1539-Former black slave Estevanico (Esteban) de Dorantes, native of Azamoor Morocco, sets out to explore what is now the southwestern part of the US.
http://www.estevanico.org/history.html
http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/EE/fes8.html
http://www.rra.dst.tx.us/c_t/people/ESTEVANICO.cfm
    1644-First Whaling Industry: Southampton, NY, a town on the coast of Long Island where whales were often cast ashore, established the first whaling industry. The town was divided into four wards of 11 persons each to attend to the whales. Two persons from each ward were employed to cut them up so that each inhabitant obtained an equal portion. The popularity grew to the point that a whaling franchise was granted to a Mr. Whiting in 1647 for the waters of Long Island Sound between Stonington, CT, and Montauk Point, NY.
    1638 -Controversial colonial churchwoman Anne Hutchinson, 47, and nineteen other exiles from the Massachusetts Bay Colony settled in Rhode Island, at the site of modern Portsmouth.
http://www.annehutchinson.com/anne_hutchinson_biography_001.htm
http://www.rootsweb.com/~nwa/ah.html
    1717 - The "Great Snow", a composite of four winter storms to hit the eastern U.S. in nine days, finally came to an end. Snow depths averaged 60 inches following the storm. Up to four feet of snow fell around Boston MA, and snow drifts 25 feet high were reported around Dorchester MA.
    1729- Henrietta Johnston, self-taught portrait artist, born in Ireland about 1655 and immigrated to the United States with her husband in 1707, settling in what is now Charleston, SC. Her husband immediately became ill and, while she nursed him and took care of her children and home in abject poverty, to raise money she began to draw portraits of local dignitaries in the new form of pastels. Almost 50 portraits are credited to her and she is considered to be the first American woman artist. Her technique was straight forward with little adornment. Almost nothing is known about her life. She may have moved to New York to work after her husband's death.
http://askart.com/Biography.asp
http://desertfun.bestreadguide.com/charleston/
stories/19990914/art_johnston.shtml
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0945578032/avsearch-df1-2-20/
102-1682336-8966565
    1774---The British close port of Boston to all commerce
    1776 - Lead by General William Howe, the British evacuate Boston. Howe’s army and a group of 1000 loyalists will set sail for Halifax, Nova Scotia on 17 March.
    1778 -Captain James Cook first sights Oregon coast, at Yaquina Bay
http://www.neworegontrail.com/lighthouse/yaquina.bay.htm
http://www.newportnet.com/coasthistory/RoadTrip.htm
http://www.newportnewstimes.com/1999/nt_news1029/general/nt_news-18.html
    1782 -Ohio Territory militiamen began a two-day massacre of the Moravian Indian town of Gnadenhutten (modern New Philadelphia, Ohio). In all, 96 Christian Indians of the Delaware tribe were slaughtered, in retaliation for Indian raids made elsewhere in the Ohio Territory.
http://www.usgennet.org/usa/topic/colonial/pioneer/chap16.html
    1799 -- John Fries launches a rebellion in Pennsylvania against the imposition of the "direct tax" enacted by Congress 1 July 1798, on lands, houses & slaves. Fries' mob was dispersed by the Militia after a march on Bethlehem. Fries was arrested & sentenced to be hanged for treason, before being pardoned by the President.
    1802 -In Washington, D.C., the first Baptist church was organized with six charter members. Their first pastor, Obadiah Brown, was hired five years later, and Brown remained in that pulpit while involving himself in every important local Baptist program for the next 43 years!
