North Mill Equipment Finance Announces
Their Largest Securitization: $371 Million

North Mill Equipment Finance LLC  announced the closing of its fifth commercial equipment backed securitization. The $371,070,000 transaction represents North Mill’s largest ABS issuance to date, surpassing its $236,588,000 ABS issuance in March 2021.

The $371.1MM transaction was backed by $420MM in equipment loan and lease contracts, $72MM of which will be contributed via a 3-month prefunding period post-close.

North Mill’s President and Chief Operating Officer, Mark Bonanno, commented, “I’m extremely proud of the team’s execution on this transaction, especially during such a challenging macro-economic environment and geopolitical discord.

 “The base case loss assumption assigned to this transaction by the rating agency was 115bps lower than our 2021 ABS transaction which is a testament to the quality of North Mill’s underwriting and servicing model and a validation of our business strategy of targeting higher credit quality obligors, diversified equipment and industry types, and a refined list of third-party originators with whom we partner to offer financing solutions.”

North Mill is majority owned by an affiliate of WAFRA Capital Partners, Inc. (WCP).  The company’s headquarters is in Norwalk, Connecticut, with regional offices in Irvine, California, Dover, New Hampshire, Voorhees New Jersey, and Murray, Utah. 

The company originates and services small to mid-ticket equipment leases and loans, ranging from $15,000 to $1,000,000 in value.  A broker-centric private lender, the company accepts A – C credit qualities and finances transactions for many asset categories including construction, transportation, vocational, medical, manufacturing, printing, franchise, renovation, janitorial and material handling equipment.

Truist Securities, Inc. served as sole book runner for the transaction.

 

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Robust Retail Sales and Strong Employment Figures
Boost Consumer Financial Confidence
By Dr. Dan Geller

The February Money Anxiety Index decreased 1.8 index points from last month to 50.8 and down 35.4 points since the index peaked in April of 2020. The decrease in the Money Anxiety Index reflects higher financial confidence reflected in a very robust retail sales increase of 3.8% in January and a gain of 678,000 new jobs in February. The unemployment rate fell to 3.8 percent, the lowest level since the pandemic took over

Dr. Dan Geller
Behavioral Economics
for Financial Services
Analyticom LLC
drgeller@analyticom.com
www.analyticom.com
415-891-3093

 

Help Wanted Ads

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Top Ten Leasing News Read by Readers
February 28 to March 4

(1) California Attorney General Department of Justice Visits
Partners Capital Group, Santa Ana, California
By Kit Menkin, Editor
https://leasingnews.org/archives/Mar2022/03_04.htm#ca

(2) Your Desk Before Social Media
Graphic
https://leasingnews.org/archives/Mar2022/03_02.htm#desk

(3)  Burning cargo ship carrying Porsches,
Lamborghinis finally sinks
https://nypost.com/2022/03/01/burning-cargo-ship-carrying-porsches-lamborghinis-sinks/

(4) Reminder: 2021 California Financing Law
Annual Report Due March 15, 2022
https://leasingnews.org/archives/Feb2022/02_28.htm#reminder

(5) The Two Reasons Why You Get Hired
The Ultimate Hire by Ken Lubin, ZRG Partners
https://leasingnews.org/archives/Feb2022/02_28.htm#hired

(6)  50 Top Funding Sources April 12, 2022 - April 14, 2022
ELFA 33rd Annual National Funding Conference, Chicago
https://leasingnews.org/archives/Feb2022/02_28.htm#conference

(7) Russia's Most Important Import Partners
    Value of Goods Import in 2019 by Trading Partner
https://leasingnews.org/archives/Mar2022/03_04.htm#import

(8) Leasing News Funder List “A”
Updated
https://leasingnews.org/archives/Feb2022/02_28.htm#lista

 (9) NMLS Password Requirement Changes Starting March 19
Announcement for all California Finance License Holders
https://leasingnews.org/archives/Mar2022/03_02.htm#nmls

(10) Reid Raykovich, CLFP
Leasing News Advisor
https://leasingnews.org/archives/Feb2022/02_28.htm#raykovic

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Supply Chain Uncertainty Leads OEMs
to Carefully Control Class 8 Orders

The order level for February was down 2% month over month and down 53% year over year.
Graph: FTR

While Class 8 truck orders were stable in February, it doesn’t mean good news for future production.

