This Week in US History

March 13

1639   Harvard College is named for one of its first benefactors, clergyman John Harvard.

Harvard University Seal

Photo Credit

1928   The St. Francis Dam gives way on a reservoir 40 miles northwest of Los Angeles, killing at least 450 people.

March 14

1794   Eli Whitney patents the cotton gin.



Cotton Gin Patent

Photo Credit

1950   The FBI's "Ten Most Wanted" list debuts.

1951   United Nations forces, led by U.S. troops, recapture Seoul during the Korean War.

March 15

1820   Maine becomes the twenty-third state.

1892   In New York State, voting machines are first authorized for use in elections.



Photo Credit

March 16

1850   The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is published.

1995   Astronaut Norman Thagard becomes the first American to visit the Russian space station Mir.

March 17

1737  The Charitable Irish Society of Boston holds the first public celebration of St. Patrick's Day in the American colonies.

Photo Credit

According to legend, Saint Patrick used the shamrock, a three-leaved plant,

to explain the Holy Trinity to the pre-Christian Irish people.

1958   The United States launches its second satellite, Vanguard I (still in orbit as of 2008).

March 18

1766   After months of protests by American colonists, Britain repeals the Stamp Act.

1925  The Tri-State Tornado, the deadliest tornatod in U.S. history, kills some seven hundred people in Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana.

March 19

1852   In March 1852, Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe is published calling attention to the evils of slavery.

1979   The U.S. House begins televising its day-to-day business on C-SPAN.

Blessings,

Ellen