24th March; Today In History

Today is Thursday, March 24, the 84th day of 2016. There are 282 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

Event;

On March 24, 2015, Germanwings Flight 9525, an Airbus A320, crashed into the French Alps, killing all 150 people on board; investigators said the jetliner was deliberately downed by the 27-year-old co-pilot, Andreas Lubitz, who had a history of depression and mental illness.

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.

1913: New York's Palace Theatre, the legendary home of vaudeville, opened on Broadway.

1934: President Franklin D. 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 had killed 32 German soldiers.

1955: the Tennessee Williams play "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" opened on Broadway.

1958: rock-and-roll singer Elvis Presleywas inducted into the Army in Memphis, Tennessee.

1975: Muhammad Ali defeated Chuck Wepner with a technical knockout in the 15th round of a fight in Richfield, Ohio. (Wepner, a journeyman known as the "Bayonne Bleeder," inspired Sylvester Stallone to make his "Rocky" films.)

1976: the president of Argentina, Isabel Peron, was deposed by her country's military. British war hero Field Marshal Viscount Montgomery, 88, died in Alton, Hampshire, England.

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.

1995: after 20 years, British soldiers stopped routine patrols in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

1999: NATO launched airstrikes against Yugoslavia, marking the first time in its 50-year existence that it had ever attacked a sovereign country. Thirty-nine people were killed when fire erupted in the Mont Blanc tunnel in France and burned for two days.

Today's Birthdays: 

Poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti is 97, Actor William Smith is 83. Fashion and costume designer Bob Mackie is 77.

Actor R. Lee Ermey is 72. Movie director Curtis Hanson is 71. Former Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire is 69.

Rock musician Lee Oskar is 68. Singer Nick Lowe is 67. Rock musician Dougie Thomson (Supertramp) is 65.

Fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger is 65. Comedian Louie Anderson is 63. Actress Donna Pescow is 62. Actor Robert Carradine is 62. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is 60. Actress Kelly LeBrock is 56.

Rhythm-and-blues DJ Rodney "Kool Kollie" Terry (Ghostown DJs) is 55. TV personality Star Jones is 54. Country-rock musician Patterson Hood (Drive-By Truckers) is 52.

Actor Peter Jacobson is 51. Rock singer-musician Sharon Corr (The Corrs) is 46. Actress Lauren Bowles is 46.

Actress Lara Flynn Boyle is 46. Rapper Maceo (AKA P.A. Pasemaster Mase) is 46. Actress Megyn Price is 45. Actor Jim Parsons is 43. Christian rock musician Chad Butler (Switchfoot) is 42.

Actress Alyson Hannigan is 42. NFL quarterback Peyton Manning is 40. Actress Olivia Burnette is 39. Actress Jessica Chastain is 39. Actor Amir Arison is 38. Actress Lake Bell is 37. Rock musician Benj Gershman (O.A.R.) is 36. Neo-soul musician Jesse Phillips (St. Paul & the Broken Bones) is 36. Actress Keisha Castle-Hughes is 26.