OEMs are not confident that the supply chain will improve in the short term, so they are controlling the number of official orders very carefully, keeping backlogs at a manageable level. OEMs continue to book fleet requirements a portion at a time in order to not overbook their production schedules, FTR Transpiration Intelligence reported.

North American Class 8 net orders held steady in February, coming in at between 21,000 to 21,100 units, according to ACT Research and FTR, respectively, and meeting expectations. The order level for February was down 2% month over month and down 53% year over year, according to FTR.

Backlogs should not change that much since February order numbers are close to the forecasted production rate. The stability in the backlogs indicates the industry is content holding the number at the current level. Backlogs were very stable in 2021 and it is estimated that February backlogs will only be 4% higher than in April 2021.

Don Ake, FTR Vice President of Commercial Vehicles, noted, “The steady order numbers do not reflect at all the huge demand for new trucks.

 “There is a severe shortage of new and used trucks and the economy continues to generate steady freight growth in all segments. Even with the recent stagnant booking volumes, orders for the last twelve months are at an impressive 320,000 units.”

Class 8 orders have totaled 320,000 units over the last twelve months.

Source: www.truckinginfo.com

Obligations Regarding Situation in Ukraine and Russia
California Department of Financial Protection & Innovation

MEMORANDUM
To:  All Financial Institutions Licensed By DFPI
Date: March 4, 2022
From: Commissioner Clothilde V. Hewlett
Subject: Obligations Regarding Situation in Ukraine and Russia
Due to the rapidly evolving situation in Ukraine and Russia, the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (“DFPI”) issues this Guidance to remind licensees of their obligations under state and federal law.

SANCTIONS
All U.S. persons, including financial institutions licensed by the DFPI (“licensees”), are subject to the regulations issued by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) 1. Therefore, licensees must fully comply with U.S. sanctions on Russia.

OFAC has added Russian individuals and entities to the Specially Designated Nationals (“SDN”) List. Licensees are prohibited from engaging in any financial transactions with persons on the SDN List. The SDN List can be found on the U.S. Treasury Department’s website. In anticipation of frequent additions, licensees are urged to sign up for email updates directly from the U.S. Treasury.

In addition, more limited, yet stringent, sanctions have been placed on several Russian entities with respect to their ability to raise debt and equity and/or with respect to their correspondent and payable-through accounts. Licensees should review the specific restrictions on the OFAC website to ensure compliance.

Licensees are strongly encouraged to take the following actions immediately:

• Ensure that their systems, programs, and processes comply with OFAC regulations.
• Review transaction monitoring and filtering programs to make any modification that is necessary to capture new sanctions.
• Monitor all transactions going through their institution, particularly trade finance transactions and funds transfers, to identify and block transactions subject to sanctions, and follow OFAC’s direction regarding any blocked funds.

VIRTUAL CURRENCY
The Russian invasion significantly increases the risk that listed individuals and entities may use virtual currency transfers to evade sanctions. All licensees engaging in financial services using virtual currencies should have policies, procedures, and processes to protect against the unique risks that virtual currencies present. Refer to the OFAC Guidance, OFAC Sanctions Compliance Guidance for the Virtual Currency Industry. Licensees should consider virtual currency-specific control measures including sanctions lists, geographic screening, and any other measures appropriate to the licensee’s specific risk profile.

CYBERSECURITY
The Russian invasion significantly elevates the cyber risk for the U.S. financial sector. In order to operate in a safe and sound manner as required by California law2, licensees must mitigate cybersecurity threats3. Licensees should:

• Adopt core cybersecurity hygiene measures like multi-factor authentication, privileged access management, vulnerability management, and disabling or securing remote desktop protocol access.
• Review and confirm border security configurations to eliminate any networking protocols that are non-essential.
• Ensure that procedures address destructive cyber-attacks such as ransomware and immediately confirm backups are protected from a ransomware attack.
• Re-evaluate plans to maintain essential services, protect critical data, and preserve customer confidence considering the realistic threat of extended outages.

Licensees should closely track guidance and alerts from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency on its ‘Shields-Up’ website.

