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• On March 9, 1611, Dutch astronomer Johannes Fabricius and his father, David, first observed sunspots, which are areas of reduced surface temperature. Johannes wrote and published a 22-page pamphlet on their findings, “Account of Spots Observed on the Sun and of Their Apparent Rotation with the Sun,” though his father initially disagreed with his son’s conclusion.
• On March 4, 1933, in the midst of the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt was inaugurated as the 32nd U.S. president. He would later notably lead the country out of the Depression and to victory in World War II. • On March 10, 1949, Mildred Gillars, aka “Axis Sally,” became the first woman in American history to be convicted of treason. Gillars worked for Nazi Germany’s state radio program during World War II, and from 1942 to the end of the war broadcasted Nazi propaganda in an effort to convince U.S. soldiers to give up the fight. Records of the broadcasts eventually convicted her when she was later arrested and returned to the States. • On March 5, 1963, beloved American country western singer Patsy Cline, whose rich, soulful voice made her one of the genre’s classic performers of such ballads as “I Fall to Pieces” and “Crazy,” died in an airplane crash at age 30. • On March 7, 1965, up to 600 nonviolent activists marched to help African American citizens obtain the right to vote. Despite the peacefulness of their actions, the protesters were brutally attacked, with one woman, Amelia Boynton, beaten to the point of unconsciousness. • On March 2, 1969, the supersonic airliner and joint British/French project Concorde set off on its maiden flight, reaching 10,000 feet and 300 mph. It would be another seven years before the plane began commercial flights, which continued until 2003, when it was retired from service. • On March 8, 1986, 29-year-old tennis star Martina Navratilova became the first in her sport to earn more than $10 million in prize money when she won the U.S. Women’s Indoor Championships in New Jersey. • On March 3, 2005, Steve Fossett became the first person to fly a plane solo and nonstop around the globe without refueling, landing his Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer in Salina, Kansas, after a 67-hour journey. Two years later, he would disappear while flying over the Great Basin Desert, with his wrecked aircraft discovered in 2008. • On March 1, 2008, Britain’s Prince Harry, who had been sent secretly to Afghanistan with his regiment in December at his request, was forced to return to Britain after the American website the Drudge Report made his deployment public. • On March 6, 2018, the world’s oldest known message in a bottle was discovered by Tonya Illman in Western Australia as she walked on the beach with her husband, Kym. The bottle had been thrown overboard from the German sailing ship Paula in 1886 as it crossed the Indian Ocean, and said only, “Could the finder please plot the coordinates it was found, and the date it was found, and send it back?” © 2024 King Features Synd., Inc.
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