On This Day:
Sunday March 23, 2014 This is the 82nd day of the year, with 283 days remaining in 2014. Fact of the Day: castles, palaces In medieval times, castles acted both as homes and as military strongholds. They were occupied by a lord or king, his family, servants, and sometimes an army of professional soldiers. In times of war, castles were a place of refuge for local people. The Normans erected wooden motte-and-bailey castles during their conquest of England in 1066; from these wood and earthwork castles evolved stone castles, which sometimes took decades to build. The walls were strong enough to keep out an enemy, but allowed the occupants to shoot at any attackers. A palace, by contrast, is a royal residence and sometimes a seat of government or a religious center; the word palace is derived from the Palatine Hill in Rome, where the Roman emperors built their residences. A palace should be differentiated from a castle, which was originally any fortified dwelling.
Holidays Pakistan: Pakistan Day / Republic Day.
Feast day of St. Gwinear, St. Turibius, St. Benedict the Hermit, St. Victorian, St. Ethelwald the Hermit, and St. Joseph Oriol.
Japan: Spring Imperial Festival or Shunki-Koreisan.
New Zealand, Otago, and Southland: Provincial Anniversary.
United Nations: World Metereological Day.
Events 1743 - George Frederic Handel's "Messiah" had its London premiere.
1775 - Patrick Henry made his famous call for America's independence from Britain, "Give me liberty, or give me death!" at a political convention.
1794 - Josiah G. Pierson patented a rivet machine.
1848 - Hungary proclaimed its independence of Austria.
1857 - Elisha Otis installed the first modern passenger elevator in a public building, in New York City.
1858 - Eleazer A. Gardner of Philadelphia patented the cable streetcar.
1880 - John Stevens patented the device called a grain crushing mill.
1903 - The Wright brothers obtained an airplane patent.
1909 - British Lt. Ernest Shackleton found the magnetic South Pole.
1919 - Benito Mussolini founded his Fascist political movement in Italy. The name Fasci di Combattimento, came from the Italian peasant revolutionaries, or "Fighting Bands," from the 19th century.
1942 - The U.S. Army started moving Japanese-Americans to internment camps.
1950 - "Beat the Clock" premiered on TV.
1956 - Pakistan became an independent republic within the British Commonwealth.
1981 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states could require, with some exceptions, parental notification when teen-age girls seek abortions.
1989 - After 33 years, Dick Clark retired from hosting "American Bandstand."
2001 - Russia's orbiting Mir space station ended its 15-year trip with a fiery plunge into the South Pacific.
Births 1769 - William Smith, the "Father of English Geology."
1857 - Fannie Merritt Farmer, American cookbook author.
1900 - Erich Fromm, German psychologist.
1912 - Werner von Braun, German-born rocket pioneer.
1929 - Roger Bannister, British track star.
Deaths 1964 - Peter Lorre, Hungarian-born American film actor.
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