Licensees that do business in Ukraine and/or Russia should take increased measures to monitor, inspect, and isolate traffic from Ukrainian or Russian offices and service providers. Licensees should segregate networks for Ukrainian or Russian offices from the global network.

1  31 C.F.R. Chapter V; see Cal. Fin. Code, § 580.
2  Cal. Fin. Code, § 580.
3  This Guidance does not supersede any reporting requirements in the event of a cybersecurity incident.

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PPP Lender CEO Allegedly Purchased Luxury Cars
and Homes with Fraudulent Lender Fees and PPP Loan
By Delaney Sexton, Contributing Editor, Coleman Report

“American businesses and their employees have been struggling due to an unprecedented global pandemic, and the Paycheck Protection Program was created to serve as a safety net. Martinez is alleged to have fraudulently obtained funds through this program as both a recipient and a lender, and in effect, stole funds from his fellow Americans so he could purchase a New Jersey mansion, a villa abroad, and several luxury vehicles,” says IRS-CI Special Agent-in-Charge Thomas Fattorusso.

The CEO and primary owner of MBE Capital Partners, Rafael Martinez, applied for a PPP loan for his company in April 2020. Martinez allegedly claimed that MBE had as many as 15 employees and an average monthly payroll of just over $119,000. He obtained almost $284,000 using doctored tax records including the forged signature of a tax preparer in Manhattan, New York. The Complaint claimed that his company had at most 4 employees and a monthly payroll of no more than $25,000.

Within five days of applying for a PPP loan, it is alleged that he submitted an application to the SBA that would allow MBE Capital Partners to become a non-bank PPP lender. Rafael is accused of crafting fraudulent financial statements that would support his claim of originating and servicing over $3.8 billion in business loans or commercial financial receivables from 2017 to 2019. MBE was later approved as a non-bank lender for the Paycheck Protection Program.

Allegedly, Martinez submitted the same fraudulent financial statements to a life insurance company in an attempt to form a partnership with the company and fund PPP loans for minority and women-owned small businesses. About two weeks later, Rafael received $100 million from the life insurance company. Rafael borrowed $832 million from the Payment Protection Program Liquidity Facility and used the life insurance company’s money as collateral.

His status as a PPP lender allowed him to issue $823 million in PPP loans to 36,600 small businesses, and in return, Martinez made $71.3 million in lender fees.

With the alleged fraudulent PPP loan and lender fees, he purchased a more than $10 million villa in the Dominican Republic, a $3.5 million mansion in New Jersey, a chartered jet service, a 2018 Porsche 911 Turbo, a 2017 Ferrari 488 Spider, a 2017 Bentley Continental GT, a BMW 750, and a 1962 Mercedes Benz 190.

The Department of Justice is charging Rafael Martinez with one count of bank fraud, two counts of wire fraud, one count of making false statements to a bank, one count of making false statements to the SBA, and one count of aggravated identity theft.

Source:
DOJ Press Release
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/ceo-payment-protection-program-lender-mbe-capital-arrested-connection-fraudulent-loan

Coleman Report, 28081 Marguerite Pkwy.
#4525, Mission Viejo, CA 92690
bob@colemanreport.com

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Russian Ruble Depreciates
64 percent to the Dollar

Rubles per 1 USD:
Dec 31, 2020: 74.52
Dec 31, 2021: 74.53
Jan 31, 2022: 77.74
Fri, Feb 25, 2022: 84
Mon, Feb 28, 2022: 105
Closing Fri, Mar 4, 2022: 122

From Dec 31, 2021 to Mar 4, 2022 increase of 64%
(depreciation of the Ruble).

Alberto Calva | acalva@acusconsulting.com
acalva@acus.ca | Cell & WhatsApp +1-416-824-1924

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Leasing News Associate Editor
Ralph Mango

ralphmango@hotmail.com

Ralph joined the Advisory Board June 26, 2013. As a reader of Leasing News, Ralph has been a long-time contributor and a resource of history. In July, 2013, he was named Leasing News Associate Editor, responsible for proofreading and editing each news edition as well as contributing content. He serves as a volunteer as do many of the Leasing News writers and contributors. In that role, Ralph sees the written news edition version first, before graphics are added, reviewing all articles. In addition, he has been instrumental in "cleaning up" the duplications, errors, typos, in "This Day in American History," which was started over 30 years ago and never proofed until he volunteered. He has become the editor's right hand in producing each Leasing News edition each early evening right before it is set in HTML.

