March 14th

Today's Highlight in History:
On March 14th, 1743, the first recorded town meeting in America was held, at Faneuil Hall in Boston.

On this date:
In 1794, Eli Whitney received a patent for his cotton gin, an invention that revolutionized America's cotton industry.

In 1900, Congress ratified the Gold Standard Act.

In 1923, President Harding became the first chief executive to file an income tax report.

In 1939, the republic of Czechoslovakia was dissolved, opening the way for Nazi occupation.

In 1943, Aaron Copland's orchestral work "Fanfare for the Common Man" premiered in New York, with George Szell conducting.

In 1951, during the Korean War, United Nations forces recaptured Seoul.

In 1964, a jury in Dallas found Jack Ruby guilty of murdering Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of President Kennedy, the previous November.

In 1965, Israel's cabinet formally approved establishment of diplomatic relations with West Germany.

In 1967, the body of President Kennedy was moved from a temporary grave to a permanent memorial site at Arlington National Cemetery.

In 1980, a Polish airliner crashed while making an emergency landing near Warsaw, killing all 87 people aboard, including 22 members of a U-S amateur boxing team.

Ten years ago: The Soviet Congress elected Mikhail S. Gorbachev to the country's new, powerful presidency, a day after creating the post. The United States, the Soviet Union, Britain, France, and West and East Germany held their first formal meeting on reunifying the German states.

Five years ago: American astronaut Norman Thagard became the first American to enter space aboard a Russian rocket as he and two cosmonauts blasted off aboard a "Soyuz" spacecraft, headed for the "Mir" space station.

One year ago: The Clinton administration conceded the Chinese had gained from technology allegedly stolen from a federal nuclear weapons lab but insisted the government responded decisively; Republicans disagreed and pressed for a comprehensive review of U-S policy toward China.

"There are no hopeless situations; there are only men who have grown helpless about them."

-- Clare Boothe Luce, American author, diplomat, member of Congress (1903-1987).