A Focus on History: March 14 through March 20

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March 14
The Federal Bureau of Investigation institutes the “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives” list in an effort to publicize particularly dangerous fugitives. The creation of the program arose out of a wire service news story in 1949 about the toughest guys the FBI wanted to capture. The story drew so much public attention that the Ten Most Wanted list was given the okay by J. Edgar Hoover the following year. As of 2011, 465 of the criminals included on the list have been apprehended or found, 153 as a result of tips from the public. – 1950.

March 15
Julius Caesar, the dictator for life he called himself of the Roman Empire, is murdered by his own senators at a meeting in a hall next to Pompey’s Theatre during the Ides of March. The conspiracy against Caesar encompassed as many as 60 noblemen, including Caesar’s own protege, Marcus Brutus. – 44 B.C.E..

U.S. president Lyndon B. Johnson addresses a joint session of Congress to urge the passage of legislation guaranteeing voting rights for all. Using the phrase “we shall overcome,” borrowed from African-American leaders struggling for equal rights, Johnson declared that “every American citizen must have an equal right to vote.” Johnson reminded the Nation that the Fifteenth Amendment, which was passed after the Civil War, gave all citizens the right to vote regardless of race or color. – 1965.

March 16
The United States Military Academy, the first military school in the United States, is founded by Congress for the purpose of educating and training young men in the theory and practice of military science. The site at West Point, N.Y., the U.S. Military Academy, is often simply known as West Point. – 1802.

The west Pacific volcanic island of Iwo Jima is declared secured by the U.S. military after months of fiercely fighting its Japanese defenders. – 1945.

March 17
In New York City, the first parade honoring the Catholic feast day of St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, is held by Irish soldiers serving in the British army. – 1762.

The leadership of the American Federation of Labor selects the carpenters union to lead the eight-hour movement. Carpenters throughout the country strike in April; by May 1, some 46,000 carpenters in 137 cities have achieved shorter hours. – 1890.

March 18
In New York City, Henry Wells and William G. Fargo join with several other investors to launch their namesake business. The discovery of gold in California in 1849 prompted a huge spike in the demand for cross-country shipping. Wells and Fargo decided to take advantage of these great opportunities. In July 1852, their company shipped its first loads of freight from the East Coast to mining camps scattered around northern California. – 1852.

At 3:05 p.m. approximately 300 students are killed by a natural gas explosion at the Consolidated School of New London, Texas. School officials were persuaded to save money by tapping into wet-gas lines, a less stable waste gas, rather than the standard natural gas. – 1937

The U.S. Post Office’s first mass work stoppage in 195 years begins in Brooklyn and Manhattan and spreads to 210,000 of the Nation’s 750,000 postal employees. Mail service is virtually paralyzed in several cities, and president Richard Nixon declares a state of emergency. A settlement came after two weeks. – 1970.

March 19
The United States, along with coalition forces primarily from the United Kingdom, initiates war on Iraq. Just after explosions began to rock Baghdad, Iraq’s capital, U.S. president George W. Bush announces in a televised address, “At this hour, American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people and to defend the world from grave danger.” President Bush and his advisors built much of their case for war on the idea that Iraq, under dictator Saddam Hussein, possessed or was in the process of building weapons of mass destruction. – 2003.

March 20
U.S. president Lyndon B. Johnson notifies Alabama’s governor George Wallace that he will use federal authority to call up the Alabama National Guard in order to supervise a planned civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery. – 1965.

Several packages of deadly sarin gas are set off in the Tokyo subway system that kill 12 persons and injure more than 5,000. Sarin gas was invented by the Nazis and is one of the most lethal nerve gases known to man. Tokyo police quickly learned who had planted the chemical weapons and began tracking the terrorists down. – 1995.

Sources: History.com, Toil and Trouble, by Thomas R. Brooks; American Labor Struggles, by Samuel Yellen; IWW calendar, Solidarity Forever; Historical Encyclopedia of American Labor, edited by Robert E. Weir and James P. Hanlan; Southwest Labor History Archives/George Meany Center; Geov Parrish’s Radical History; workday Minnesota; Andy Richards and Adam Wright, AFL-CIO Washington DC Metro Council.

• “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”   —George Santayana, Philosopher

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