    1848- In Hawaii, Great Mahele (division of lands) signed
http://hotspotshawaii.com/nalostuff/May96/GreatMahele.html
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0870221256/avsearch-df1-2-20/
102-1682336-8966565
    1849- Luther Burbank, American naturalist and author, creator and developer of many new varieties of flowers, fruits, vegetables and trees. born at Lancaster, MA. Luther Burbank's birthday is observed in California as Bird and Arbor Day. He died at Santa Rosa, CA, Apr 11, 1926.
http://ci.santa-rosa.ca.us/lbhg/gardens.asp
    1850-Slave States Balance: the acquisition of territory following U.S. victory in the Mexican War revived concerns about the balance of free and slave states in the Union. On this day, Senator Daniel Webster delivered his famous three hour "Seventh of March" speech urging sectional compromise on the issue of slavery. Advising abolition-minded Northerners to forgo antislavery measures, he simultaneously cautioned Southerners that disunion inevitably would lead to war. He endorses the Compromise of 1850 proposed by Kentucky Senator Henry Clay on 29 January 1850, as a mean of preserving the Union. It called for California to be admitted as a free state; for the passage of an inhumane Fugitive Slave law; for new territories in the Southwest to be allowed to organize without restrictions on slavery; for protecting slavery in the District of Columbia while abolishing domestic slave trade there; and for a settlement of $10 million to Texas if the state would relinquish claims to one-third of its territory (now in New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, and Wyoming). The compromise would be adopted on 09 September 1850.
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~dwebster/speeches/seventh-march.html 
Following the lead of senators Henry Clay and Stephen Douglass, Webster endorsed Clay's plan to assure sectional equilibrium in Congress. Passed after eight months of congressional wrangling, the legislation admitted California to the Union as a free state, permitted the question of slavery in Utah and New Mexico territories to be decided by popular sovereignty, settled Texas border disputes, and abolished slave trading in the District of Columbia while strengthening the Fugitive Slave Act. This speech by Daniel Webster supported Senator Henry Clay’s compromise, who had run for president, lost, and come back to the U.S. Senate as a most influential politician. It brought together the U.S. Senate for a brief period of time. He espoused the provisions of the Fugitive Slave Bill. It is said, John Greenleaf Whittier had Webster in mind when he wrote in his poem: “Ichabod:”
“All else is gone from those great eyes
The soul has fled;
When faith is lost, when honor dies
The man is dead.”
http://www.lib.umd.edu/RARE/RareCollection/danielwebster.html
http://www.danorr.com/webster/7thofmarch-text.html
    1854- Charles Miller of St. Louis, MO, patented a sewing machine to stitch buttonholes, revolutionizing the garment industry.
    1860- -- 6,000 shoemakers joined by 20,000 other New England workers in a strike in Lynn, Massachusetts. During the great New England shoemakers strike, about 1,000 women workers in Lynn, Massachusetts strike for a union & against wage cuts. Marching through a blizzard, the women carry signs proclaiming: "American Ladies Will Not Be Slaves." 
In 10 days, a procession of 10,000 workers marches through Lynn in the largest labor protest prior to the Civil War. Within a month, shoe manufacturers offer higher wages to bring strikers back to the factories. But the companies refuse to recognize a union.
    1862 - Union forces under General Samuel Curtis defeat the army of General Earl Van Dorn at Pea Ridge, located in an extreme northwestern section of Arkansas. Confederate General Ben McCulloch was killed in the Battle of Elkhorn Tavern, along with Generals McCulloch and Slack. The Yankees suffered 1,384 men killed, wounded, or captured out of 10,000 engaged; the Confederates suffered a loss of about 2,000 out of 14,000 engaged. The Union won a decisive victory that also helped them clear the upper Mississippi Valley region on the way to securing control of the Mississippi River by mid-1863; giving them control of Missouri.
http://civilwartraveler.bravepages.com/PR/PRPAN12.htm
http://www.oldalgonquin.net/civilwar/36th/pearidge/indexpearidge.htm
http://www.cwbattlefields.com/virtualtours/pearidgebattle.html
http://www.civilwarhome.com/pearidge.htm
http://stellar-one.com/civil_war/battle_of_pea_ridge_23.htm
http://www.lsjunction.com/people/mccullob.htm
http://www.members.cox.net/confed/third/mcculloch.html
http://www.2020site.org/texas/lesson58.html
http://stellar-one.com/civil_war/battle_of_pea_ridge_39.htm
    1865- Michael A. Healy of Georgia, became the first Coast Guard serviceman who was African-American. He was appointed this day to the Revenue Cutter Service, the predecessor of the Coast Guard. He became captain on March 3, 1883, and was commanding officer of the Bear from 1886 to 1895.
