On March 18th in United States Political History:
On March 18th in 1850 Henry C. Wells & William Fargo formed American Express in
Buffalo.
On March 18th in 1852 Henry C. Wells founded Wells, Fargo & Co. with William
C. Fargo in San Francisco as a Western equivalent to their east coast American
Express.
On March 18th in 1863 Confederate women rioted in Salisbury, N.C. to protest the
lack of flour and salt in the South.
On March 18th in 1865 The Congress of the Confederate States of America adjourned
for the last time.
On March 18th in 1874 Hawaii signed a treaty giving exclusive trading rights with
the islands to the United States.
On March 18th in 1890 The 1st US state naval militia was organized in
Massachusetts.
On March 18th in 1939 The U.S. raised the duties on German imports by 25 percent.
On March 18th in 1939 Georgia finally ratified the Bill of Rights, 150 years after
the birth of the federal government. Connecticut and Massachusetts, the only
other states to hold out, also accepted the Bill of Rights in this year.
On March 18th in 1942 The third military draft began in the U.S. because of World
War II.
On March 18th in 1945 1,250 US bombers attacked Berlin.
On March 18th in 1959 President Eisenhower signed the Hawaii statehood bill.
Hawaii became a state on Aug. 21, 1959.
On March 18th in 1963 The US Supreme Court made its Gideon v Wainwright ruling
which said poor defendants have a constitutional right to an attorney. Gideon
had been forced to defend himself in Florida in Jan 1962, and petitioned the
Supreme Court to hear his complaint.
On March 18th in 1968 President Johnson signed Public Law 90-269 removing gold backing
from US paper money.
On March 18th in 1969 President Richard M. Nixon authorized Operation Menu, the
'secret' bombing of Cambodia
On March 18th in 1970 The US Postal Service was paralyzed by the first postal
strike. A walkout of letter carriers in Brooklyn and Manhattan set off a strike
that involved 210,000 of the nation’s 750,000 postal employees. President Nixon
declared a state of national emergency and assigned military units to NYC post
offices.
On March 18th in 1981 The U.S. disclosed that there were biological weapons tested
in Texas in 1966.
On March 18th in 1993 On Capitol Hill, the House approved President Clinton's
deficit-reduction blueprint on a virtual party-line 243-183 vote.
On March 18th in 1994 Published reports said first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton had
made nearly $100,000 from the commodities market in the late 1970's on an
initial investment of only $1,000.
On March 18th in 1995 The United States Catholic Conference's administrative board
criticized a Republican welfare reform plan, saying it would hurt poor children
and could push women to have abortions.
On March 18th in 2001 It was reported that the Bush administration planned to
sidestep the American Bar Association in the screening of federal judges, an
"indication that they want to pick judges of the hard right."
On March 18th in 2001 It was reported that the US National Reconnaissance Office
was planning a $25 billion project for some 12 satellites to be deployed by
2005.
On March 18th in 2002 The FBI "Operation Candyman" snared over 90 people following
a 14-month investigation of child pornography over the Internet.
On March 18th in 2002 A US federal grand jury unsealed a Mar 7 indictment against
7 men that included 3 Colombian guerrillas for smuggling planeloads of cocaine.
These included Tomas Molina Caracas, commander of the FARC 16th Front.
On March 18th in 2002 Britain planned to send 1,700 troops to Afghanistan to join
the 6,300 US forces.
On March 18th in 2003 The US mounted "Operation Liberty Shield" to detain asylum
seekers from suspect countries.
On March 18th in 2003 A jury in Corpus Christi, Texas, cleared Bayer Corp. of
liability in a $560 million lawsuit that accused the pharmaceutical giant of
ignoring research linking the cholesterol-lowering drug Baycol to dozens of
deaths.
On March 18th in 2003 Some $900 million in US bills and as much as 100 million in
euros was taken from Iraq's Central Bank by Saddam Hussein and his family. The
New York Times reported on May 5 that Saddam ordered the money taken from the
Central Bank and sent his son Qusai in the middle of the night.
On March 18th in 2004 Addressing thousands of soldiers at Fort Campbell, Ky.,
President Bush warned that terrorists could never be appeased and said there was
no safety for any nation that "lives at the mercy of gangsters and mass
murderers."
On March 18th in 2005 Standard & Poor’s said the public debt in America,
Germany and France was about 65% of GDP.
On March 18th in 2005 Wal-Mart agreed to pay a record $11 million to settle a
civil immigration case for using illegal immigrants to clean floors at stores in
21 states.
On March 18th in 2006 The US military released more than 350 detainees in Iraq.
The releases were recommended by a review committee consisting of US officers
and Iraqi officials from the ministries of human rights, justice and interior,
which found no reason to hold them.
On March 18th in 2008 The US Federal Reserve approved a .75% cut in the federal
funds rate to 2.25%. This was aimed at shoring up the US financial system shaken
by huge losses in the housing market. The DJIA responded with a gain of 420.41
to close at 12,392.66.
On March 18th in 2009 President Obama named retired Air Force general Scott
Gration as his special envoy to Sudan to confront what Washington sees as a
"horrendous" situation in Darfur.
On March 18th in 2009 The White House endorsed a bill to triple the size of the
AmeriCorps program and expand service opportunities for students and
seniors.
On March 18th in 2009 The US central bank said it would pump more than $1 trillion
into the economy with plans to buy up to $300 billion long-term government bonds
and some $750 billion in mortgage-backed securities, which would help revive the
country's sagging housing market.
On March 18th in 2009 The US government sued Union Pacific in San Diego and
Houston saying the rail company had failed to prevent smuggling of illegal drugs
by rail into the US from Mexico. The government cited at least 58 occasions of
illegal drug transport, mostly marijuana, since 2001. At least one case involved
cocaine.
On March 18th in 2009 Felipe E. Sixto of Miami, a former White House aide,
was sentenced to 2½ years in federal prison for stealing nearly $600,000 from a
federally funded nonprofit group that promotes democracy in Cuba.
On March 18th in 2010 President Obama signed a $17.6 billion job-creation Bill the day after it was passed by Congress.
On March 18th in 2011 President Barack Obama endorsed military action against
Libya's Moammar Gadhafi, saying US values and credibility are at stake to stop
"the potential for mass murder" of innocents.
On March 18th in 2011 The United States disavowed torture and pledged to treat
terror suspects humanely, but set aside calls to drop the death penalty, as the
UN carried out its first review of Washington's human rights record.
On March 18th in 2011 The US and Chile signed a nuclear energy accord.
No comments:
Post a Comment