Ralph had been with Comscore Inc., Reston, Virginia since December, 2010.  He left the company in May, 2019 and is semi-retired.

During his leasing industry career, he has consulted on multiple business necessities that include internal control processes for sales, sales support, documentation, verification, funding, and MIS; integration of CRM into sales processes toward reducing administrative tasks, strengthening forecast reliability and pipeline veracity, and pricing authority delegation to eliminate revenue leaks, among others.

His nearly 40-year equipment leasing career includes stops as VP-General Manager, SVP of Sales and Sales & Marketing, and Region management with several industry leaders.  He has broad and successful business unit general management experience in both indirect and direct equipment leasing as a captive lessor and vendor provider that began as a credit manager.

His career zenith was as Sr. Vice President, Sales & Marketing, Newcourt Financial when he piloted the proposal team through which he became Co-founder, Vice President and General Manager, Dell Financial Services in 1997.

Ralph (New Brunswick, ’74) is a member of the Alumni Mentoring program for Rutgers University, mentoring soon-to-be Rutgers graduates on their career aspirations and providing editing and proofreading services to them as well.  He is also part of ACP. The ACP, American Corporate Partners (www.acp-usa.org), provides similar guidance to our returning military, assisting them in identifying and translating their skills that were executed in a military structure into concepts and language that resonate in the private sector.

During 2019, an outgrowth of his Associate Editor responsibilities resulted in his co-editing “A Moment in Paradise; Collaborative Thoughts on Empathy,” by former colleague Paul Jackson.  All profits from the book go to Opportunities, Inc.

Ralph and Beth enjoy living in northern Virginia, near their three daughters, four grandchildren, and two sons-in-law. He was a top quarterback in high school, college, and was in the semipro’s.  An avid reader and writer, Ralph also has been a lifelong baseball fan dating back to the 50s and he remains a die-hard Yankees fan, owing to his late parents’ Bronx roots.  The baseball fan in him is stunned and ecstatic at the hometown 2019 World Champion Washington Nationals.

Husky/Shepherd Mix
Scottsdale, Arizona  Adopt-a-Dog

Phelan

Female
10 Months Old
Spayed
Vaccinated
Microchipped
$400 Adoption Fee

Phalen is a very sweet 10 month old husky mix. She was incredibly timid when she first arrived at the rescue, but has come so far in trusting people since she’s been with her experienced foster. She has gone from being frozen and uncertain around people to enjoying snuggling! Her uncertainty was just expressed in tepidness, no aggression whatsoever. She will need some patience as she settles into a new space, but once she’s comfy, she’s the ultimate snuggle-bug. She also LOVES all dogs no matter the size! She will need a tall, unescapable fence as timid pups have occasionally jumped fences to escape if startled (though she has not jumped the fence in her current home at all, we just want to take precaution!).

Adoption Application:
https://azhuskyrescue.com/adoption-application/

AZ Husky Rescue
eMail
woo@azhuskyrescue.org
Website
https://azhuskyrescue.com/

Contact Us:
https://azhuskyrescue.com/contact-us/

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March 23, 2022—March 25, 2022
The Waterfront Beach Resort, A Hilton Hotel
21100 Pacific Coast Hwy
Huntington Beach, CA 92648

327 Attendee List & Registration
https://web.cvent.com/event/3ff5d7e6-c2df-4d80-adac-711d09346e29/websitePage:f00eac1a-7ec3-496c-bee9-7b74599c4f00

Agenda
https://web.cvent.com/event/3ff5d7e6-c2df-4d80-adac-711d09346e29/websitePage:645d57e4-75eb-4769-b2c0-f201a0bfc6ce

Exhibitors
https://web.cvent.com/event/3ff5d7e6-c2df-4d80-adac-711d09346e29/websitePage:b7caa1c4-05a5-40f8-a14b-0c04d29a6a51

Fees:
https://web.cvent.com/event/3ff5d7e6-c2df-4d80-adac-711d09346e29/websitePage:f5f1940b-980e-4398-96f6-3b681ef5e4a3

