The last three days of March (March 29, 30, 31) have a reputation for being stormy. Scottish folklore proposes that these three days were borrowed from April so that March might extend his power. The Spanish story about the borrowing days is that a shepherd promised March a lamb if he would temper the winds to suit the shepherd’s flocks. But after his request was granted, the shepherd refused to deliver the payment. In revenge, March borrowed three days from April, in which fiercer winds than ever blew to punish the deceiver.
A Scottish proverb describing these days:
March borrowit from April Three days, and they were ill: The first was frost, the second was snaw [snow], The third was cauld [cold] as ever’t could blaw [blow].
Born
John Tyler(10th U.S. president)–
Cy Young(baseball player)–
Lou Henry Hoover(U.S. First Lady)–
Sam Walton(businessman)–
Pearl Bailey(singer)–
Judith Guest(author)–
Eric Idle(actor)–
Dennis McLain(baseball player)–
Karen Ann Quinlan(patient on life-support whose parents fought for her right to die)–
Kurt Thomas(gymnast)–
Elle Macpherson(model)–
Lucy Lawless(actress)–
Jennifer Capriati(tennis player)–
Died
Alistair Cooke(a journalist for almost 70 years, Cooke was widely known to television audiences as the master of ceremonies on the cultural program Omnibus in the 1950s and later as the host of Masterpiece Theater)–
Johnnie L. Cochran Jr.(lawyer)–
Patty Duke(actress)–
Anita Shreve(writer)–
Events
First federal highway, the Great National Pike, authorized–
National Road, the first federally funded road, was authorized–
Vesta, brightest asteroid, discovered–
The first White House wedding took place. Lucy Payne Washington, sister-in-law of President James Madison, married Supreme Court Justice Thomas Todd–
Gen. Winfield Scott formally occupied Vera Cruz, Mexico–
Due to ice jam, Niagara Falls stopped flowing for the first time in recorded history–
The first batch of Coca Cola was brewed over a fire in a backyard in Atlanta. John Pemberton created the concoction as a hangover cure, and it was advertised as brain tonic. Cocaine was an ingredient of Coke until 1904 when Congress banned it–
First performance of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus–
Sunbeam 1000 HP first car to exceed 200 mph–
Jack Benny’s radio debut–
World War II food rationing began–
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg convicted of conspiring to convey atom bomb secrets to Soviet agents–
Ratification of the 23rd amendment to the Constitution gave residents of Washington, D.C., right to vote in presidential elections–
Lt. William Calley Jr. convicted for massacre of civilians at Mylai, S. Vietnam–
Last U.S. personnel left S. Vietnam–
After protesting—in song—that they were never featured on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show got their wish. A week later, the band’s single Cover of the Rolling Stone went gold–
The film One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest won five Academy Awards–
Madonna made her stage debut in David Mamet’s Speed the Plow in NYC–
First Soviet hockey player signed with the NHL–
Catherine Callbeck became the first woman to be elected premier (P.E.I.) in Canada–
Tom Jones was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace–
Bono of U2 was crowned a Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in an informal ceremony in the Dublin home of British Ambassador David Reddaway–
Shiveluch volcano erupted, Kamchatka, Russia–
Weather
From March 28 to 29, Washington, D.C., experienced a drop in temperature from 82F to 26F, ending an early “false spring.”–
