Throwback Thursday 3/16!

by Adam Gall

Here's what happened on March 16th!

  • 1739: American Revolutionary patriot George Clymer was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was one of six men who signed both the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.
    (World Biography, American History)
  • 1751: “The Father of the Constitution” President James Madison was born in Port Conway, Virginia. Before becoming the fourth President of the United States in 1809, he was the principal author of the Constitution. 
    (Biography for Beginners)
  • 1818: Texas settler Mary Ann Adams Maverick was born in Alabama. Mary and her family were among the first settlers in the San Antonio, Texas, area. Her (and her husband’s) son is recognized as the first Anglo American person to be born and raised in San Antonio. Mary kept diaries throughout her lifetime in Texas which she later converted to memoirs. These diaries would make her well known as one of the first women pioneers of Texas.
    (World Biography, American History)
  • 1911: Josef Mengele was born in Günzburg, Bavaria, Germany. Mengele was the chief physician at Auschwitz during the Holocaust. He was known as "Angel of Death" for his calm, cold demeanor during the selection of prisoners to be sent to work or to die. 
    (World Biography, American History)
  • 1912: Pat Ryan Nixon, former First Lady of the United States, was born in Ely, Nevada. Her name at birth was Thelma Catherine Ryan, but her father gave her the nickname Pat when he saw her for the first time the day after her birht, which was Saint Patrick’s Day. During her time as First Lady she was a champion for volunteerism and was an advocate of the Right to Read program.
    (World Biography, American History)
  • 1936: Raymond Damadian was born in Forest Hills, New York. He is the inventor or the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanner. The MRI scanner has greatly improved medical diagnosis and treatment.
    (Biography for Beginners)
  • 1938: American gay activist Jack Nichols was born in Washington, D.C. Among many other things, he led the first gay rights march on the White House in 1965 and successfully lobbied the American Psychiatric Association to rescind its definition of homosexuality as a mental illness.
    (World Biography, American History)
  • 1954: The Senate Committee on Government Operations convened its Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations to review the charges of misconduct that the U.S. Army and Senator Joseph McCarthy had leveled against each other. With these hearings McCarthy’s public image gradually eroded. Check out an excerpt from the hearings from June 9th.
    (Defining Moments) 
  • 1968: The My Lai massacre took place during the Vietnam War. Hundreds of innocent and unarmed civilians were killed by U.S. Army troops. Four men were tried for their roles, but only one was found guilty.
    (American History, Defining Moments) 
  • 2006: K. Leroy Irvis passed away. Irvis was the first African American to serve as a speaker of the house in any state legislature in the U.S. since Reconstruction. He is remembered as one of the most influential legislators in the history of Pennsylvania.
    (World Biography, American History)
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