Ladies Lunch Wednesday, March 23, 2022  12:00PM – 2:00PM
https://leasingnews.org/archives/Mar2022/03_02.htm#nefa

News Briefs---

More remote workers are moving to small towns like Quincy
    that better match their lifestyles as pandemic reshapes the workplace
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-midwest-small-towns-remote-working-20220304-qflhpbnuyjgz7avli3sqxrtb5y-story.html

Executive director of fundraising arm
   of People’s Convoy has criminal history
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/executive-director-of-fundraising-arm-of-peoples-convoy-has-criminal-history

Here's Why Crypto Won't Save the Kremlin
   from Sanctions
https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/heres-why-crypto-wont-save-the-kremlin-from-sanctions/

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You May Have Missed---

This treatment can protect vulnerable people from COVID
But many don’t know about it ($)
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-03-06/covid-antibody-treatment-obstacles?utm_id=49776&sfmc_id=1646692

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Sports Briefs---

A Thunderous Farewell at Duke for Coach K, Even in Defeat
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/06/sports/ncaabasketball/mike-krzyzewski-duke-north-carolina-last-home-game.html

341-pound Jordan Davis’ 40-yard dash at NFL combine
faster than Patrick Mahomes
https://nypost.com/2022/03/06/nfl-combine-jordan-davis-40-yard-dash-faster-than-patrick-mahomes/

How Oregon’s Kayvon Thibodeaux performed
at the NFL Combine
https://www.oregonlive.com/ducks/2022/03/how-oregons-kayvon-thibodeaux-performed-at-the-nfl-combine.html

MLB reacts angrily to locked-out players, season still off
https://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/mlb-reacts-angrily-to-locked-out-players-season-still-off/SWYVFU5IA5GYRE4X7XNFHTQSZI/

Second taxpayer lawsuit filed against Chargers,
NFL in wake of team’s move to Los Angeles
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/watchdog/story/2022-03-06/second-taxpayer-lawsuit-filed-against-chargers-nfl-in-wake-of-move-to-los-angeles

Every 49ers fan should thank Jimmy Garoppolo
https://49ers.pressdemocrat.com/every-49ers-fan-should-thank-jimmy-garoppolo/

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California Nuts Briefs---

San Francisco Bay Area traffic patterns show how much
     the region lags the U.S. in returning to offices
https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Bay-Area-traffic-patterns-show-how-much-the-16975503.php

1,000 more students could attend UC Berkeley next fall
— if university system accepts group’s conditions
https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/1-000-more-students-could-attend-UC-Berkeley-next-16980362.php

Sales of single-family homes recorded in Sonoma County
for the week of Jan. 23
https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/business/sales-of-single-family-homes-recorded-in-sonoma-county-for-the-week-of-jan-17/

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"Gimme that wine"

Many feared Napa’s smoky 2020 wine harvest was a bust.
    A recent auction revealed otherwise
https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/article/Many-feared-Napa-s-smoky-2020-wine-harvest-was-16978321.php

Guaranteed gluten-free barrels produced using a new sealant
https://www.vitisphere.com/news-96108-guaranteed-gluten-free-barrels-produced-using-a-new-sealant.html

Napa’s historic Heitz Cellar reopens with $1,000 tasting,
and 9 other new Wine Country options
https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/article/Napa-s-historic-Heitz-Cellar-reopens-with-16974791.php

‘Catastrophic’ fire damages Larson Family Winery
     in Sonoma County
https://www.sonomanews.com/article/news/catastrophic-fire-damages-larson-family-winery/

U.S. Spirits Exports Up in 2021 But Not Back to Pre-Tariff Levels
https://www.distilledspirits.org/news/discus-american-spirits-export-report-u-s-spirits-exports-up-in-2021-but-not-back-to-pre-tariff-levels/

J. Lohr Vineyards & Wines Honored as Top All-Around Winery
   and Grand Champion Best of Show at the 90th Annual
Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo™
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220303005175/en/J.-Lohr-Vineyards-Wines-

The book about California Wine History
should be on every wine-lover’s shelf
https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/lifestyle/the-book-that-should-be-on-every-wine-lovers-shelf/

