Seneca wrote, "What difference does it make how much you have? What you do not have amounts to much more."
Today is Tuesday, March 28, the 87th day of 2006 with 278 to
follow. The moon is waning. The morning stars are Mercury,
Venus, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. The evening stars
are Mars and Saturn.
On this date in history:
In 1797, Nathaniel Briggs was awarded a patent for the first
washing machine.
In 1881, P.T. Barnum and James A. Bailey merged their
circuses to form "The Greatest Show on Earth."
In 1939, Madrid surrendered to the nationalist forces of
Generalissimo Francisco Franco in the Spanish Civil War.
In 1968, the counterculture musical "Hair" opened on Broadway.
In 1969, Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th president of the United
States, died in Washington at age 78.
In 1979, a failure in the cooling system at the nuclear power
plant on Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania caused a near
meltdown. It was the worst accident at a U.S. civilian
nuclear facility.
In 1991, just days before the 10th anniversary of the
attempt on his life, former President Ronald Reagan
endorsed a 7-day waiting period for handgun purchases,
reversing his earlier opposition.
In 1993, Russian President Boris Yeltsin survived an
impeachment vote by the Congress of People's Deputies.
Also in 1993, French voters rejected the ruling Socialists
and gave the conservative alliance a crushing majority in
legislative elections.
In 1994, pre-election clashes between Zulu nationalists,
the ANC and police claimed 53 lives in Johannesburg,
South Africa.
In 1996, the U.S. Congress approved the presidential
line-item veto.
In 1997, an Italian warship collided with an Albanian ship
crowded with refugees, causing an undetermined number of
deaths.
In 2002, the U.S. Justice Department said it would seek
the death penalty against Zacarias Moussaoui, the only
person charged at the time as a co-conspirator in the
Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
In 2003, a Turkish student surrendered after hijacking
an Istanbul-to-Ankara jetliner with about 200 people
aboard. No one was hurt.
In 2004, more than 40 people were reported killed in a
series of bombings and gun battles in the central Asian
nation of Uzbekistan.
In 2005, a massive earthquake jolted the western coast
of Sumatra reportedly killing as many as 3,000 people
and destroying hundreds of buildings.