March 24
1603
Queen Elizabeth I died at age 69 after ruling England for more than 40 years.
1882
Robert Koch announced the discovery of the tuberculosis bacillus.
1949
Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet became the first British film to win an Oscar.
1958
Rock ‘n’ roll star Elvis Presley joined the U.S. army for two years.
1989
In one of worst oil spills in recent history, the tanker, Exxon Valdez, ran aground and released 240,000 barrels of oil into Prince William Sound.
1999
NATO begins launching air strikes in an attempt to force Serbia to cease hostilities against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.
2002
Halle Berry became the first African-American actress to win a best actress Oscar and Denzel Washington became the second African-American actor to get the best actor award.
2004
The notorious Bird family’s more than half-century stronghold on the nation of Antigua and Barbuda came to an end when Baldwin Spencer won the post of prime minister in the general election.
Birthdays
Harry Houdini
Pronunciation: [hOOdE´nE]
1874–1926, American magician and writer, born in Budapest, Hungary.
Georgius Agricola
father of mineralogy (1494)
John Wesley Powell
geologist and ethnologist (1834)
Edward Weston
photographer (1886)
Thomas Dewey
politician (1902)
Steve McQueen
actor (1930)
Peyton Manning
football player (1976)