29 March 2025 (MIA)

1962 – Jack Paar hosted NBC’s “Tonight” show for the final time.

1638 – Swedish colonists settled in present-day Delaware.

1790 – The 10th president of the United States, John Tyler, was born in Charles City County, Va.

1847 – Victorious forces led by Gen. Winfield Scott occupied the city of Vera Cruz after Mexican defenders capitulated.

1867 – The British Parliament passed the North America Act to create the Dominion of Canada.

1882 – The Knights of Columbus was chartered in Connecticut.

1932 – A vaudeville comedian made his radio debut by saying, “Ladies and gentlemen, this is Jack Benny talking. There will be a slight pause while you say, `Who cares?”’

1943 – World War II meat, butter and cheese rationing began.

1951 – Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage. (They were executed in June 1953.)

1971 – Army Lt. William L. Calley Jr. was convicted of murdering at least 22 Vietnamese civilians in the My Lai massacre. (Calley ended up spending three years under house arrest.)

1971 – A jury in Los Angeles recommended the death penalty for Charles Manson and three female followers for the 1969 Tate-La Bianca murders. (The sentences were later commuted.)

1992 – Democratic presidential front-runner Bill Clinton acknowledged experimenting with marijuana “a time or two” while attending Oxford University, adding, “I didn’t inhale and I didn’t try it again.”

1997 – Vice President Gore concluded his tour of Asia, saying that talks in Beijing had created “new momentum” in relations between the U.S. and China.

2001 – James Kopp, the fugitive wanted in the 1998 slaying of Dr. Barnett Slepian, a Buffalo, N.Y., abortion provider, was captured in France. (Kopp is fighting extradition to the United States.)

2001 – A chartered jet crashed near Aspen, Colo., killing all 18 people aboard. Pianist John Lewis, who masterminded the Modern Jazz Quartet, died in New York at age 80.

2004 – Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia join NATO as full members.

2004 – The Republic of Ireland becomes the first country in the world to ban smoking in all work places, including bars and restaurants