    1865 - Lieutenant Commander Hooker, commanding a naval squadron consisting of U.S.S. Commodore Read, Yankee, Delaware, and Heliotrope, joined with an Army unit in conducting a raid at Hamilton's Crossing on the Rappahannock River six miles below Fredericksburg. Hooker reported that the expedition succeeded in "burning and destroying the railroad bridge, the depot, and a portion of the track; also the telegraph line was cut and the telegraphic apparatus brought away. A train of twenty-eight railcars, eighteen of them being principally loaded with tobacco, and an army wagon train were also captured and burned. A considerable number of mules were captured and some thirty or forty prisoners taken. Mail containing a quantity of valuable information was secured." Throughout the war, rivers were avenues of strength for the North, highways of destruction to the South, which enabled warships and joint expeditions to thrust deep into the Confederacy. “
http://www.aboutthecivilwar.com/uscivilwar5/1
577470273AMUS116707.shtml
    1869- the Suez Canal opened. This waterway across Egypt connecting the Mediterranean and Red Seas, was built by the French. In 1956, Egyptian president Nasser nationalized the canal, prompting an invasion by the British, French and Israelis. The Six-Day War in 1967 shut down the canal for eight years.
1872 -8º F in Boston MA
1888 - Alcide “Slow Drag” Pavageau Birthday
http://user.tninet.se/~rrr043f/slow_drag.htm
    1876 - Patent #174,465 was issued to Alexander Graham Bell for his telephone. 
1893-(Alice) Lorena Hickok, one of the highest paid woman newspaper reporters of her day (Associated Press, political reporter). She later became investigator for Harry Hopkins in the Department of Commerce. Her close personal relationship with Eleanor Roosevelt made her step out of journalism. She actually lived in the White House with Mrs. Roosevelt and slept in ER's apartment.
http://www.gwu.edu/~erpapers/abouteleanor/q-and-a/glossary/hickok-lorena.htm
http://www.gaussian.com/ptownfringe/lorena.htm
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0306809982/ref=ase_atriumA/
102-1682336-8966565
    1908 -Cincinnati Mayor Mark Breith stood before city council and announced that, "women are not physically fit to operate automobiles"
    1911- Willis S. Famsworth of Petaluma, CA received two patents, one for a coin-operated locker, and one with William H. Reed on a coin receptacle “magazine-hinge and conveyor” The insertion of a coin in a slot released a key to open and close the locker. The “magazine hinge” enables newspapers
and magazines to be purchased from a locked stand.
    1911 - Twenty thousand US troops are sent to the Mexican border as the Mexican Revolution continues. 
    1917- Drummer Lee Young born, New Orleans, LA.
    1917-- "The Dixie Jass Band One Step," by Nick LaRocca's Original Dixieland Jass Band (Victor 18255), becomes the first jazz recording released for sale in the US. 
    1923 -- Robert Frost's poem, "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," is published in the New Republic magazine. Proud of the poem, he said the lines, "Whose woods these are, I think I know, his house is in the village though..." contained everything he ever knew about how to write.
http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/programs/2006/03/06/
    1935-Monopoly was invented this day by Charles Darrow. While unemployed during the Depression, Charles Darrow devised this game and he sold it himself for two years. Monopoly was mass marketed by Parker Brothers beginning in 1935. Darrow died a millionaire in 1967.
