25th March: Today In History

Today is Saturday, March 25th, the 84th day of 2017. There are 281 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

Events:

1947, a coal-dust explosion inside the Centralia Coal Co. Mine No. 5 in Washington County, Illinois, claimed 111 lives; 31 men survived.

1306, Robert the Bruce was crowned King of Scots.

1776, Gen. George Washington, commander of the Continental Army, was awarded the first Congressional Gold Medal by the Continental Congress.

1865, during the Civil War, Confederate forces attacked Fort Stedman in Virginia but were forced to withdraw because of counterattacking Union troops.

1911, 146 people, mostly young female immigrants, were killed when fire broke out at the Triangle Shirtwaist Co. in New York.

1924, the Second Hellenic Republic was proclaimed in Greece.

1931, in the so-called “Scottsboro Boys” case, nine young black men were taken off a train in Alabama, accused of raping two white women; after years of convictions, death sentences and imprisonment, the nine were eventually vindicated.

1957, a signing ceremony was held for the Treaty of Rome, which established the European Economic Community.

1965, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. led 25,000 people to the Alabama state capitol in Montgomery after a five-day march from Selma to protest the denial of voting rights to blacks. Later that day, civil rights activist Viola Liuzzo, a white Detroit homemaker, was shot and killed by Ku Klux Klansmen.

1975, King Faisal (FY’-suhl) of Saudi Arabia was shot to death by a nephew with a history of mental illness. (The nephew was beheaded in June 1975.)

1987, the Supreme Court, in Johnson v. Transportation Agency, ruled 6-3 that an employer could promote a woman over an arguably more-qualified man to help get women into higher-ranking jobs.

1990, 87 people, most of them Honduran and Dominican immigrants, were killed when fire raced through an illegal social club in New York City.

1996, an 81-day standoff by the anti-government Freemen began at a ranch near Jordan, Montana.

Birthdays:

Movie reviewer Gene Shalit is 91.

Former astronaut James Lovell is 89.

Feminist activist and author Gloria Steinem is 83.

Singer Anita Bryant is 77.

Singer Aretha Franklin is 75.

Actor Paul Michael Glaser is 74.

Singer Elton John is 70.

Actress Bonnie Bedelia is 69.

Actress-comedian Mary Gross is 64.

Actor James McDaniel is 59.

Former Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., is 59.

Movie producer Amy Pascal is 59.

Rock musician Steve Norman (Spandau Ballet) is 57.

Actress Brenda Strong is 57.