Important Events From This day in History March 18th

 

2005 U.S.A. Terri Schiavo

2005 : Doctors in Florida, acting on orders of a state judge, removed Terri Schiavo's feeding tube. (She died 13 days later). Terri Schiavo had originally suffered severe brain injury on February 25th, 1990 after a long period without oxygen following a collapse in her apartment. The case for her be removed from life support with all the interested parties started in 1998 with it continuing till the time of her death , the parents of Terri wanted their daughter to continue with life support but the husband believed his wife would not have wanted to live in this way.

The legal history around the Schiavo case included Florida courts,Federal District Court, Supreme Court of Florida and the Supreme Court of the United States. And the interested parties who became involved included Pope John Paul II, politicians and advocacy groups including pro-life and disability rights, the case was featured on many news and discussion programs which helped to highlight the difficulties with any case like this because of political and each persons own religious beliefs.

1965 First Man to walk in space

1965 : A Soviet cosmonaut known as Lt. Col. Alexei Leonov exited the spacecraft Voskshod II for a short “spin”. He completed a somersault, and then proceeded to take pictures of space. This took place just days before the U.S. planned to launch its first two-man spaceship and becomes the first man to walk in space.

1967 England Torrey Canyon

1967 : The tanker "Torrey Canyon" runs aground on rocks between Land's End and the Scilly Isles and is leaking its cargo of 100,000 tons of crude oil into the sea. The oil did get to beaches in Cornwall and the Normandy coast of France causing major environmental damage with over 20,000 sea birds contaminated.

1974 Middle East Oil Embargo Ends

1974 : Nearly all members of OPEC except Syria agree to lift the Oil Embargo against United States, Europe, Japan, South Africa which had been in place since October 1973. The embargo was the result of the fourth Arab-Israeli War and was designed to punish countries who supported Israel during the war. The earlier increases of prices and the embargo quadrupled the price of oil between 1973 and 1974, but following the ending of the war and embargo the price of a gallon of gas ended at 55 cents which was the same price it was in 1972.

1920 U.S.A. Child Labor Laws

1920 : Child labor laws of Georgia were highly debated. It was proposed by one state representative that forbade children less than twelve years of age to work. Similarly, it was proposed that children under fourteen should not be able to work without parent or guardian’s signed permission.

1920 U.S.A. Strike Ends

1920 : An embargo placed on United Airway Express shipments out of Chicago was lifted. Therefore, outgoing shipments could again be made to places such as Texas, Oklahoma, and other Southwestern states. Furthermore, deliveries could be made to the East, as far as New York. This embargo was originally a result of a strike organized by Express workers in the area. Only 25 percent of the workers had returned to work as of this date, however.

1922 India Mohandas K. Gandhi

1922 : Mohandas K. Gandhi a British educated lawyer, was sentenced to prison in India for civil disobedience after calling for mass civil disobedience which included boycotting British educational institutions and law courts, not working for the British controlled government and the boycott of foreign-made goods, especially British goods. In his many speeches he always emphasized that the USE OF VIOLENCE on both sides was wrong . He was sentenced to 6 years but released after 2 years.

1925 U.S.A. Tornado

1925 : A giant tornado, struck Missouri, Illinois and Indiana during the mid-afternoon killing hundreds often referred to as the tri-state tornadoes.

1937 U.S.A. Gas Explosion

1937 : A gas explosion at a school in New London, Texas, killed more than 400 people, most of them children.

1938 Lithuania accepts Poland demands

1938 : Apparently war was prevented as Lithuania accepted all of the demands made by Poland. This act of submission was not to be regarded as giving in to an ultimatum, but rather as a gesture of good will.

1940 World War II Hitler and Mussolini

1940 : Hitler and Mussolini meet at the Brenner Pass and agree to fight together in war against France and Britain.

1948 Germany

1948 : General Telford Taylor was injured while he along with seven other Americans jumped from a C-47 while hovering over Berlin. Taylor was the chief U.S. prosecutor of war crimes in Germany.

1950 Belgium King Leopold III

1950 : Voters turned out in Belgium to vote on a referendum to bring the exiled King Leopold III back from Switzerland.

1957 U.S.A. Stage Fright

1957 : A practical bit in a news publication indicated that stage fright is not just for Amateurs. Even famous people such as Edward G. Robinson had experienced performance anxiety while auditioning for a part in a show.

