Today in History

Today in History Today is Sunday, March 6, the 65th day of 2022. There are 300 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History: On March 6, 1944, U.S. heavy bombers staged the first full-scale American raid on Berlin during World War II. On this date: In 1834, the city of York in Upper Canada was incorporated as Toronto. In 1836, the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, fell as Mexican forces led by General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna stormed the fortress after a 13-day siege; the battle claimed the lives of all the Texan defenders, nearly 200 strong, including William Travis, James Bowie and Davy Crockett. In 1857, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Dred Scott v. Sandford, ruled 7-2 that Scott, a slave, was not an American citizen and therefore could not sue for his freedom in federal court. In 1912, Oreo sandwich cookies were first introduced by the National Biscuit Co. In 1933, a national bank holiday declared by President Franklin D. Roosevelt aimed at calming panicked depositors went into effect. In 1964, heavyweight boxing champion Cassius Clay officially changed his name to Muhammad Ali. In 1970, a bomb being built inside a Greenwich Village townhouse in New York by the radical Weathermen accidentally went off, destroying the house and killing three group members. In 1973, Nobel Prize-winning author Pearl S. Buck, 80, died in Danby, Vermont. In 1981, Walter Cronkite signed off for the last time as principal anchorman of ‘œThe CBS Evening News.’� In 1998, the Army honored three Americans who’d risked their lives and turned their weapons on fellow soldiers to stop the slaughter of Vietnamese villagers at My Lai (mee ly) in 1968. In 2002, Independent Counsel Robert Ray issued his final report in which he wrote that former President Bill Clinton could have been indicted and probably would have been convicted in the scandal involving former White House intern Monica Lewinsky. In 2016, former first lady Nancy Reagan died in Los Angeles at age 94. Ten years ago: In Super Tuesday contests, Republican Mitt Romney narrowly won in pivotal Ohio, seized a home-state victory in Massachusetts, triumphed in Idaho, Vermont and Alaska, and won easily in Virginia, where neither Rick Santorum nor Newt Gingrich was on the ballot; Santorum won contests in Oklahoma, Tennessee and North Dakota, while Gingrich won at home in Georgia. Former Texas tycoon R. Allen Stanford was convicted in Houston of bilking his investors out of more than $7 billion through a Ponzi scheme. (Stanford was sentenced to 110 years in prison.) Five years ago: Without fanfare, President Donald Trump signed a scaled-back version of his controversial ban on many foreign travelers, one that still barred new visas for people from six Muslim-majority countries and temporarily shut down America’s refugee program. One year ago: After working through the night on a mountain of amendments, the Senate narrowly approved a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill, setting up final approval by the House. Carla Wallenda, a member of ‘œThe Flying Wallendas’� high-wire act and the last surviving child of the famed troupe’s founder, died at 85 in Sarasota, Florida.