History for March 20

History for March 20 - On-This-Day.com
Ozzie Nelson 1906, Fred "Mr." Rogers 1928, Hal Linden 1931 - Actor ("Barney Miller") 


Theresa Russell 1957 - Actress, Holly Hunter 1958 - Actress, Kathy Ireland 1963 - Model 


1792 - In Paris, the Legislative Assembly approved the use of the guillotine. 


1852 - Harriet Beecher Stowe’s book "Uncle Tom’s Cabin," subtitled "Life Among the Lowly," was first published. 


1854 - The first public meeting where the name "Republican" was suggested for a new anti-slavery party was held on March 20, 1854 in a schoolhouse in Ripon, Wisconsin.^[14] The name was partly chosen to pay homage to Thomas Jefferson's Republican Party.


1897 - The first intercollegiate basketball game that used five players per team was held. The contest was Yale versus Pennsylvania. Yale won by a score of 32-10. 


1899 - At Sing Sing prison, Martha M. Place became the first woman to be executed in the electric chair. She was put to death for the murder of her stepdaughter. 


1922 - The USS Langley was commissioned. It was the first aircraft carrier for the U.S. Navy. 


1932 - The German dirigible, Graf Zepplin, made the first flight to South America on regular schedule. 


1933 - The first German concentration camp was completed at Dachau. 


1967 - Twiggy arrived in the U.S. for a one-week stay. 


1985 - Libby Riddles won the 1,135-mile Anchorage-to-Nome dog race becoming the first woman to win the Iditarod. 


1995 - In Tokyo, 12 people were killed and more than 5,500 others were sickened when packages containing the nerve gas Sarin was released on five separate subway trains. The terrorists belonged to a doomsday cult in Japan. 


1996 - In Los Angeles, Erik and Lyle Menendez were found guilty of first-degree murder in the killing of their parents.