Today in History March 12

1350 -The city of  Orvieto says it will behead and burn Jewish-Christian couples

1365 – University of Vienna founded

1664 – New Jersey becomes a British colony

1755 – First steam engine in America installed, to pump water from a mine

1849 – First gold seekers arrive in Nicaragua en route to California

1850 – First US $20 gold piece issued

Looking south along Park Row toward Saint Paul’s Chapel

1888 – Second day of the Great blizzard of ’88

In March of 1888 New York City was slammed by one of the most devastating blizzards in recorded history.

In New York City more than 200 perished in the extreme cold.

In the icy darkness of night fires raged as helpless volunteers watched from afar, their teams trapped in the deep drifts that formed in the howling winds. Railroads were shut down and people confined to their houses for up to a week. Following the storm, New York began placing its telegraph and telephone infrastructure underground to prevent future destruction.

Drifts across the New York-New Haven rail line took eight days to clear The weather preceding the blizzard was unseasonably mild with heavy rains that turned to snow as temperatures dropped rapidly. New York’s Central Park Observatory reported a low temperature of 6 °F (−14 °C), and a daytime average of 9 °F (−13 °C) on March 13

1904 – Andrew Carnegie establishes Carnegie Hero Fund

1930 – Mohandas Gandhi begins 200mile march protesting British salt tax

Click to watch the first of FDR’s “Fireside Chat”

1933 – FDR conducts his first “fireside chat“

1945 – New York is first to prohibit discrimination by race and creed in employment

1945 – USSR returns Transylvania to Romania

1479 – Giuliano de’ Medici, monarch of Florence

1831 – Clement Studebaker, automobile pioneer (Studebaker)

1890 – Vaslav Nijinsky, Ukrainian/US ballet dancer (Petroesjka)

1915 – Alberto Burri, Italian physician/sculptor/abstract painter

1918 – Elaine de Kooning, American artist (d. 1989)

1922 – Jack Kerouac, Beat writer (On the Road, Mexico Blues)

1928 – Edward Albee, playwright (Virgina Woolfe, Zoo Story)

1931 – William “Buckwheat” Thomas, actor (Little Rascals)

1939 – Barbara Feldon, Pitts Pa, actress (Agent 99-Get Smart)

1946 – Liza Minnelli,  singer/actress (Sterile Cuckoo, Cabaret)

1947 – Mitt Romney, 70th Governor of Massachusetts

1948 – James Taylor,  vocalist/guitarist/songwriter

1834 – Karl W Feuerbach, mathematician (Circle of Feuerbach), dies at 33

1942 – Robert Bosch, German industrialist (b. 1861)

1945 – Anne Frank,  (Diary of Anne Frank), killed in Belsen Camp aged 15

1955 – Charlie “Bird” Parker, US jazz saxophonist, dies at 34 in NYC

2005 – Bill Cameron, Canadian journalist (b. 1943)

2008 – Lazare Ponticelli, the last “poilu“, French foot soldier of World War One, dies at 110 (b. 1897)