March 26 in History

March 26 in Pop Culture History

March 26th is…
Epilepsy Awareness Day – Purple Day
Legal Assistance Day
Make Up Your Own Holiday Day
Nougat Day
Solitude Day
Spinach Day

1169 – Saladin became the emir of Egypt.

1812 – A political cartoon in the Boston Gazette coined the term “gerrymander” (named after Governor Elbridge Gerry) to describe oddly shaped electoral districts designed to help incumbents win re-election.

1830 – The Book of Mormon was published in Palmyra, New York.

1872 (Earthquake) Owens Valley, California, killed 30 people.

1895 – The Phantoscope, an early motion picture projector that enlarged film images for viewing by large groups, was patented (#536,569) by Charles Francis Jenkins and Thomas Armat.

1916 – Robert Stroud (The Birdman of Alcatraz) stabbed and killed a prison guard in Leavenworth, Kansas. He was sentenced to Alcatraz for the murder.

1920 – This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald was published.

1953 – Dr. Jonas Salk announced that he had successfully tested a vaccine against poliomyelitis, the virus that causes polio.

1955 – # 1 Hit March 26, 1955 – April 29, 1955: Bill Hayes – The Ballad Of Davy Crockett

1964 – Funny Girl (Broadway Musical) Opened on March 26, 1964, and closed on July 1, 1967

1977 – #1 Hit March 26, 1977 – April 8, 1977: Daryl Hall and John Oates – Rich Girl

1988 – #1 Hit March 26, 1988 – April 8, 1988: Michael Jackson – Man in the Mirror

1993 – The last new episode of The Family Feud with host Ray Combs aired

1997 – After the 1995 discovery of the comet Hale-Bopp, 39 members of the ‘Heaven’s Gate’ cult committed suicide to more quickly join the aliens on the ‘other side’ of the comet.

1999 – The ‘Melissa worm’ infected Microsoft word processing and e-mail systems.

 

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