On March 24, 1603, the crowns of England and Scotland were joined under Scotland’s James VI, who began his reign as James I.
In 1683 Rhode Island was purchased from the Indians.
In 1783 Spain recognized the independence of the United States.
In 1883 long-distance telephone service was inaugurated between Chicago and New York.
In 1905 author Jules Verne died in Amiens, France; he was 77.
In 1924 Greece was proclaimed a republic.
In 1934 President Franklin Roosevelt signed a bill granting future independence to the Philippines.
In 1944, in occupied Rome, the Nazis executed more than 300 civilians in reprisal for an attack by Italian partisans the day before that killed 32 German soldiers.
In 1955 the Tennessee Williams play “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof'” opened on Broadway.
In 1958 Elvis Presley entered the Army in Memphis.
In 1964 the John F. Kennedy half-dollar was issued.
In 1972 Britain took over direct control in Northern Ireland in an effort to restore order.
In 1978 striking coal miners approved a new contract, ending a 109-day walkout that saw two earlier agreements rejected by the membership of the United Mine Workers Union.
In 1980 one of El Salvador’s most respected Roman Catholic Church leaders, Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero, was shot to death by gunmen as he celebrated Mass in San Salvador.
In 1988 former national security aides Oliver North and John Poindexter and businessmen Richard Secord and Albert Hakim pleaded not guilty to charges in the Iran-contra case. (North and Poindexter were convicted, but had their convictions thrown out; Secord and Hakim received probation after each pleaded guilty to a single count under a plea bargain.)
In 1989 the nation’s worst oil spill occurred as the Exxon Valdez ran aground on a reef in Alaska’s Prince William Sound and leaked 11 million gallons of crude.
In 1995 the House of Representatives passed, 234-199, a welfare reform package calling for the most profound changes in social programs since the New Deal.
In 1999 NATO launched airstrikes against Yugoslavia, marking the first time in its 50-year existence that it had ever attacked a sovereign country.
In 2000 a federal judge awarded former hostage Terry Anderson $34 million dollars from Iran, holding Iranian agents responsible for his nearly seven years of captivity in Lebanon.
In 2001 three car bombs exploded almost simultaneously in southern Russia, killing 23 people.
In 2002, at the Academy Awards, Halle Berry became the first black actress to win an Oscar for a leading role for “Monster’s Ball.”
In 2004 the European Union slapped Microsoft with a $613 million fine for abusively wielding its Windows software monopoly.
In 2005 the U.S. Supreme Court denied an appeal from Terri Schiavo’s parents to have a feeding tube reinserted into the severely brain-damaged woman.
In 2006, in Selmer, Tenn., Mary Winkler was charged with shooting to death her minister husband, Matthew Winkler, in the parsonage of their church.
In 2008 Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was charged with perjury, misconduct and obstruction of justice.
