March 22nd

Today's Highlight in History:
On March 22nd, 1765, Britain enacted the Stamp Act to raise money from the American colonies. (The Act was repealed the following year.)

On this date:
In 1638, religious dissident Anne Hutchinson was expelled from the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

In 1820, US naval hero Stephen Decatur was killed in a duel with Commodore James Barron near Washington DC.

In 1882, Congress outlawed polygamy.

In 1894, hockey's first Stanley Cup championship game was played; the home team Montreal Amateur Athletic Association defeated the Ottawa Capitals, 3-to-1.

In 1895, Auguste and Louis Lumiere showed their first movie to an invited audience in Paris.

In 1933, during Prohibition, President Roosevelt signed a measure to make wine and beer containing up to 3.2 percent alcohol legal.

In 1945, the Arab League was formed with the adoption of a charter in Cairo, Egypt.

In 1946, the British mandate in Transjordan came to an end.

In 1972, Congress sent the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution to the states for ratification. (It fell three states short of the 38 needed for approval.)

In 1978, Karl Wallenda, the 73-year-old patriarch of "The Flying Wallendas" high-wire act, fell to his death while attempting to walk a cable strung between two hotels in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Ten years ago: A jury in Anchorage, Alaska, found former tanker captain Joseph Hazelwood innocent of three major charges in connection with the "Exxon Valdez" oil spill, but convicted him of a minor charge of negligent discharge of oil.

Five years ago: Shouting erupted in the US House of Representatives as Democrats bitterly accused majority Republicans of trying to ram through a mean-spirited welfare overhaul bill. Convicted Long Island Rail Road gunman Colin Ferguson was sentenced to life in prison for killing six people.

One year ago: Acting as his own lawyer, Dr. Jack Kevorkian went on trial on murder charges for the first time, telling a jury in Pontiac, Michigan, he was merely carrying out his professional duty in a videotaped assisted death shown on "60 Minutes." (Kevorkian was convicted of second-degree murder.)

"All that is not eternal is eternally out of date."

-- C.S. Lewis, British author (1898-1963).