Holidays
Pi Day
Commemorating the mathematical constant π (PI). Pi Day is celebrated on March 14, because it represents 3.14, the first three digits of PI, which is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter.
The lower case π is the 16th letter of the Greek alphabet and is pronounced "pie" and represents the first letter of the Greek word perimetros, meaning circumference.
The first recorded use of π to represent pi is Oughtred's "δ.π", to express the ratio of periphery and diameter in the 1647 edition of Clavis Mathematicae.
The first recorded use of the π symbol alone to represent the value of pi was by Welsh mathematician William Jones in his 1706 work Synopsis Palmariorum Matheseos; or, a New Introduction to the Mathematics.
Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879 and Stephen Hawking died on March 14, 2018.
What Happened On
Ruby about to shoot Oswald
Ruby about to shoot Oswald
Kennedy Assassination - Ruby Sentenced to Death
March 14, 1964
Jack Ruby is sentenced to death for the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald. The conviction was later overturned and Ruby died while awaiting retrial. Oswald had assassinated U.S. President John F. Kennedy
FBI Ten Most Wanted
March 14, 1950
The first FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List is announced. Thomas Holden was the first person on the list. He had killed his wife and her two brothers. He was captured the following year.
First Shopping Cart
March 14, 1938
The patent for the first shopping cart is filed for by its inventor Sylvan Goldman, the owner of a Humpty Dumpty Grocery store in Oklahoma City. It was essentially a folding chair with wheels and two baskets attached. The carts were initially a flop, as shoppers were reluctant to use them - men found them effeminate and women thought them too much like a baby carriage - so he hired models to shop with them.
Eventually, folding carts became extremely popular and Goldman became a multimillionaire by collecting a royalty on every folding design shopping cart in the United States.
He also invented "nested" shopping carts, where the carts are pushed inside of each other for storage.
Slaves operating the first cotton gin
Slaves operating the first cotton gin
Cotton Gin
March 14, 1794
Eli Whitney receives a patent for his cotton gin. His cotton gin separated the seeds from the cotton by pulling the cotton though a mesh that blocked the seeds. He claimed to have gotten the idea from watching a cat who was trying to pull a chicken through a fence, but was only able to pull feathers through.
His gin could generate up to 55 pounds (25 kg) of cleaned cotton daily, whereas a person could only do about a pound (0.45 kg) a day. This turned cotton into a profitable crop. U.S. cotton exports went from less than 500,000 pounds (230,000 kg) in 1793 to 93 million pounds (42,000,000 kg) by 1810 making it the country's chief export.
Historians argue that the cotton gin helped preserve slavery in the U.S., since before its invention slave labor was primarily used in growing rice, tobacco, and indigo, none of which were profitable any more. But, with the gin reducing the labor needed to remove the seeds, growing cotton became highly profitable and became the chief source of wealth in the South, greatly increasing the desire for slave labor.
Quaker Mary Dyer being led to the gallows
Quaker Mary Dyer being led to the gallows
Last Person Hanged in Boston for Being a Quaker
March 14, 1661
William Leddra is hanged for returning to Boston after banishment for being a Quaker. At the time, it was crime in Boston to be a Quaker. Quakers are a Christian religious group that believes God speaks directly to individuals and not just through the clergy, which was considered heresy to the Puritans. As he was being prepared for the gallows he said, "For bearing my testimony for the Lord against deceivers and the deceived, I am brought here to suffer".
Punishments for being a Quaker included branding with an "H" for heretic, boring through the tongue with a hot iron, lashings, ears chopped off, and banishment. Between 1659 and 1661, four Quakers were hanged in Boston (Marmaduke Stephenson, William Robinson, Mary Dyer, and William Leddra), becoming known as the Boston martyrs. King Charles II put an end to the executions in 1661 shortly after Leddra's hanging.
Quakers, also called the Religious Society of Friends, are a Christian religious group who are generally united in a belief in the ability of each person to experientially access "that of God in every one." They are known for their refusal to participate in war, wearing of plain dress, refusal to swear oaths, opposition to slavery, and teetotalism.
Korean War
March 14, 1951
The U.S. recaptures Seoul, the former capital of the Korean Republic.
