This Week in History: March 13-19

Mar. 13– 1852: The cartoon version of “Uncle Sam” first appears in NY Lantern Weekly. 1887: Chester Greenwood of Maine receives a patent for earmuffs (just in time for the following year’s “Great Blizzard of ’88!”) 1906: Suffragette leader Susan B. Anthony dies from heart failure and pneumonia in Rochester, NY at 86 years old, 14 years before her dream was realized by passage of the 19th Amendment, giving women the right to vote, in 1920. 1925: The state of Tennessee adopts first law in the US prohibiting the teaching of evolution.

Mar. 14– 1794: Eli Whitney patents the cotton gin, which will revolutionize the agricultural and textile industries. 1879: Albert Einstein is born in Ulm, Germany. 1950: The FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted” list debuts (providing decorative flyers for the walls of post offices in coming years!). 2017: After 273 years, the world’s oldest golf club, Muirfield (Scotland), votes to admit women as members.

Mar. 15- 44 BCE: Roman Emperor Julius Caesar assassinated by Brutus, Cassius, and other senators, on “the Ides of March” as foretold by William Shakespeare’s soothsayer in his play Julius Caesar. 1964: Film actors Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor marry (for the first time…). 1972: The movie “The Godfather” premieres in New York City.

1985: The first Internet domain name (symbolics.com) is registered.

Mar. 16- 1751: Future US president and “Father of the Constitution” James Madison is born at Belle Grove Plantation in the colony of Virginia. 1802: The US Congress establishes the United States Military Academy in West Point, NY. 1968: General Motors produces its 100 millionth automobile, an Oldsmobile Toronado.

Mar. 17 (St. Patrick’s Day)- 1845: Stephen Perry of London, England receives a patent for the rubber band. 1898: A successful test of the first modern submarine takes place off Staten Island, NY. The submarine stays submerged for 100 minutes. 1905: Eleanor Roosevelt weds future US president Franklin Delano Roosevelt, her fifth cousin once removed, in New York City. The bride was “given away” by her uncle, President Theodore Roosevelt.

Mar. 18- 1837: Future US president Grover Cleveland (22nd and 24th) is born in Caldwell, NJ. 1925: A devastating tornado tears through eastern Missouri, southern Illinois, and southern Indiana, killing 700 and injuring more than 2,000. It was estimated that the tornado stayed on the ground more than three hours and traveled more than 200 miles! 1990: Thieves steal 13 works of art valued at more than $500 million from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, MA; the biggest art theft in US history remains unsolved as of today!

Mar. 19- 1863: The Confederate Navy’s Georgiana, a cruiser loaded with munitions and medicine, is destroyed on its maiden voyage trying to run past the Federal Navy’s blockade of the harbor at Charleston, SC. The wreck was discovered exactly 102 years later (March 19, 1965) 1991: National Football League team owners vote to remove the 1993 Super Bowl game from Tempe, AZ because of the state’s refusal to recognize the federal holiday honoring Martin Luther King. The game was played in Pasadena, CA instead; Arizona voters approved recognizing the holiday in 1992, and the 1996 game was subsequently awarded to Tempe. 2008: Science fiction writer and renowned futurist Arthur C. Clarke died at his home in Sri Lanka at the age of 90. Among other things, Clarke foresaw the use of communications satellites, a nationwide network of computers, and a successful manned mission to the moon. He received an Oscar nomination in 1968 for the screenplay based on his best-selling novel 2001: A Space Odyssey.