“Gimme that Wine”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJnQoi8DSE8

Free Wine App
https://www.nataliemaclean.com/mobileapp/

Wine Prices by vintage
http://www.winezap.com
http://www.wine-searcher.com/

This Day in History

     1539 - Former slave Estevanico (Esteban) de Dorantes (1508-39), native of Azamoor Morocco, sets out to explore what is now the southwestern part of the US.  He was one of the first native Africans to reach the present-day continental US. Enslaved as a youth by the Portuguese, he was sold to a Spanish nobleman and taken in 1527 on the expedition to establish a colony in Florida. He was one of four survivors among 300 men who explored the peninsula. By late 1528 the group had been reduced to 80 men, who survived being washed ashore at Galveston Island after an effort to sail across the Gulf of Mexico.
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
   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.  She was a Puritan spiritual adviser, mother of 15, and an important participant in the Antinomian Controversy that shook the infant Massachusetts Bay Colony from 1636 to 1638. Her strong religious convictions were at odds with the established Puritan clergy in the Boston area, and her popularity and charisma helped create a theological schism that threatened to destroy the Puritans' religious experiment in New England. She was eventually tried and convicted, then banished from the colony with many of her supporters.
http://www.annehutchinson.com/anne_hutchinson_biography_001.htm
http://www.rootsweb.com/~nwa/ah.html
    1644 - 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 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.
    1644 - Massachusetts established the first 2-chamber legislature in the Colonies.   
    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 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 and settled 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 – King George III's speech charged the colonists with attempting to injure British commerce and subvert the Constitution, and on the 18th, Lord North brought the Port Bill before Parliament.  It outlawed the use of the Port of Boston, by setting up a barricade/blockade, for "landing and discharging, loading or shipping, of goods, wares, and merchandise" until such time as restitution was made to the King's treasury (for customs duty lost) and to the East India Company for damages suffered. In other words, it closed Boston Port to all ships, no matter what business the ship had. It also provided that Massachusetts Bay Colony's seat of government should be moved to Salem and Marblehead made a port of entry.   The bill became law on March 31, 1774 and is one of the measures (variously called the Intolerable Acts, the Punitive Acts or the Coercive Acts) that were designed to secure Great Britain’s jurisdictions over her American colonies.
    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 and 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) was signed.  The 1839 Hawaiian Bill of Rights, also known as the 1839 Constitution of Hawaii, was an attempt by King Kamehameha III and his chiefs to guarantee that the Hawaiian people would not lose their tenured land and provided the groundwork for a free enterprise system.  The document, which had an attached code of laws, was drafted by a missionary, revised by the Council of Chiefs and signed by Kamehameha III in June, 1839.  The Great Māhele resulted in the allocation of one-third of the land to the crown as Hawaiian crown lands. Another third was allocated among the chiefs. The remaining one-third was to go to the population, but in the end, they received less than 1%. The law required land claims to be filed within two years under the Kuleana Act of 1850 and many Hawaiians made no claim.  Eventually most of this land was sold or leased to foreigners.  The large amount of land that went to the government resulted in Hawaii having a very high proportion of state-owned land: about 32% is owned by the state.
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 (d. 1926) was born at Lancaster, MA.  American naturalist and author, creator and developer of many new varieties of flowers, fruits, vegetables and trees.  Burbank's birthday is observed in California as Bird and Arbor Day.
http://ci.santa-rosa.ca.us/lbhg/gardens.asp
    1850 - The acquisition of territory following the U.S. victory in the Mexican War revived concerns about the balance of free and slave states in the Union. 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; the passage of an inhumane Fugitive Slave law; new territories in the Southwest to be allowed to organize without restrictions on slavery; 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.
    1857 – Baseball decided that an official game is 9 innings rather than 9 runs.
    1860 - 6,000 shoemakers joined by 20,000 other New England workers in Lynn, Massachusetts strike. During the great New England shoemakers strike, about 1,000 women workers in Lynn, Massachusetts, strike for a union and 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, aka Battle of Elkhorn Tavern, located in an extreme northwestern section of Arkansas and gained control of Missouri.  Confederate General Ben McCulloch was killed in one of the attacks. 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.