    1936 - Nazi leader Adolf Hitler violates the Treaty of Versailles and the Locarno Pact by sending German military forces into the Rhineland, a demilitarized zone along the Rhine River in western Germany. Two years later, Nazi Germany burst out of its territories, absorbing Austria and portions of Czechoslovakia. In 1939, Hitler invaded Poland, leading to the outbreak of World War II in Europe. 
    1938-Janet Guthrie, an aerospace engineer, was one of the first four women to qualify for the scientist- astronaut program of NASA. She was also the first woman to race in the Indianapolis 500 races, finishing ninth in 1978. (She was forced to withdraw two other times because of engine trouble. Her other entries in 1977 and 1979 were aborted because of engine trouble. No women were even allowed in the repair and refueling pits at the Indy 500 until a lawsuit in 1972.)
http://www.janetguthrie.com/
http://www.britannica.com/women/articles/Guthrie_Janet.html
http://www.writetools.com/women/stories/guthrie_janet.html
    1939-- Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians record "Auld Lang Syne," a New Year's favorite to this day.
    1945-A small advance force of the US First Army captured the Ludendorff railway bridge across the Rhine River at Remagen, the only bridge across the Rhine that had not been blown up by the German defenders. The Allies thus acquired the first bridgehead onto the east bank, a turning point in World War II. Not since the days of Napoleon had an invading army crossed the Rhine. Tanks of the US Third Corps reach the Rhine River opposite the small German town of Remagen, Germany, and find the Ludendorff Bridge damaged but still usable. The bridge, which had miraculously survived the massive Allied air assaults on Nazi Germany and then the country's own efforts to protect its interior from the Allied invasion, is an unexpected strategic coup for the US First Army. Troops and vehicles are immediately rushed across, and for the first time, the US forces secure a foothold on the eastern side of the fortified Rhine River shore. Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler is so furious to learn of the US' use of the intact Ludendorff Bridge that he fires General Gerd von Rundstedt as commander of western German forces. German bombers attempt to destroy the bridge, but the US troops continue to move across and expand the beachhead on the other side. On 17 March, after transporting thousands of troops and military vehicles across the Rhine, the bridge collapses, killing twenty-five Americans. Nevertheless, the Allies now hold the area and engineers erect other bridges nearby. Supreme Allied Commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower later says that the discovery of the intact bridge "put victory just around the corner."
    1945--LEIMS, JOHN HAROLD Medal of Honor
Rank and organization: Second Lieutenant, U.S. marine Corps Reserve, Company B, 1st Battalion, 9th Marines, 3d Marine Division. Place and date: Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands, 7 marches 1945. Entered service at: Chicago, Ill. Born: 8 June 1921, Chicago, Ill. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as commanding officer of Company B, 1st Battalion, 9th Marines, 3d Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces on Iwo Jima in the Volcano Islands, 7 March 1945. Launching a surprise attack against the rock-imbedded fortification of a dominating Japanese hill position, 2d Lt. Leims spurred his company forward with indomitable determination and, skillfully directing his assault platoons against the cave-emplaced enemy troops and heavily fortified pillboxes, succeeded in capturing the objective in later afternoon. When it became apparent that his assault platoons were cut off in this newly won position, approximately 400 yards forward of adjacent units and lacked all communication with the command post, he personally advanced and laid telephone lines across the isolating expanse of open fire-swept terrain. Ordered to withdraw his command after he had joined his forward platoons, he immediately complied, adroitly affecting the withdrawal of his troops without incident. Upon arriving at the rear, he was informed that several casualties had been left at the abandoned ridge position beyond the frontlines. Although suffering acutely from the strain and exhausting of battle, he instantly went forward despite darkness and the slashing fury of hostile machinegun fire, located and carried to safety 1 seriously wounded marine and then, running the gauntlet of enemy fire for the third time that night, again made his tortuous way into the bullet-riddled deathtrap and rescued another of his wounded men. A dauntless leader, concerned at all time for the welfare of his men, 2d Lt. Leims soundly maintained the coordinated strength of his battle-wearied company under extremely difficult conditions and, by his bold tactics, sustained aggressiveness, and heroic disregard for all personal danger, contributed essentially to the success of his division's operations against this vital Japanese base. His valiant conduct in the face of fanatic opposition sustains and enhances the highest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service.
