Calendar for March 23rd, 2013

World Meteorological Day

2001: Easter Sunday

World Meteorological Day

National Puppy Day

Born 1699: John Bartram (botanist)

1743: The first standing ovation was recorded at the first performance of Handel's Messiah. King George was so inspired (or restless) that he jumped to his feet; when the king did that, everyone else did

1752: Halifax Gazette became Canada's first newspaper

1775: In a speech to the Virginia Provincial Convention, Patrick Henry made a plea for independence from Britain, saying "I know not what course others might take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death."

1848: Society L'Institut Canadien du Quebec incorporated

Born 1857: Fannie Farmer (cookery expert)

Born 1900: Eric Fromm (psychoanalyst)

1901: Opera diva Nellie Melba recounted how she prepared toast, the original melba toast

Born 1908: Joan Crawford (actress)

1911: SS Yongala sank in cyclone, near Townsville, Australia

Born 1912: Werner von Braun (rocket scientist)

1929: Herbert Hoover became the first president to have a telephone installed on his desk

Born 1929: Roger Bannister (runner)

1942: WWII relocation of Japanese-Americans away from the West Coast began

1950: The World Meteorological Organization established by the UN

Born 1951: Ron Jaworski (football player)

Born 1952: Teofilo Stevenson (boxer)

Born 1953: Chaka Khan (singer)

Born 1955: Moses Malone (basketball player)

1957: U.S. Army sold its last homing pigeons

Born 1957: Amanda Plummer (actress)

1965: America's first two-person space flight began as Gemini 3 blasted off from Cape Kennedy with astronauts Virgil I. Grissom and John W. Young on board

Born 1976: Keri Russell (actress)

Born 1978: Nicholle Tom (actress)

Died 1983: Barney Clark (first person to receive a permanent artificial heart)

1983: President Reagan first proposed development of technology to intercept enemy missiles -- a proposal that came to be known as the strategic defense initiative, or Star Wars

1985: Billy Joel married model Christie Brinkley in NYC

1988: Sandinistas and Contras signed a 60-day ceasefire accord

1991: A 1910 Honus Wagner baseball card was sold at a Sotheby's auction for $451,000 to hockey great Wayne Gretzky and Los Angeles Kings owner Bruce McNall

1994: Wayne Gretzky scored his 802nd career goal in front of a sellout crowd at the Great Western Forum, to break the legendary Gordie Howe's NHL all-time goal record

Died 2004: Arthur Lithgow (actor, producer, and director who was a pioneer in American regional theater)

Died 2011: Elizabeth Taylor (actress)