Today’s highlight

On March 24, 1989, the supertanker Exxon Valdez (vahl-DEEZ’) ran aground on a reef in Alaska’s Prince William Sound and began leaking an estimated 11 million gallons of crude oil.

On this date

1765: Britain enacted the Quartering Act, requiring American colonists to provide temporary housing to British soldiers.

1832: A mob in Hiram, Ohio, attacked, tarred and feathered Mormon leaders Joseph Smith Jr. and Sidney Rigdon.

1934: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a bill granting future independence to the Philippines.

1980: One of El Salvador’s most respected Roman Catholic Church leaders, Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero, was shot to death by a sniper as he celebrated Mass in San Salvador.

2010: Keeping a promise he’d made to anti-abortion Democratic lawmakers to assure passage of his historic health care legislation, President Barack Obama signed an executive order against using federal funds to pay for elective abortions covered by private insurance.

2013: Hundreds of thousands marched in Paris protesting the imminent legalization of same-sex marriage.

Today’s birthdays

Rock musician Dougie Thomson is 73. Fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger is 73. Actor Robert Carradine is 70. Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer is 68. TV personality Star Jones is 62. Former NFL quarterback Peyton Manning is 48.Actor Jessica Chastain is 47. Keisha Castle-Hughes is 34.