Today is Sunday, March 23, the 82nd day of 2025. There are 283 days left in the year.
Today's highlight in history
On March 23, 1998, "Titanic" tied an Academy Awards record by winning 11 Oscars, including best picture, best director for James Cameron and best original song for "My Heart Will Go On."
On this date
In 1775, Patrick Henry delivered an address to the Virginia Provincial Convention in which it is said he declared, "Give me liberty, or give me death!"
In 1792, Joseph Haydn's Symphony No. 94 in G Major (the "Surprise" symphony) had its first public performance in London.
In 1806, explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, having reached the Pacific coast, began their journey back east.
In 1914, the first installment of "The Perils of Pauline," the silent film serial starring Pearl White, premiered in the greater New York City area.
In 1919, Benito Mussolini founded his Fascist political movement in Milan, Italy.
In 1933, the German Reichstag adopted the Enabling Act, which effectively granted Adolf Hitler dictatorial powers.
In 1942, the first Japanese Americans incarcerated by the U.S. Army during World War II arrived at the internment camp at Manzanar, California.
In 1965, America's first two-person space mission took place as Gemini 3 blasted off with astronauts Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom and John W. Young aboard for a nearly 5-hour flight orbiting Earth.
In 1983, President Ronald Reagan first proposed developing technology to intercept incoming enemy missiles -- an idea that came to be known as the Strategic Defense Initiative. Dr. Barney Clark, recipient of a Jarvik permanent artificial heart, died at the University of Utah Medical Center after 112 days with the device.
In 1993, scientists announced they'd identified the gene that causes Huntington's disease.
In 2001, Russia's orbiting Mir space station ended its 15-year odyssey with a planned fiery plunge into the South Pacific.
In 2003, during the Iraq War, a U.S. Army maintenance convoy was ambushed in Nasiriyah; 11 soldiers were killed, including Pfc. Lori Ann Piestewa (py-ES'-tuh-wah); six were captured, including Pfc. Jessica Lynch, who was rescued on April 1, 2003.
In 2010, President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act, a $938 billion health care overhaul.
In 2021, a cargo ship the size of a skyscraper ran aground and became wedged in the Suez Canal; hundreds of ships would be prevented from passing through the canal until the vessel was freed six days later.
Today's birthdays
Singer Chaka Khan is 72. Basketball Hall of Fame coach Geno Auriemma is 71. Fashion designer Kenneth Cole is 71. Actor Amanda Plummer is 68. Actor Hope Davis is 61. Musician Damon Albarn is 57. Basketball Hall of Famer Jason Kidd is 52. Actor Randall Park is 51. Actor Michelle Monaghan is 49. Actor Keri Russell is 49. Country singer Brett Young is 44.