltimore's brother, selected the location of a Native American village called Yoacomoco to begin the colony. The friendly Indians moved out of most of their village so that the colonists could take temporary shelter in their houses. The colonists renamed the location St. Mary's City. With all ceremony possible under the circumstances, the colonists carried Lord Baltimore's flag ashore and established Maryland. |
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| In 1655, Christiaan Huygens (1629-95) discovered Titan, Saturn's largest satellite and determined its period of revolution. (However, the moon wasn’t named until almost two centuries later when Sir John Herschel, discoverer of Uranus, assigned names to the seven moons of Saturn that were known at that time. Saturn's largest moon was named simply "Titan," since the word means "one that is great in size, importance, or achievement.") |
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| Only one year after the English captured New Amsterdam from the Dutch, the first English governor of New York laid out the first formal race course in America. The new race course was constructed two miles long on Salisbury Plain (later known as Hempstead Plain) on Long Island. Governor Nicolls explained that the purpose of the race course was "not so much for the divertissement of youth as for encouraging the bettering of the breed of horses which through great neglect has been impaired." To induce competition in the importing and careful breeding of horses, Nicolls offered trophies at the spring and fall meetings. |
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| Mount Etna has repeatedly erupted over the centuries, most violently in 1669, when the lava flow destroyed villages on the lower slope and submerged part of the town of Catania. The eruption was preceded by two months of increasingly powerful earthquakes centred on the southern slopes of the mountain, which eventually encouraged most villagers there to abandon their homes. On 11 March, a 9 km-long fissure opened up on the southern flank of the mountain, stretching from an elevation of 2800 m down to 1200 m. |
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| Since the American Revolution, Congress has commissioned gold medals as its highest expression of national appreciation for distinguished achievements and contributions. Each medal honors a particular individual, institution, or event. The first recipients included citizens who participated in the American Revolution, the War of 1812 and the Mexican War. |
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| On March 25, 1807, a railroad carriage converted to carry people was conveyed by horse along the perimeter of Swansea Bay, travelling between "the dunes" at Swansea, and destined for Mumbles, an oyster harvesting and fishing village on the west of the bay. |  |
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| The Slave Trade Act was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed in 1807. The act abolished the slave trade in the British empire. The trade had begun in 1562, during the reign of Elizabeth I when John Hawkins led the first slaving expedition. |
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| On the evening of March 19, the very day on which the treaty was signed, Maj. Savage set out in search of the missing Yosemites. On the morning of the 22nd a Nuchu rancheria on the South Fork of the Merced River was surprised and captured without a fight. At this point a camp was established and messengers were sent ahead to the Yosemites with a request that they come into camp.On the morning of March 25 with a part of his command, taking the old chief Teneiya along with him as guide, they met a company of 72 Indians on the trail, and Teneiya said that these were all of his people except some who had gone over the mountains. Within a short time the company came to old Inspiration Point and the full view of the valley was presented to their gaze. It must be confessed, however, that the scenic wonder of this valley made very slight impression on these rough men of action, and without much ado they hastened down the trail and camped for the night on the south side of the Merced River, a little below El Capitan. The day of the discovery was March 25, 1851. |
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| In October 1853, Burnside resigned his commission from the army and, with borrowed money, established the Bristol Rifle Works in Bristol, R.I. He aimed to create a lightweight, faster, durable breech-loading carbine. Burnside’s carbine was patented on March 25, 1856. In the summer of 1857, a board of military officers at West Point evaluated several new carbines and unanimously agreed that Burnside’s was the best suited for military service. |
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| The Solar-eclipse photograph was made March 25, by Frederick Langenheim of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, who took eight pictures in sequence of an eclipse of the sun. |
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| On March 25, 1863, almost a year after the foiled heist and only a week after being paroled, the six exchanged prisoners were summoned to the secretary of war's office, where Edwin M. Stanton, Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase, and Vice President Andrew Johnson greeted them as heroes. After congratulating each soldier for his bravery, Stanton left the room and returned with a fistful of medallions. "Congress has by a recent law ordered medals to be prepared. . . . and your party shall have the first." Stanton then presented the first Medals of Honor to the six veterans of Andrews's Raiders, including Pvt. William Pittenger of the Second Ohio Volunteer Infantry. |
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| Edward Drummond Libbey and Michael Owens had helped fund Irving W Colburn, who since 1900 had been working on a machine capable of continuously drawing flat sheet glass. In 1912, they bought the patents to this machine, which Owens perfected, and the Libbey-Owens Sheet Glass Company was opened in 1916 to make window glass. |
