Events, Births and Deaths Happening on this Date

1765

Britain enacted the Quartering Act, requiring American colonists to provide temporary housing to British soldiers.

1882

German scientist Robert Koch announced in Berlin that he had discovered the bacillus responsible for tuberculosis.

1883

Long-distance telephone service was inaugurated between Chicago and New York City.

1934

President Roosevelt signed a bill granting future independence to the Philippines.

1944

In occupied Rome, the Nazis executed more than 300 civilians in reprisal for an attack by Italian partisans the day before that killed 32 German soldiers.

1955

The Tennessee Williams play ''Cat on a Hot Tin Roof'' opened on Broadway.

1958

Elvis Presley was inducted into the Army in Memphis, Tenn.

1976

The president of Argentina, Isabel Peron, was deposed by her country's military. AP correspondent William Long reports on the coup.

1980

One of El Salvador's most respected Roman Catholic Church leaders, Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero, was shot to death by gunmen as he celebrated Mass in San Salvador.

1988

Former national security aides Oliver L. North and John M. Poindexter and businessmen Richard V. Secord and Albert Hakim pleaded innocent to Iran-Contra charges. North and Poindexter were convicted, but had their convictions thrown out; Secord and Hakim r

1989

The nation's worst oil spill occurred as the supertanker Exxon Valdez ran aground on a reef in Alaska's Prince William Sound and began leaking 11 million gallons of crude.

1995

The House of Representatives passed a welfare reform package calling for the most profound changes in social programs since the New Deal; President Clinton criticized the bill, saying it was ''weak on work and tough on children.''

1998

A 13-year-old boy and his 11-year-old cousin opened fire outside their school in Jonesboro, Ark., killing four students and a teacher and injuring 10.

1999

On March 24, 1999, NATO launched airstrikes against Yugoslavia, marking the first time in its 50-year existence that it had ever attacked a sovereign country. President Clinton announces the strikes in address to the nation.

1874

Harry Houdini (born Erik Weisz) was a Hungarian-born American magician and escapologist, stunt performer, actor and film producer noted for his sensational escape acts. He was also a skeptic who exposed frauds purporting to be supernatural phenomena.