    1946—Top Hits
Let It Snow - Vaughn Monroe
Symphony - The Freddy Martin Orchestra (vocal: Clyde Rogers)
Oh, What It Seemed to Be - The Frankie Carle Orchestra (vocal: Marjorie Hughes)
Guitar Polka - Al Dexter
    1946 - Grauman’s Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard was the site of the 18th Annual Academy Awards celebration. Bob Hope hosted the first half of the show with James Stewart stepping up to the mike for the second half. The Best Motion Picture of 1945 was Paramount’s "The Lost Weekend", produced by Charles Brackett. It also won for Best Director (Billy Wilder), Best Actor (Ray Milland), and Best Writing of a Screenplay (Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder). The Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role went to James Dunn for "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn". Best Actress was Joan Crawford for her performance in "Mildred Pierce". The votes for The Best Actress in a Supporting Role prize went to Anne Revere for "National Velvet". The Best Music/Scoring of a Musical Picture Oscar went to George Stoll for "Anchors Aweigh" and Best Music/Song was "State Fair" by Oscar Hammerstein II and Richard Rodgers. 
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0148306.html
Make Love to Me! - Jo Stafford
Young-At-Heart - Frank Sinatra
Cross Over the Bridge - Patti Page
Slowly - Webb Pierce 
    1951--BRITTIN, NELSON V. Medal of Honor
Rank and organization: Sergeant First Class, U.S. Army, Company I, 19th Infantry Regiment. Place and date: Vicinity of Yonggong-ni, Korea, 7 March 1951. Entered service at: Audubon, N.J. Birth: Audubon, N.J. G.O. No.: 12, 1 February 1952. Citation: Sfc. Brittin, a member of Company I, distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action. Volunteering to lead his squad up a hill, with meager cover against murderous fire from the enemy, he ordered his squad to give him support and, in the face of withering fire and bursting shells, he tossed a grenade at the nearest enemy position. On returning to his squad, he was knocked down and wounded by an enemy grenade. Refusing medical attention, he replenished his supply of grenades and returned, hurling grenades into hostile positions and shooting the enemy as they fled. When his weapon jammed, he leaped without hesitation into a foxhole and killed the occupants with his bayonet and the butt of his rifle. He continued to wipe out foxholes and, noting that his squad had been pinned down, he rushed to the rear of a machine gun position, threw a grenade into the nest, and ran around to its front, where he killed all 3 occupants with his rifle. Less than 100 yards up the hill, his squad again came under vicious fire from another camouflaged, sandbagged, machine gun nest well-flanked by supporting riflemen. Sfc. Brittin again charged this new position in an aggressive endeavor to silence this remaining obstacle and ran direct into a burst of automatic fire which killed him instantly. In his sustained and driving action, he had killed 20 enemy soldiers and destroyed 4 automatic weapons. The conspicuous courage, consummate valor, and noble self-sacrifice displayed by Sfc. Brittin enabled his inspired company to attain its objective and reflect the highest glory on himself and the heroic traditions of the military service. 
    1954 - No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit: “Make Love to Me,'' Jo Stafford.
    1955-Carl Perkins' "Blue Suede Shoes" enters the R&B chart. It is the first time a C&W artist has made the R&B chart.
    1955 - "Peter Pan", with Mary Martin and Cyril Richard, was presented as a television special for the first time. The complete Broadway cast production was also broadcast in color on WRCA, Channel 4, New York City on “Producer’s Showcase.” It could also be seen in black and white on the NBC network.