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| The captured flags were tangible evidence of bravery and devotion and as such continued to be fought over. Their presence in Washington was seen as a standing affront by many who had marched under their folds and as a lasting tribute to the valor of their captors. A well-meaning effort of 1887 by President Grover Cleveland to return the flags to the Southern states caused a firestorm of obloquy. Not until 1905, under Theodore Roosevelt, was resistance sufficiently diminished to permit this gesture of national reconciliation. |
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| The 1910 batting title was hotly contested, with a Chalmers automobile to go to the leading batter. Most of the baseball world rooted for the popular Lajoie and against the hotheaded Cobb, who had won the three previous titles. On the final day of the season, Lajoie bunted for seven infield hits and swung for a triple in a doubleheader at St. Louis. St. Louis manager Jack O'Connor was ultimately fired when it was revealed that he had ordered his third baseman to play deep against Lajoie. Lajoie finished second by a point despite the machinations but received an auto anyway. |
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| In Dayton, flood levies broke, leading to water rising up to twenty feet in the downtown. In addition, fires broke out across the city as gas lines ruptured, and the fire department was unable to access the fires. At least 428 people died during the Flood of 1913, and more than twenty thousand homes were totally destroyed. Property damage was extensive, as many other homes were seriously damaged. Factories, railroads, and other structures also faced major losses. |
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| The tournament began in 1934 and has always been played at Augusta National Golf Club. The course had just been built by Bobby Jones, when Jones and Clifford Roberts decided to host a golf tournament. Horton Smith wins, shooting a 284. |  |
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| The total of $39‚000 for 13 weeks is $4‚000 more than Ruth's baseball salary. “Play Ball” and “The Adventures of Babe Ruth” were the first two shows. Sponsored by Quaker Oats, these shows aired three times a week. Then, in 1937, the “Sinclair Babe Ruth Program,” sponsored by Sinclair Oil, aired twice a week. In 1943 two more Babe Ruth shows hit the airwaves, “Here's Babe Ruth” and “Baseball Quiz,” which aired on Saturdays. |  |
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| In 1938, Battleship started five times, the highlight of which was victory in the Aintree Grand National Steeplechase, making his owner the first American ever to own an American-bred Grand National winner. The win was hard fought, but he defeated Royal Danieli by a short head in a desperate stretch run. |  |
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| In 1943, future television favourite Garry Moore joined Durante as his radio sidekick. Already successful as a solo, Durante's comic chemistry with the young, brushcut Moore brought Durante an even larger audience. "Dat's my boy dat said dat!" became an instant catchphrase. He became one of the nation's favourite radio stars for the rest of the decade. |  |
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| In late 1949 Barton resurfaced on the independent label National Records with "If I Knew You Were Comin', I'd've Baked a Cake," an upbeat, R&B-influenced tune written by Bob Merrill, the novelty song guru who also penned "How Much Is That Doggie in the Window?" Introduced via radio's Don McNeill's Breakfast Club, "If I Knew You Were Comin'" proved an overnight sensation that topped U.S. charts for three months. |  |
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| Starting March 25, 1954, 5,000 CT-100's were manufactured in RCA's Bloomington, Indiana plant. The set was named, "The Merrill". By mid-April of 1954, the sets were available at dealers. This model had a rich color screen measuring about 11" by 9." RCA and CBS were engaged in a fierce competition in the early 1950's over whose color standard would be approved by the FCC. RCA ultimately prevailed as their system was backwards compatible with existing Black & White sets. Color TV really didn't take off until the mid 1960's when most of the network programming was in color. |
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| Robinson returned in to boxing 1954 and on December 9, 1955, he won the middleweight title once again. Gene Fullmer took the championship with a 15-round decision on January 2, 1957; Robinson regained it with a 5th-round knockout on May 1; Carmen Basilio won it with a 15-round decision on September 23, 1957; and Robinson regained it with a 15-round decision on March 25, 1958, becoming the only fighter ever to win a championship five times. Robinson continued boxing through 1965, then retired at the age of forty-four. He won 174 bouts, 109 by knockout; lost 19, 1 by knockout; fought 6 draws and 2 no-contests. |
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| Halibut was the first American submarine designed to launch guided missiles. Intended to carry the Regulus missile, her main deck was high above the waterline to provide a dry "flight deck." Halibut departed for her shakedown cruise March 11, 1960. On March 25 , underway to Australia, she became the first nuclear-powered submarine to successfully launch a guided missile. |  |
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| The Explorer 10 spacecraft engaged in research and exploration of the upper atmosphere or outer space seeking magnetic field data. |  |
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| "Are You Lonesome Tonight" spent a massive four week stint at the top of the chart at the start of the year, setting up a year when we'd see a total of four Elvis chart-toppers. The King's next chart topper of the year was "Surrender", a lesser known Elvis hit gave him yet another four weeks at No. 1. |  |
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| Korabl-Sputnik-5, also known as Sputnik 10 was launched on March 25, 1961 and carried the dog Zvezdochka (Little Star) and a dummy cosmonaut — a wooden mannequin — on a one orbit mission. This final rehearsal for the Vostok 1 flight was successful. Days later, Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space on April 12, 1961, spending 108 minutes orbiting above Earth in his Vostok 1 capsule. |  |
