On March 29, 1943, World War II meat, butter and cheese rationing began.
In 1951 Soviet spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were convicted of espionage. (They were executed in 1953.)
In 1962 Jack Paar hosted NBC’s “Tonight” show for the final time.
In 1971 Army Lt. William Calley Jr. was convicted of murdering at least 22 Vietnamese civilians in the My Lai massacre. Also, a Los Angeles jury recommended death penalties for Charles Manson and three female disciples for the 1969 Tate-LaBianca murders. (The sentences were commuted to life in prison.)
In 1973 the last U.S. combat troops left South Vietnam.
In 1992 Democratic presidential front-runner Bill Clinton acknowledged experimenting with marijuana “a time or two” while attending Oxford University.
In 1994 Mexico’s ruling party chose Ernesto Zedillo to be its new presidential candidate, replacing the assassinated Luis Donaldo Colosio.
In 1999 jazz singer Joe Williams died at 80 in Las Vegas.
In 2004 Massachusetts lawmakers approved a proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage and legalize civil unions, sending the issue to the next legislative session. Also, President Bush welcomed seven former Soviet-bloc nations (Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Latvia and Estonia) into NATO during a White House ceremony.
In 2005 lawyer Johnnie Cochran, 67, died in Los Angeles.
