29 March 2026 (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 workplaces, including bars and restaurants.

2010 – Archaeological site of the Mayan city of Chichen Itza purchased by the Mexican state of Yucatán from a private landowner.

2014 – First same-sex couples marry in the UK as a result of the passing of The Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013.

2017 – UK Prime Minister Theresa May sends a letter to the EU invoking Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, formally triggering Brexit.

2020 – Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari orders a lockdown in the cities of Lagos and Abuja after the country records 97 COVID-19 cases and one death.

2021 – Megaship Ever Given freed after nearly a week stuck in and blocking the Suez Canal, with at least 369 vessels waiting to pass though.

2022 – BA.2 version of Omicron is now the dominant form of COVID-19 in America according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

2023 – Researchers warn crucial deep Antarctic ocean currents could collapse by 42% by 2050, stopping nutrient-dense water from flowing north, accelerating ice melt and further warming the world's oceans.