Daily Calendar for Sunday, March 23, 2025

Born

  • John Bartram (botanist) –
  • Fannie Farmer (cookery expert) –
  • Eric Fromm (psychoanalyst) –
  • Joan Crawford (actress) –
  • Werner von Braun (rocket scientist) –
  • Roger Bannister (runner) –
  • Ron Jaworski (football player) –
  • Teofilo Stevenson (boxer) –
  • Chaka Khan (singer) –
  • Moses Malone (basketball player) –
  • Amanda Plummer (actress) –
  • Keri Russell (actress) –
  • Nicholle Tom (actress) –

Died

  • Barney Clark (first person to receive a permanent artificial heart) –
  • Arthur Lithgow (actor, producer, and director who was a pioneer in American regional theater) –
  • Elizabeth Taylor (actress) –
  • Gary Dahl (creator of the Pet Rock) –
  • Madeleine Albright (first woman to serve as U.S. secretary of state ) –

Events

  • The first standing ovation was recorded at the first performance of Handel’s Messiah. King George was so inspired (or restless) that he jumped to his feet; when the king did that, everyone else did–
  • Halifax Gazette became Canada’s first newspaper–
  • In a speech to the Virginia Provincial Convention, Patrick Henry made a plea for independence from Britain, saying I know not what course others might take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death.–
  • Society L’Institut Canadien du Quebec incorporated–
  • Elisha Graves Otis installed the first commercial passenger elevator, in NYC store–
  • Opera diva Nellie Melba recounted how she prepared toast, the original melba toast–
  • SS Yongala sank in cyclone, near Townsville, Australia–
  • Herbert Hoover became the first president to have a telephone installed on his desk–
  • WWII relocation of Japanese-Americans away from the West Coast began–
  • The World Meteorological Organization established by the UN–
  • U.S. Army sold its last homing pigeons–
  • NASA astronaut John Young smuggled a corned beef sandwich onboard Gemini 3–
  • America’s first two-person space flight began as Gemini 3 blasted off from Cape Kennedy with astronauts Virgil I. Grissom and John W. Young on board–
  • President Reagan first proposed development of technology to intercept enemy missiles — a proposal that came to be known as the strategic defense initiative, or Star Wars–
  • Billy Joel married model Christie Brinkley in NYC–
  • Sandinistas and Contras signed a 60-day ceasefire accord–
  • A 1910 Honus Wagner baseball card was sold at a Sotheby’s auction for $451,000 to hockey great Wayne Gretzky and Los Angeles Kings owner Bruce McNall–
  • Wayne Gretzky scored his 802nd career goal in front of a sellout crowd at the Great Western Forum, to break the legendary Gordie Howe’s NHL all-time goal record–
  • Mir space station deorbited as planned, falling into the South Pacific Ocean–
  • An oil refinery explosion occurred in Texas City, Texas–

Weather

  • Edmonton, Alberta, reached 22.2 degrees C (72 degrees F)–
  • Easter Sunday tornado killed 94 in Omaha, Nebraska–
  • First robin of the season seen, Dublin, N.H.–
  • 65 degrees F, Montreal, Quebec–

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