Today’s Highlights

On March 12, 1930, Mohandas Gandhi began his 24-day, 240 mile “Salt March” to the Indian village of Dandi as an act of non-violent civil disobedience.

On this date

1928: The St. Francis Dam north of Los Angeles, California failed, killing over 400 people.

1933: President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered the first of his “fireside chats,” a series of evening radio broadcasts to the American public.

1938: Nazi Germany annexed Austria, as German troops crossed the border into the country.

1947: President Harry S. Truman announced what became known as the “Truman Doctrine” to help Greece and Turkey resist Communism during the Cold War.

1980: A Chicago jury found John Wayne Gacy Jr. guilty of the murders of 33 men and boys.

2003: Elizabeth Smart, the 15-year-old girl who vanished from her bedroom nine months earlier, was found alive in a Salt Lake City suburb.

2009: Disgraced financier Bernard Madoff pleaded guilty in New York to the largest Ponzi scheme in history, having defrauded his clients of nearly $65 billion.

2021: The city of Minneapolis agreed to pay $27 million to settle a civil lawsuit from George Floyd’s family over Floyd’s murder by police.

Today’s birthdays

Politician and civil rights activist Andrew Young is 93. Actor Barbara Feldon is 92. Actor-singer Liza Minnelli is 79. Politician Mitt Romney is 78. Singer-songwriter James Taylor is 77.