In 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Emergency Conservation Work Act, which created the Civilian Conservation Corps. This 1935 file photo shows President Franklin D. Roosevelt signing a bill in Washington. (AP Photo, File)
In 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson stunned the country by announcing during a televised address that he would not seek re-election. (AP Photo)
In 1993, actor Brandon Lee, 28, was accidentally shot to death during the filming of a movie in Wilmington, North Carolina, when he was hit by a bullet fragment that had become lodged inside a prop gun. (AP Photo/Lacy Atkins)
In 1995, Mexican-American singer Selena Quintanilla-Perez, 23, was shot to death in Corpus Christi, Texas, by the founder of her fan club, Yolanda Saldivar, who was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. In this book cover image released by Celebra, “Para Selena, Con Amor,” (To Selena, with Love) by Chris Perez, is shown. (AP Photo/Celebra)
In 2005, Terri Schiavo, 41, died at a hospice in Pinellas Park, Florida, 13 days after her feeding tube was removed in a wrenching right-to-die dispute. In this undated photo released by the Schindler family, Terri Schiavo is shown before she suffered catastrophic brain damage that lead to an epic legal battle that involved dozens of judges in numerous jurisdictions, including the U.S. Supreme Court. (AP Photo/Schindler Family Photo, File)
Today is Sunday, March 31, the 90th day of 2019.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On March 31, 2005, Terri Schiavo (SHY’-voh), 41, died at a hospice in Pinellas Park, Florida, 13 days after her feeding tube was removed in a wrenching right-to-die court fight.
On this date:
In 1492, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain issued an edict expelling Jews from Spanish soil, except those willing to convert to Christianity.
In 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Emergency Conservation Work Act, which created the Civilian Conservation Corps.
In 1943, “Oklahoma!,” the first musical play by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, opened on Broadway.
In 1968, at the conclusion of a nationally broadcast address on Vietnam, President Lyndon B. Johnson stunned listeners by declaring, “I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President.”
In 1975, “Gunsmoke” closed out 20 seasons on CBS with its final first-run episode, “The Sharecroppers.”
In 1976, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that Karen Ann Quinlan, a young woman in a persistent vegetative state, could be disconnected from her respirator. (Quinlan, who remained unconscious, died in 1985.)
In 1986, 167 people died when a Mexicana Airlines Boeing 727 crashed in a remote mountainous region of Mexico.
In 1991, the Warsaw Pact was formally dissolved.
In 1993, actor Brandon Lee, 28, was accidentally shot to death during the filming of a movie in Wilmington, North Carolina, when he was hit by a bullet fragment that had become lodged inside a prop gun.
In 1995, Mexican-American singer Selena Quintanilla-Perez, 23, was shot to death in Corpus Christi, Texas, by the founder of her fan club, Yolanda Saldivar, who was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.
In 2004, Four American civilian contractors were killed in Fallujah, Iraq; frenzied crowds dragged the burned, mutilated bodies and strung two of them from a bridge.
In 2008, HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson announced his resignation amid the wreckage of the national housing crisis.
Ten years ago: President Barack Obama arrived in London with his wife, Michelle, at the start of a trip to Europe, his first journey across the Atlantic since taking office two months earlier. Benjamin Netanyahu took office as Israel’s new prime minister after the Knesset approved his government. Former Argentine President Raul Alfonsin died at age 82.
Five years ago: In a flood of last-minute sign-ups, hundreds of thousands of Americans rushed to apply for health insurance as deadline day for President Barack Obama’s overhaul brought long waits and a new spate of website ills. An umpire’s call was overturned for the first time under Major League Baseball’s expanded replay system, with Milwaukee Brewers star Ryan Braun ruled out instead of safe in a game against the Atlanta Braves. (The Brewers won, 2-0.) Charles H. Keating Jr., 90, the notorious financier who’d served prison time and was disgraced for his role in the costliest savings and loan failure in the U.S., died in Phoenix.
One year ago: Amid tight security, Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai and her family returned to her hometown in Pakistan for the first time since she was shot in the head in 2012 for her work as an advocate for young women’s education. The Mormon church injected some diversity into what had been an all-white leadership panel by selecting the first-ever Latin American apostle and the first-ever apostle of Asian ancestry. Hundreds of well-wishers lined the streets of Cambridge, England, as a hearse carried the remains of physicist and author Stephen Hawking to a private funeral.
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