On March 21, 1790, Thomas Jefferson reported to President George Washington in New York as the new secretary of state.
In 1804 the French civil code, or the “Code Napoleon” as it was later called, was adopted.
In 1869 theater producer Florenz Ziegfeld was born in Chicago.
In 1900 an agreement was signed to bring the St. Paul Saints to Chicago’s South Side; the team would be renamed the Chicago White Stockings.
In 1944 Charles Chaplin went on trial in Los Angeles, accused of transporting former protege Joan Barry across state lines for immoral purposes. (Chaplin was acquitted but later lost a paternity suit despite tests showing he wasn’t the father of Barry’s child.)
In 1945, during World War II, Allied bombers began four days of raids over Germany.
In 1960 about 70 people were killed in Sharpeville, South Africa, when police fired on demonstrators.
In 1965 more than 3,000 civil rights demonstrators led by Martin Luther King Jr. began their march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala.
In 1979 the Egyptian Parliament unanimously approved a peace treaty with Israel.
In 1990 Namibia became independent after 75 years of South African rule.
In 1994 “Schindler’s List” won best picture at the 66th Academy Awards.
In 1999 Israel’s Supreme Court rejected a final effort to have American teenager Samuel Sheinbein returned to the United States to face murder charges. (Under a plea agreement with Israeli prosecutors, Sheinbein was later sentenced to 24 years in prison for the murder of Alfred Tello Jr.)
In 2000 Pope John Paul II began the first official visit by a Roman Catholic pontiff to Israel. Also in 2000 a divided Supreme Court ruled the government lacked authority to regulate tobacco as an addictive drug.
In 2001 the Supreme Court ruled that hospitals cannot test pregnant women for drug use without their consent. Also in 2001 the U.S. ordered 51 Russian diplomats to leave, in retaliation for Russia’s use of an FBI spy, Robert Hanssen.
In 2002 former Georgia governor and U.S. Sen. Herman Talmadge died in Hampton, Ga.; he was 88.
In 2003 the House approved a $2.2 trillion budget embracing President George W. Bush’s tax-cutting plan.
In 2004 the White House disputed assertions by President George W. Bush’s former counterterrorism coordinator, Richard Clarke, that the administration had failed to recognize the risk of an attack by Al Qaeda in the months leading up to Sept. 11. (Clarke’s assertions were contained in a book, “Against All Enemies,” that went on sale the next day.) Also in 2004 Iraqi-born architect Zaha Hadid won the Pritzker Architecture Prize, becoming the first woman to receive the profession’s highest honor.
In 2005 a high school student on the Red Lake Indian reservation in Minnesota killed five schoolmates, a teacher and an unarmed guard before taking his own life; Jeff Weise had earlier killed his grandfather and his grandfather’s companion. Also in 2005 cabaret singer Bobby Short died in New York; he was 80.
In 2006 Sgt. Michael J. Smith, an Army dog handler at Abu Ghraib, was convicted at Ft. Meade, Md., of abusing prisoners. (Smith was later sentenced to 179 days in prison.)
