Today in History, 22/3

HIGHLIGHTS IN HISTORY ON THIS DATE

1765 - England's Parliament passes unpopular Stamp Act to raise revenue in American colonies.

1824 - The British Parliament votes to purchase 38 paintings to establish a national art gallery.

1832 - Death of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German poet and author of Faust.

1859 - The first political party dedicated to the working class in Australia, the Political Labour League of Victoria, is founded in Melbourne.

1882 - US Congress outlaws polygamy.

1888 - A meeting is held at Anderton's Hotel, London, aimed at setting up the English Football League.

1895 - Auguste and Louis Lumiere show their first movie to an invited audience in Paris.

1896 - Death of Thomas Hughes, English reformer, jurist and author of Tom Brown's School Days.

1897 - Federal convention starts second meeting in Adelaide to begin drawing up a constitution for a Commonwealth of Australia.

1904 - The first colour picture appears in a newspaper, the Daily Illustrated Mirror in New York.

1919 - The world's first international airline service is launched, a weekly flight between Paris and Brussels.

1945 - Arab League is formed in Cairo by Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.

1958 - Film star Elizabeth Taylor's producer husband, Michael Todd, is killed in a plane crash.

1960 - Arthur Schawlow and Charles Townes patent the laser.

1978 - Karl Wallenda, 73-year-old patriarch of The Flying Wallendas high-wire act, falls to his death while attempting to walk a cable strung between two hotels in Puerto Rico.

1989 - Delegates from 105 countries, meeting in Switzerland, adopt draft UN treaty to control international transport of dangerous wastes.

1994 - A Russian Airbus A-310 crashes in Siberia en route to Hong Kong, killing all 75 people aboard.

2003 - Australian cameraman Paul Moran is killed and ABC journalist Eric Campbell is injured in northeastern Iraq by a suicide bombing during the Iraq War.

2009 - Hells Angels bikie Anthony Zervas is killed at Sydney Airport in a brawl with members of the Comanchero motorcycle gang.

2010 - Two senior Air North pilots are killed when their plane crashes at Darwin's Winellie RAAF base.

2012 - Australia's most wanted criminal, Malcolm Naden, is arrested on a property near Gloucester, NSW, after seven years on the run.

2014 - Major League Baseball comes to Australia, with the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Arizona Diamondbacks playing to a sell-out crowd at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

2015 - Cyclone Nathan lashes the remote Arnhem Land mining town of Nhulunbuy.

2016 - Former Toronto mayor Rob Ford, who was filmed in 2013 smoking crack cocaine, dies of cancer aged 46.

2017 - A British terrorist drives a car into pedestrians on London's Westminster Bridge, killing five people, then leaving the vehicle and stabbing an unarmed police officer before he is shot and killed by police.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS

Kaiser Wilhelm I, Emperor of Germany (1797-1888); Nicholas Monsarrat, British novelist (1910-1979); Marcel Marceau, French mime (1923-2007); Stephen Sondheim, US composer (1930-); William Shatner, Canadian actor (1931-); George Benson, US singer-guitarist (1943-); Harry Vanda, Australian songwriter and musician of Easybeats fame (1946-); Andrew Lloyd Webber, British composer (1948-);Lena Olin, Swedish actress (1955-); Matthew Modine, US actor (1959-); Reese Witherspoon, US actress (1976-).

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

Although human life is priceless, we always act as if something had an even greater price than life... But what is that something? - Antoine de Saint-Exupery, French author (1900-1944)

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