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 African-American Coast Guard serviceman. He was appointed 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 cars, 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. A 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.
   1872 - -8º F in Boston MA
   1876 - Patent #174,465 was issued to Alexander Graham Bell for his telephone.
    1888 – Jazz guitarist Alcide “Slow Drag” Pavageau (d. 1969) was born in New Orleans.
http://user.tninet.se/~rrr043f/slow_drag.htm
    1893 - Lorena Alice Hickok (d. 1963) was born in East Troy, WI.  She was a journalist known for her close relationship with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.  Hickok was the highest paid woman newspaper reporter of her day, with Associated Press, a political reporter assigned to cover Roosevelt during FDR’s first presidential campaign.  Hickok struck up a close relationship with the soon-to-be First Lady. For several years, the two corresponded almost every day, traveled together, and professed emotional and physical affection for one another. She actually lived in the White House with Mrs. Roosevelt and slept in ER's apartment.  The exact nature of this relationship has been widely discussed by historians. More than 3,000 letters from the pair's correspondence are preserved.  Compromised as a reporter by her personal relationship with Roosevelt, Hickok left the AP and began work as the chief investigator for the Federal Emergency relief Administration (FERA), part of the New Deal. Hickok encouraged or inspired several of Eleanor Roosevelt's initiatives, including her syndicated column, her all-women press conferences, and her planned community in West Virginia.  As Hickok grew more demanding of the First Lady, however, the pair's initial closeness lessened. 
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
    1893 - In arguably the most significant rule change in Major League history, the National league eliminated the pitching box and added a pitcher’s rubber five feet behind the previous back line of the box, establishing the modern pitching distance of 60 feet 6 inches. In addition, bats flattened on one side to facilitate bunting were banned.
    1908 - Cincinnati Mayor Leopold Markbreit stood before city council and announced that, "women are not physically fit to operate automobiles."
    1911 - Willis S. Farnsworth 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” enable 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 (d. 2008) was 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, released by RCA Victor in Camden, New Jersey.
    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/
    1927 – The Supreme Court ruled that a Texas law denying the right to vote to Negroes was unconstitutional.
    1932 - Monopoly was introduced by Charles Darrow. The history of Monopoly can be traced back to 1903, when American anti-monopolist Elizabeth Phillips created a game through which she hoped to be able to explain the single tax theory of Henry George. It was intended as an educational tool to illustrate the negative aspects of concentrating land in private monopolies. Phillips took out a patent in 1904. Her game, “The Landlord’s Game”, was self-published, beginning in 1906.  A series of variant board games based on her concept was developed from 1906 through the 1930s that involved the buying and selling of land and the development of that land.  According to an advertisement placed in “The Christian Science Monitor”, Charles Todd of Philadelphia recalled the day in 1932 when his childhood friend, Esther Jones, married to Charles Darrow, came to his house with her husband for dinner. After the meal, the Darrows played the game of Monopoly several times with them, a game that was entirely new to the Darrows, and before he left, Darrow asked for a written set of the rules. After Darrow brought his own Monopoly game out, the Todds never spoke to the Darrows again. 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 was born in Iowa City, IA.  An aerospace engineer, she 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," still a New Year's Eve staple.
    1941 - At Spring Training in Havana, Cuba, the Brooklyn Dodgers’ Pee Wee Reese and Joe Medwick used a batting helmet designed by two Johns Hopkins Hospital doctors with the help of Larry MacPhail. The two Dodgers, hit by several pitches last year, pronounced the helmets satisfactory.
    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 - thus acquiring 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 Remagen 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   
    1950 – Hall of Fame RB Franco Harris was born at Ft. Dix, NJ. He was picked by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the first round, the 13th selection overall, in the 1972 draft.  He played his first 12 years in the NFL with the Steelers. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1990.  Harris was chosen for 9 consecutive Pro Bowls, rushed for more than 1,000 yards in 8 seasons, breaking a record set by Jim Brown, and he is currently the 12th all-time NFL rusher with over 12,000 yards. The Steelers tandem running package of Harris and Rocky Bleier combined with a strong defense to win four Super Bowls, the first NFL team to do so. In 1975, he was the Super Bowl MVP, the first African-American as well as the first Italian-American to be so named. His Super Bowl career totals of 101 carries for 354 yards are records and his 4 career rushing touchdowns are tied for the second most in Super Bowl history.  Harris was a key player in one of professional football's most famous plays, “The Immaculate Reception”.  In a 1972 playoff game, the Oakland Raiders were leading the Steelers 7-6 with 22 seconds to play when a Terry Bradshaw pass was deflected away from intended receiver, Frenchy Fuqua, right as Oakland defender Jack Tatum arrived to tackle Fuqua. Harris snatched the ball just before it hit the ground and ran it into the end zone to win the game.
