On March 26, 1827, composer Ludwig van Beethoven died at 56 in Vienna.
In 1874 poet Robert Frost was born in San Francisco.
In 1892 poet Walt Whitman died at 72 in Camden, N.J.
In 1944 singer Diana Ross was born Diane Earle in Detroit.
In 1956 Althea Gibson became the first African-American to win a major tennis title, the women’s singles in the French Open.
In 1962 the Supreme Court gave federal courts the power to order reapportionment of seats in a state legislature, a decision that led to the doctrine of “one man, one vote.”
In 1964 the musical “Funny Girl,” with Barbra Streisand, opened on Broadway.
In 1971 East Pakistan proclaimed independence, taking the name Bangladesh.
In 1979 the Camp David peace treaty was signed by Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat at the White House.
In 1992 a judge in Indianapolis sentenced boxer Mike Tyson to 6 years in prison for raping a Miss Black America contestant. (He served 3 years.)
In 1997 the bodies of 21 women and 18 men of the Heaven’s Gate doomsday cult were found in a rented mansion in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif.
In 1999 Dr. Jack Kevorkian was convicted in Pontiac, Mich., of second-degree murder for giving a patient with Lou Gehrig’s disease a lethal injection, an action videotaped and broadcast on TV.
In 2000 Vladimir Putin was elected Russia’s second democratically chosen president. Also, “Joy of Sex” author Alex Comfort died at 80 in Oxfordshire, England.
In 2003 former Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.) died at 76 in Washington.
In 2004 Jan Berry, half of the surf music duo Jan and Dean, died at 62.