1969 Cambodia B-52 Bombers

1969 : U.S. B-52 bombers attack suspected communist base camps and supply areas in Cambodia for the first time in the war.

1970 Viet Cong Capture Sam Thong

1970 : The press had indicated that a major supply base at Sam Thong was captured by North Vietnam. A hospital operated by Americans as well as a nearby village had been burned. Fortunately, all occupants of the above were warned, and numerous Americans, hospital patients, and Laotian civilians had evacuated. It was known ahead of time that North Vietnam was moving toward Sam Thong from the Plain of Jars before it happened.

1974 Israel Golan Heights

1974 : The Golan Heights has the worst day of violence when Syria begins shelling the northern sector of the Golan Heights, captured by Israel in 1967. Also on the same day most of the Arab oil-producing nations ended their embargo against the United States allowing oil to be exported.

1982 England Mary Whitehouse

1982 : The British Moral Decency in Public campaigner Mary Whitehouse has her private prosecution against director Michael Bogdanov over the play Romans in Britain, which features a male rape scene, with charges of gross indecency under the Sexual Offences Act 1956, ended today after intervention by the Attorney-General to end the case - with both sides claiming victory.

Mary Whitehouse considered herself to be safeguarding morality in a society that was losing it's decency and that much stronger and more severe censorship was needed to protect children and society from itself.

1990 U.S.A. Gas Price Increase

1990 : A 50 percent car registration hike, along with an increase of gas tax was proposed by the state of Maryland. This action was intended to bring in $5 million for one county, over a period of about five years.

1990 U.S.A. Art Thieves

1990 : Two thieves disguised as Policemen steal 12 works of art from the Isabella Gardner Museum in Boston including works by Rembrandt, Degas, Vermeer and others valued in excess of 300 million dollars which have still not been recovered.

1992 South Africa Apartheid

1992 : The beginning of the end of white rule and apartheid in South Africa came today when White South Africans voted for political reforms to end apartheid and create a power-sharing multi-racial government.

1996 Philippines Ozone Disco Club Fire

1996 : A fire at the Ozone Disco Club in Quezon City, Philippines starts just after midnight and traps nearly 1/2 the patrons and staff in the club resulting in the death of more than 150.

2001 U.S.A. FBI Agent Arrested

2001 : FBI Agent Robert Phillip Harrison was arrested at his home for selling American secrets to Soviets. He had received about $1.4 million in cash as well as diamonds for his illegal services to the Soviet Union.

2008 U.S.A. Interest Rates

2008 : The Federal Reserve continued to slash interest rates when it cuts its federal funds target rate by 75 basis points to 2.25 percent, its lowest level since December 2004.

2008 Obama talk about America’s racial divide

2008 : Barack Obama has delivered an assessment of race in America, and bluntly confronted the racial boundaries that still exist. He sought to dispel the furor that has come from the statements made by his former pastor, Jeremiah Wright. Obama has condemned the pastor's more incendiary remarks, and drawn on his experiences as the son of a white mother and a black father. He went on to explain what was behind Wright's anger, and urged blacks to understand the racial fears and resentments among whites.

2010 Plotter of the December C.I.A. murders is killed in Pakistan

2010 : A key al-Qaeda figure that was wanted for the attack on a C.I.A. base in Afghanistan has been killed in a U.S. drone strike. Hussein al-Yemeni, a top al-Qaeda planner, died in the missile strike in the city of Miranshah in Pakistan. He was believed to have helped plan the December attack on the base in Khost in which a suicide bomber killed seven C.I.A. agents and a Jordanian officer.

2012 Germany Elects New President

2012 : Joachim Gauck, a former Lutheran pastor and civil rights activist, was elected as the new president of Germany. The seventy-two year old man was not affiliated with any parties and was set to replace former president Christian Wulff who was forced to resign over a scandal over financial favors. The choice was supported by German prime minister Angela Merkel.

2013 United States Explosives Found in University

2013 : Authorities evacuated several hundred students at the University of Central Florida after explosives and other weapons were found at the site of an apparent suicide in one of the dorm rooms.

2014 Thailand Announces State of Emergency End

2014 : Thailand has announced it will end a state of emergency that was put in place over anti-government protests in January. The Internal Security Act will replace the emergency decree after anti-government protests eased down following weeks of disruption.

https://www.thepeoplehistory.com/march19th.html