Jack Benny (left) and Fred Allen
Jack Benny (left) and Fred Allen
Jack Benny and Fred Allen in the Battle of the Century
March 14, 1937
Jack Benny and Fred Allen meet on radio to settle their long-standing feud with a fist fight in what they called the "Battle of the Century". However, they ended up singing a duet together. This was one of the highest-rated radio events ever broadcast. The feud started when Allen ad-libbed a joke mocking Benny's violin playing. They then began poking fun at each other on their respective radio programs. They were actually good friends in real life, but continued their mock feud on radio, movies, and TV for decades.
Fred Allen: "Jack, you couldn't ad-lib a belch after a plate of Hungarian goulash."
Jack Benny: "If I had my writers here, you wouldn't talk to me like that and get away with it!"
Gold Standard
March 14, 1900
The gold standard for currency is officially adopted by the U.S. It had been in use unofficially since 1879.
it would be dropped in 1933.
First U.S. War Bonds
March 14, 1812
$11 million in bonds are authorized by the U.S. Congress to support the War of 1812.
Birthdays
J. Fred Muggs (left) and Muggs with Dave Garroway and Phoebe B. Beebe
J. Fred Muggs (left) and Muggs with Dave Garroway and Phoebe B. Beebe
J. Fred Muggs
Born March 14, 1952
Chimpanzee. J. Fred Muggs was the mascot for NBC's Today Show from 1953 to 1957. The Today Show's ratings were doing poorly and Muggs was added to attract viewers.
He was an instant hit and it's estimated that Muggs earned the network over $100 million in advertising and merchandising.
Muggs would sit in host Dave Garroway's lap, "read" the day's newspapers, and play the piano with Steve Allen. His wardrobe consisted of over 450 outfits.
Muggs was born in the African colony of French Cameroon and brought to New York City at 10 months old. He was purchased by two former NBC pages who got him an appearance on the Perry Como Show, where Today Show executives saw him and signed him to their show.
Muggs retired at the age of 23 and now lives with his girlfriend in Florida.
Last Man on the Moon
Eugene Andrew Cernan
Born March 14, 1934 d. 2017
American astronaut. He was the last man on the Moon (1972). Upon reentering the Lunar Module after making the last Moon walk: "…America's challenge of today has forged man's destiny of tomorrow. And, as we leave the Moon at Taurus-Littrow, we leave as we came and, God willing, as we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind. Godspeed the crew of Apollo 17."
Borman while orbiting the Moon aboard Apollo 8
Borman while orbiting the Moon aboard Apollo 8
Frank Borman
Born March 14, 1928 d. 2023
American astronaut. He was the command pilot for Apollo 8, making him part of the first crew to orbit the Moon (1968).
Hank Ketcham (Henry King Ketcham)
Born March 14, 1920 d. 2001
American cartoonist. Creator of the comic strip Dennis the Menace (1951). It was based on his real-life son, Dennis Ketcham, who earned the nickname "Dennis the Menace" when he was four years old.
The Minnesota Woolly Girl
Alice Elizabeth Doherty
Born March 14, 1887 d. 1933
American hairy woman. "The Minnesota Woolly Girl." She is the only-known person born in the U.S. with hypertrichosis lanuginosa. Doherty was born with two-inch long blonde hair all over her body, which grew to about nine inches by the time she was a teenager. She was exhibited by her parents as a sideshow attraction from as early as two years old. Financially secure, she retired in 1915 and died of unknown causes in 1933.
Albert Einstein
Born March 14, 1879 d. 1955
German-born American Nobel-winning physicist and mathematician. He developed the theory of relativity and the mass equivalence formula: E=mc2. By the age of 26, he had published four ground-breaking papers: Photoelectric effect, Brownian motion, special relativity, and the equivalence of mass and energy. He would go on to publish more than 300 scientific papers. He was visiting the U.S. when Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933; being Jewish he did not want to return to Germany, eventually becoming a U.S. citizen.
Quote: Two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I am not sure about the universe.
28th U.S. Vice-President
Thomas Riley Marshall
Born March 14, 1854 d. 1925
American politician. 28th U.S. Vice-President (1913-21 under Woodrow Wilson). Proclaimed "What this country really needs is a good five-cent cigar" (1915).
Founder of PowerBar
Brian Maxwell
Born March 14, 1953 d. 2004
Canadian athlete and founder of PowerBar. Despite being diagnosed as a teenager as having a congenital heart condition, by 1977 he was ranked as the No. 3 marathoner in the world. He died of a heart attack at age 51.