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| After two failed attempts to peacefully march from Selma to Montgomery, AL, the march finally went ahead fully on March 25. It was during this march that Willie Ricks coined the phrase "Black Power" (widely credited to Stokely Carmichael). |  |
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| "Yesterday . . . and Today" was the ninth Capitol release by The Beatles. This album is remembered primarily for the controversy surrounding its original cover image, the aptly named "Butcher cover" featuring the band dressed in white smocks and covered with decapitated baby dolls and pieces of meat. In the United States, Capitol Records printed 750,000 copies of the record with this photograph on the cover. These were shipped to disk jockeys and store managers. Reaction was immediate and nearly unanimous: everyone hated it. The record was immediately recalled. All copies were ordered shipped back to the record label, leading to its collectability. Faced with so many jackets already printed, Capitol decided to merely paste a new cover over the old one, and thousands of these were sent out. |
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| By the 1940s some of these taxes had been abolished, and in 1964 the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution disallowed the poll tax as a prerequisite for voting in federal elections. In 1966 this prohibition was extended to all elections by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that such a tax violated the “equal protection” clause of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. |
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| The Turtles were formed by Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan. They were saxophone players who did whatever was trendy in order to make a living as musicians. They played surf-rock, acoustic folk, whatever was big at the time, and in addition to their own bands, played backup for The Coasters, Sonny And Cher and The Righteous Brothers. "Happy Together" was written by Gary Bonner and Alan Gordon, who were the bass player and drummer of the Boston area group The Magicians. Bonner and Gordon also wrote other Turtles hits like "She'd Rather Be With Me" as well as "Celebrate" by Three Dog Night. |
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| In 1970, the prototype British-built airplane Concorde 002 made its first supersonic flight (700 mph; 1,127 kph). A few months earlier, the French prototype, Concorde 001, had broken the sound barrier on October 1, 1969. Mach 2 was achieved by Concorde 001 on November 4, 1970, and by Concorde 002, a few days later on November 12, 1970. The combined number of supersonic flights by the two aircraft reached 100 by January of the following year, 1971. |
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| For the remainder of the '60s, he scored a consistent string of hits in both Britain and America. At the end of the decade, Jones relocated to America, where he hosted the television variety program, “This Is Tom Jones.” Running between 1969 and 1971, the show was a success and laid the groundwork for the singer's move to Las Vegas in the early '70s. Once he moved to Vegas, Jones began recording less, choosing to concentrate on his lucrative club performances. |
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| America was formed in England by sons of US servicemen who were stationed there. Lead singer Dewey Bunnell wrote this when he was 19. He based the images in the lyrics on things he saw while visiting the US. |  |
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| In his career, Hull played in 1063 NHL games, scoring 610 goals, 560 assists, 1170 points, and adding 62 goals and 67 assists for 129 points in 119 playoff games. He played in 411 WHA games, scoring 303 goals, 335 assists and 638 points, adding 43 goals and 37 assists in 60 playoff games. |  |
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| In 1977, The Bee Gees manager Robert Stigwood was producing a movie about the New York Disco scene. The working title of the film was "Saturday Night," so he asked the group to write a song of that name. The Bee Gees thought it was a dumb title, but they had already written a song called "Night Fever." They convinced Stigwood to use that and change the film's title to Saturday Night Fever. The movie became a classic, telling a coming-of-age story in the Disco era. The soundtrack for Saturday Night Fever sold over 30 million copies worldwide and it won the 1978 Grammy for Album Of The Year. |
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| Gretzky set 40 regular-season records, 15 playoff records, 6 All-Star records, won four Stanley Cups with the Edmonton Oilers, and won 9 MVP awards and 10 scoring titles. He is the only player ever to total over 200 points in a season (a feat that he accomplished four times in his career). In addition, he tallied over 100 points a season for 15 NHL seasons, 13 of them consecutively. |  |
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| On March 25, 1988, at the 1988 World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, Browning landed the first quadruple jump ever in competition. This accomplishment is listed in the Guinness Book of Records. |  |
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| Mike Rutherford, bass player for Genesis, formed the group as a side project when Phil Collins started working on solo albums. Paul Carrack, who had a hit in 1987 with "Don't Shed A Tear," was a vocalist in the group and sang lead on this. |  |
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| On January 30, 1996, Yuji Hyakutake in Japan discovered a new comet using 25x150 binoculars. The comet was designated Comet C/1996 B2 (Hyakutake). As subsequent observations of the new comet were obtained, Brian Marsden from the IAU Central Bureau was able to compute the comet's orbital elements, and these computations indicated that the comet will pass as close as 0.10 AU (9.3 million miles) from the Earth on March 25, 1996! The comet has become a bright naked-eye object and remained so in March, April and May in 1996. |
