Today in History for March 18, 2013

Today is Monday, March 18, the 77th day of 2013. There are 288 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight:

On March 18, 1963, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Gideon v. Wainwright, ruled unanimously that state courts were required to provide legal counsel to criminal defendants who could not afford to hire an attorney on their own.

On this date:

In 1766, Britain repealed the Stamp Act of 1765.

In 1837, the 22nd and 24th president of the United States, Grover Cleveland, was born in Caldwell, N.J.

In 1913, King George I of Greece was assassinated in Thessaloniki.

In 1937, some 300 people, mostly children, were killed in a gas explosion at a school in New London, Texas.

In 1938, Mexican President Lazaro Cardenas nationalized his country’s petroleum reserves and took control of foreign-owned oil facilities.

In 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order authorizing the War Relocation Authority, which was put in charge of interning Japanese-Americans, with Milton S. Eisenhower (the younger brother of Dwight D. Eisenhower) as its director.

In 1959, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Hawaii statehood bill. (Hawaii became a state on Aug. 21, 1959.)

In 1962, France and Algerian rebels signed the Evian Accords, a cease-fire agreement which took effect the next day, ending the Algerian War.

In 1965, the first spacewalk took place as Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov went outside his Voskhod 2 capsule, secured by a tether.

In 1974, most of the Arab oil-producing nations ended their embargo against the United States.

In 1980, Frank Gotti, the 12-year-old youngest son of mobster John Gotti, was struck and killed by a car driven by John Favara, a neighbor in Queens, N.Y. (The following July, Favara vanished, the apparent victim of a gang hit.)

In 1990, thieves made off with 13 works of art from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston (the crime remains unsolved).

Ten years ago: A jury in Corpus Christi, Texas, cleared Bayer Corp. of liability in a $560 million lawsuit that accused the pharmaceutical giant of ignoring research linking the cholesterol-lowering drug Baycol to dozens of deaths. In Salt Lake City, Brian Mitchell and Wanda Barzee were charged with aggravated kidnapping, sexual assault and burglary in the abduction of Elizabeth Smart, who was found with them six days earlier. (Although both were initially found incompetent to stand trial, Mitchell was eventually convicted of kidnapping and sexual assault, while Barzee pleaded guilty to kidnapping and unlawful transportation charges.) Olympic gold medal figure skater Sarah Hughes won the Sullivan Award as the nation’s top amateur athlete.

Five years ago: Democrat Barack Obama confronted America’s racial divide head-on with a speech in Philadelphia in which he urged the nation to break “a racial stalemate we’ve been stuck in for years.” German Chancellor Angela Merkel earned a standing ovation from Israel’s parliament with a speech that included a tribute to the victims of the Holocaust. Oscar-winning filmmaker Anthony Minghella (“The English Patient”) died in London at age 54.

One year ago: Mitt Romney scored an overwhelming win in Puerto Rico’s Republican presidential primary, trouncing chief rival Rick Santorum.

Today’s birthdays: Composer John Kander is 86. Nobel peace laureate and former South African president F.W. de Klerk is 77. Country singer Charley Pride is 75. Actor Kevin Dobson is 70. Actor Brad Dourif is 63. Jazz musician Bill Frisell is 62. Singer Irene Cara is 54. Movie writer-director Luc Besson is 54. Actor Geoffrey Owens is 52. Actor Thomas Ian Griffith is 51. Singer-songwriter James McMurtry is 51. Singer-actress Vanessa L. Williams is 50. Olympic gold medal speedskater Bonnie Blair is 49. Country musician Scott Saunders (Sons of the Desert) is 49. Rock musician Jerry Cantrell (Alice in Chains) is 47. Rock singer-musician Miki Berenyi is 46. Rapper-actress-talk show host Queen Latifah is 43. Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus is 41. Actor-comedian Dane Cook is 41. Rock musician Stuart Zender is 39. Singers Jaron and Evan Lowenstein are 39. Actress-singer-dancer Sutton Foster (“Bunheads”) is 38. Singer Devin Lima (LFO) is 36. Rock singer Adam Levine (Maroon 5) is 34. Rock musician Daren Taylor (Airborne Toxic Event) is 33. Olympic gold medal figure skater Alexei Yagudin is 33. Actor Adam Pally is 31. Actress-dancer Julia Goldani Telles (“Bunheads”) is 18.

Thought for today: “Liberty is from God, liberties from the devil.” — Old German proverb.