    1956 - Lonnie Donegan’s hit song, "Rock Island Line", was doing well on the pop music charts from across the big pond. The popular music from Great Britain’s ‘King of Skiffle’ ushered in the new music craze called ‘skiffle’. Donegan was born in Glasgow, Scotland and was a member of Chris Barber’s Jazz Band. He had one other major hit on the U.S. pop charts even bigger than "Rock Island Line". In 1961, Donegan’s "Does Your Chewing Gum Lose It’s Flavor (On the Bedpost Over Night)" made it to the top five in America. The song was a top-10 hit in 1924 by Ernest Hare and Billy Jones. However, instead of "Chewing Gum" in the original title, it was "Spearmint". Donegan recorded his version of the song in 1959, two years before it became a hit. Incidentally, John Lennon and George Harrison of The Beatles both started their careers in skiffle bands. 
    1957-- The Tune Weavers record "Happy Happy Birthday Baby," one of the top hits for the year. 
    1962—Top Hits
Duke of Earl - Gene Chandler
Hey! Baby - Bruce Channel
Break It to Me Gently - Brenda Lee
Walk on By - Leroy Van Dyke
    1964-The Beatles "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "She Loves You" are, according to Billboard, "neck and neck" for the top spot on the singles chart.
    1964 -- Capitol Records is besieged with requests for heavyweight boxing champ Cassius Clay's album, "I Am the Greatest." It's in big demand because of Clay's defeat of Sonny Liston last month. Columbia expects to sell 500,000 copies and Clay (aka Muhammad Ali) says, "I'm better and prettier than Chubby Checker." 
    1965 -- First US "combat" troops sent to Vietnam. Previously, US military personnel were considered "advisers" and troops who are in a defensive role. The Johnson administration tries to hide this policy change and denies rumors, but a State Department spokesman "mistakenly" spills the beans a couple months later.
http://distefano.com/
    1965-Selma, Alabama March: 525 people began a fifty-four mile march from Selma, Alabama to the state capitol in Montgomery. They were demonstrating for African American voting rights and to commemorate the death of Jimmie Lee Jackson, shot three weeks earlier by a state trooper while trying to protect his mother at a civil rights demonstration. On the outskirts of Selma, after they crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge, the marchers, in plain sight of photographers and journalists, were brutally assaulted by heavily armed state troopers and deputies. Here is their story with photographs:
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/mar07.html
    1966-The Shadow of Knights, a Chicago garage band, enters the Top Ten with their biggest hit, "Gloria."
    1966-- Brian Wilson releases his first solo single, "Caroline, No," the first release of the historic Pet Sounds sessions. Two months later, the PS album would appear with "Caroline, No" on it, but credited to the Beach Boys.
    1966-- Bob Dylan records "Absolutely Sweet Marie"
    1966---Tina Turn records "River Deep Mountain High"
    1967--The Beatles record "Lovely Rita"
    1967-Jim Morrison and The Doors performed at the Matrix, San Francisco, California
    1967 - No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit: “Love Is Here and Now You're Gone,'' The Supremes.
    1968--Elvis Presley records one of his most favorite songs, "A Little Less Conversation."
    1969-Tommy's Roe's single, "Dizzy" earns a gold record for sales over one million.
    1970—Top Hits
Bridge Over Troubled Water - Simon & Garfunkel
Travelin’ Band/Who’ll Stop the Rain - Creedence Clearwater Revival
Rainy Night in Georgia - Brook Benton
It’s Just a Matter of Time - Sonny James 
    1970-Actor Lee Marvin, whose vocal skills were questionable at best, topped the UK singles chart with a song called "Wand'rin' Star", which was featured in the film “Paint Your Wagon”. 
    1971---A thousand U.S. planes bomb Cambodia and Laos. 
    1973-Traffic have a gold LP with "Shootout at the Fantasy Factory," their final LP with the extended group.
    1973-- Eric Weissberg and Steve Mandel's "Dueling Banjos" is certified gold 
    1975-David Bowie's "Young Americans" is released.
    1976-Elton John becomes the first Rock star since the Beatles to be immortalized at Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum in London. 