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| The first major design change in numerous years took place with the adoption of a contemporary style layout. The main intent of the new design was to deter counterfeiting. New security features included a watermark of Franklin to the right side of the bill, optically variable ink (known as O.V.I) that changed from green to black when viewed at different angles, a higher quality and enlarged portrait of Franklin, and hard-to-reproduce fine line printing around Franklin's portrait and Independence Hall. Older security features such as interwoven red and blue silk fibers, microprinting, and a metallic security thread were kept. The individual Federal Reserve Bank Seal was changed to a unified Federal Reserve Seal along with an additional prefix letter being added to the serial number. |
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0031 First Easter, according to
calendar-maker Dionysius Exiguus
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1609 Henry Hudson embarks on an exploration for
Dutch East India Co
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1634 Lord Baltimore founded Catholic colony of
Maryland
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1655 Christiaan Huygens discovers Titan, (Saturn's
largest satellite)
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1668 First horse race in America takes place
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1669 Mount Etna in Sicily erupts, destroying Nicolosi,
killing 20,000
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1776 Continental Congress authorizes a medal for
General George Washington
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1807 First railway passenger service began in
England
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1807 The English Parliament abolishes the slave
trade
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1851 Yosemite Valley discovered in California
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1856 A E Burnside patents Burnside carbine
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1857 Frederick Langenheim takes first photo of
a solar eclipse
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1863 First Army Medal of Honor awarded
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1882 First demonstration of pancake making (Department
store in New York NY)
1902 Irving W Colburn patented the sheet glass
drawing machine
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1905 Rebel battle flags captured during war are
returned to South
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1910 Chalmers Auto Co offers a new car to each
leagues' batting champion
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1913 Great Dayton Flood
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1934 First Golf Masters Championship
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1937 It's revealed Quaker Oats pays Babe Ruth
$25,000 per year for ads
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1937 Washington Daily News is first US newspaper
with perfumed advertising page
1938 First US bred horse (Battleship) to win Grand
National Steeplechase
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1939 Billboard Magazine introduces hillbilly (country)
music chart
1943 Jimmy Durante & Garry Moore premiere
on radio
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1950 “If I Knew You Were Comin' I'd've Baked
a Cake" by Eileen Barton topped the charts
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1954 RCA manufactures first color TV set (12*"
screen at $1,000)
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1957 NBA modifies the free-throw rule - lane widened
to 12 feet
1958 Sugar Ray Robinson is first boxing champion
to win 5 titles
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1960 First guided missile launched from nuclear
powered sub (Halibut)
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1961 Explorer 10 launched into elongated Earth
orbit (177/181,000 km)
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1961 "Surrender" by Elvis Presley topped
the charts
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1961 Sputnik 10 carries a dog into Earth orbit;
later recovered
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1965 Martin Luther King Jr led 25,000 to state
capitol in Montgomery AL
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1966 Beatles pose with butchered meat on the cover of the
"Yesterday & Today" album
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1966 US Supreme court rules "poll tax"
unconstitutional
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1967 The Turtles' "Happy Together" goes
#1
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1967 UCLA wins its 3rd national basketball championship
in 4 years
1970 Concorde makes its first supersonic flight
(700 MPH/1,127 KPH)
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1971 Boston Patriots become New England Patriots
1971 Tom Jones went gold with his single, "She’s
a Lady"
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1972 "A Horse with No Name" by America
topped the charts
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1972 Bobby Hull becomes the 2nd NHLer to score
600 goals
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1975 Cayetano Aguas was issued patent #3,873,284
for a "smoke stack washer"
1978 "Night Fever" by the Bee Gees topped
the charts
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1982 Wayne Gretzky becomes first NHL to score
200 points in a season
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1986 Kurt Browning (Canada) becomes first skater
to land a quadruple jump
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1989 "The Living Years" by Mike &
the Mechanics topped the charts
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1992 British scientists find new largest perfect
number (2 756839 -1 2 756839)
1996 Comet C/1996 B2 (Hyakutake) approaches within
0.1018 astronomical units (AUs) of Earth
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1996 US issues newly-redesigned $100 bill
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