    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.
   1954 – Top Hits
“Make Love to Me!” - Jo Stafford
“Young-At-Heart” - Frank Sinatra
“Cross Over the Bridge” - Patti Page
“Slowly” - Webb Pierce
    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, having changed his name to Muhammad Ali, says, "I'm better and prettier than Chubby Checker."
    1965 - First US "combat" troops sent to Vietnam. (As opposed to "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 an 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, enter 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 “Pet Sounds” album would appear with "Caroline, No" on it, but credited to the Beach Boys, their 11th album.  It met a lukewarm critical and commercial reception in the United States, but received immediate success abroad, where British publications declared it "the most progressive pop album ever". It charted at number two in the UK but number ten in the US, a significantly lower placement than the band's preceding albums. In later years, “Pet Sounds” garnered enormous worldwide acclaim by critics and musicians alike, and is regarded as one of the most influential albums in the history of popular music.
    1966 - Bob Dylan records "Absolutely Sweet Marie."
    1966 - Tina Turner 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.
    1967 - Teamster President Jimmy Hoffa began an 8-year jail sentence for defrauding the union and jury tampering.  The sentence was commuted by President Nixon on Dec. 23, 1971.
    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
    1979 - Slugging OF Hack Wilson and longtime executive Warren Giles were elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Wilson, who had a relatively short career, won four NL HR titles while with the Chicago Cubs. His most productive season came in 1930, when he set an all-time Major League record with 191 RBI, hit 56 home runs (a NL record for 68 years) and batted .356. For his career, Wilson hit .307 with 244 home runs and 1063 RBI. Giles served as president of the Cincinnati Reds from 1937-51, before becoming National League President for 18 seasons.
    1981 - No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit:  “I Love a Rainy Night,'' Eddie Rabbit. Before recording on his own, the singer wrote 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. In South Dakota, Huron hit 80 degrees, and Pickstown 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 left much of Iowa under a thick coat of ice. 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.
    1995 – Richie Ashburn, Vic Willis, former NL president William Hulbert, and former Negro League star Leon Day were elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.  Day died six days later.
    1996 – The Hubble Space Telescope sent back the first surface photos of Pluto.
    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, 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.
    1998 – The New York Yankees signed pitcher Orlando Hernandez, brother of the 1997 World Series hero Livan Hernandez, to a four-year, $6.6 million contract. “El Duque” was one of the most famous and successful Cuban defectors to play in the Majors.  He is best remembered by Yankees fans for his postseason performances when he earned a 12-3 record and 2.55 ERA in 19 appearances, having gone 8-0 at one point.  He was a four-time World Series champ, three with the Yankees and one with the White Sox in 2005.
    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).
    2002 - A federal judge awarded Anna Nicole Smith more than $88 million in damages. The ruling was the latest in a legal battle over the estate of Smith's late husband, J. Howard Marshall II.
    2003 - UAL Corp., the bankrupt parent company of United Airlines, announces that sales of 3.9 million shares of UAL by the company’s employee benefit plans (authorization by the IRS announced on 04 March) have lowered employee ownership in those plans below 20%, thereby triggering the "Sunset" provisions contained in the company’s certificate of incorporation that affect UAL’s corporate governance structure.
    2003 - Scientists at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center announced that they had transferred 6.7 gigabytes of uncompressed data from Sunnyvale, CA, to Amsterdam, Netherlands, in 58 seconds. The data was sent via fiber-optic cables and traveled 6,800 miles.
    2014 - A study announced that high levels of vitamin D in the blood may increase the probability of survival for breast cancer patients.
    2015 - President Obama stated that he did not know that former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton solely used a personal email address for government business, possibly violating federal law; Clinton served under Obama for four years.