    1978—Top Hits
(Love Is) Thicker Than Water - Andy Gibb
Sometimes When We Touch - Dan Hill
Emotion - Samantha Sang
Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys - Waylon & Willie
    1981 - No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit: “I Love a Rainy Night,'' Eddie Rabbit. Before recording on his own, the singer writes songs for Elvis Presley, Ronnie Milsap, Tom Jones and Dr. Hook.
    1983- Willie Nelson received a lifetime achievement award at the Songwriters' Hall of Fame dinner in New York.
    1983--Stevie Wonder and Neil Sedaka are inducted into the Songwriter's Hall Of Fame during a ceremony at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York. 
    1985 - The song "We Are the World", from the album of the same name, was played on the radio for the first time. Forty-five of pop music’s top stars had gathered together to combine their talents to record the music of Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson. Richie and Jackson sang, too, while Quincy Jones did the producing of the ” USA for Africa” record. The proceeds of the multimillion-selling recording went to aid African famine victims. The project, coordinated by Ken Kragen, was deemed a huge success. 
    1986—Top Hits
Kyrie - Mr. Mister
Sara - Starship
Living in America - James Brown
You Can Dream of Me - Steve Wariner
    1987 - Forty-five cities in the north central and northeastern U.S. reported record high temperatures for the date. Huron SD hit 80 degrees, and Pickstown SD reached 81 degrees. Rochester MN and Rockford IL smashed their previous record for the date by sixteen degrees.
    1987 - World Boxing Council (WBC) heavyweight champ, ‘Iron’ Mike Tyson, became the youngest heavyweight titlist ever as he beat James Smith in a decision during a 12-round bout in Las Vegas.
    1987-- The first Beatles albums are released on compact disc: “Please Please Me”, “With the Beatles”, “A Hard Day's Night”, “Beatles for Sale”, and “Help!”. This marks the first time the band's official UK albums have been available as standard Beatles albums in the US, many being presented for the first time in America in their original mono mixes. 
    1990 - A major ice storm covered much of Iowa. It was the worst ice storm in at least twenty-five years for Iowa, perhaps the worst of the century. Up to two inches of ice coated much of western and central Iowa, with three inches reported in Crawford County and Carroll County. As much as five inches of ice was reported on some electrical lines. The ice downed 78 towers in a 17-mile stretch of a high voltage feeder near Boone, costing three electric utilities fifteen million dollars. Damage to trees was incredible, and clean-up costs alone ran into the millions. Total damage from the storm was more than fifty million dollars.
    1997-Declaring that Steven Hoffenberg had "wreaked havoc on innocent lives," Federal Judge Robert Sweet sentenced the notorious Wall Street swindler to a twenty-year prison term. In the ruling, handed down on this day in 1997, Sweet ordered the former chief of Towers Financial Corp. to pay out $462 million in restitution, as well as a $1 million in fines. Hoffenberg had been accused of pawning off vast sums of "worthless" Tower-backed bonds to unsuspecting investors. All told, Hoffenberg had conned investors out of a whopping $500 million, money which he used to fund his extravagant habits.
    2001-- The National Endowment for the Arts, in conjunction with the RIAA, announces its Top Ten songs of the 20th century. At #1: Judy Garland's rendition of "Over the Rainbow." Also making the list: Bing's "White Christmas" (#2), Aretha's "Respect" (#4), Don McLean's "American Pie" (#5), and the Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" (#9). 
    2010--Academy Awards. Best Motion Picture: "The Hurt Locker." Best Actor: Jeff Bridges, "Crazy Hearts." Best Actress: Sandra Bullock, "The Blind Side." Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz, "Inglorious Basterds." Best Supporting Actress: Mo'Nique, "Precious." Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow (Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win an Academy Award for Best Director), "The Hurt Locker." http://www.imdb.com/event/ev0000003/2010?ref_=rto_nom_evh_2010