Billy Crystal (William Edward Crystal)
Born March 14, 1948
American Tony-Emmy-Grammy-winning comedian. "You look marvelous." His character Jodie Dallas on Soap was network primetime TV's first openly gay character.
For his 60th birthday, he signed a contract with the New York Yankees baseball team and played in a spring training game and then was released the following day.
TV: Soap (1977-81, Jodie Dallas), Saturday Night Live (1976-2015), and host of the Academy Awards. Film: The Princess Bride (1987), Throw Momma from the Train (1987), When Harry Met Sally… (1989), City Slickers (1991). and the Monsters, Inc. films (2001-, voice of Mike Wazowski).
Quincy Jones (Quincy Delight Jones, Jr.)
Born March 14, 1933
American Grammy-winning composer, conductor. He produced Michael Jackson's Thriller, the biggest-selling LP of all time.
Michael Caine (Maurice Micklewhite)
Born March 14, 1933
British actor. Film: Alfie (1966) and Sleuth (1972).
Paul Ehrlich
Born March 14, 1854 d. 1915
German Nobel-winning bacteriologist, immunologist. He discovered the first cure for syphilis (1910).
Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli
Born March 14, 1835 d. 1910
Italian astronomer. He discovered the "canals" of Mars (1877).
Deaths
Stephen Hawking
Died March 14, 2018 b. 1942
British physicist. Author of A Brief History of Time (1988) and considered one of the greatest theoretical physicists since Einstein. He appeared as a holograph of himself in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation (1993). He died of a slow-progressing form of ALS.
Susan Hayward (Edythe Marrener)
Died March 14, 1975 b. 1917
American Oscar-winning actress. Film: I Want To Live (1958). Her death was attributed to radiation exposure received from an A-bomb test near the filming of the movie The Conqueror in 1953. By 1980, of the 220 members of the cast and crew, 91 of them had developed some form of cancer and 46 had died of the disease.
Japanese Man Condemned for Not Going Down with the Titanic
Masabumi Hosono
Died March 14, 1939 b. 1870
Japanese Titanic survivor. Masabumi Hosono, the only Japanese passenger, survived the 1912 sinking of the RMS Titanic. However, upon returning to Japan, he was condemned and ostracized as dishonorable and a coward for not going down with the ship.
As the Titanic was sinking, an officer shouted from lifeboat 10, "Room for two more", so Hosono and another man jumped aboard. In the dark and confusion no one noticed that they were not women, and later they were even falsely accused of pretending to be women to get aboard. After he returned to Japan, Hosono's actions were seen as cowardly and dishonorable and he lost his job with the Ministry of Transport. He was eventually rehired, but remained ostracized for the rest of his life.
Peter Graves (Peter Duesler Aurness)
Died March 14, 2010 b. 1926
American actor. TV: Mission Impossible (1967-73, Jim Phelps). Film: Airplane! (1980).
His older brother was actor James Arness.
Kirk Alyn (John Feggo, Jr.)
Died March 14, 1999 b. 1910
American actor. He played Superman in the 1948 movie serial and in its sequel Atom Man Vs. Superman (1950). He also played young Lois Lane's father in the 1978 Superman movie.
Charles Hatton
Died March 14, 1975 b. 1905
American sports writer. He is credited with popularizing the term "Triple Crown" (1930), which he used to describe Gallant Fox who won the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and the Belmont Stakes.
Howard Hathaway Aiken
Died March 14, 1973 b. 1900
American engineer, builder of the second digital computer (Mark I, 1944).
Chic Young (Murat Bernard Young)
Died March 14, 1973 b. 1901
American cartoonist, creator of Blondie (1930).
Ads from 1888 and 1900
Ads from 1888 and 1900
George Eastman
Died March 14, 1932 b. 1854
American inventor. Founder of the Eastman Kodak Company. He patented the first practical roll film camera (Kodak, 1888).
In 1879, Eastman invented an emulsion-coating machine which enabled him to mass-produce photographic dry plates and he began selling them in 1880 in New York. Before dry plates, wet plates had to be coated, immediately exposed, and then developed while still wet. Dry plates could be exposed and then developed later.
later.
Karl Marx
Died March 14, 1883 b. 1818
German socialist and philosopher.