Today in History

Today is Wednesday, March 6, the 65th day of 2013. There are 300 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On March 6, 1933, a national bank holiday declared by President Franklin D. Roosevelt aimed at calming panicked depositors went into effect. (The holiday was supposed to last four days, but was extended until it was gradually lifted starting March 13.)

On this date:

In 1836, the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, fell to Mexican forces after a 13-day siege.

In 1853, Verdi's opera "La Traviata" premiered in Venice, Italy.

In 1857, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Dred Scott v. Sandford that Scott, a slave, was not an American citizen and could not sue for his freedom in federal court.

In 1912, Oreo sandwich cookies were first introduced by the National Biscuit Co.

In 1933, Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak, wounded in an attempt on then-President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt's life the previous month, died at a Miami hospital at age 59.

In 1944, U.S. heavy bombers staged the first full-scale American raid on Berlin during World War II.

In 1953, Georgy Malenkov was named premier of the Soviet Union a day after the death of Josef Stalin.

In 1967, the daughter of Josef Stalin, Svetlana Alliluyeva, appeared at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi and declared her intention to defect to the West.

In 1970, a bomb being built inside a Greenwich Village townhouse 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, Vt.

In 1983, in a case that drew much notoriety, a woman was gang-raped atop a pool table in a tavern in New Bedford, Mass., called Big Dan's; four men were later convicted of the attack.

In 1988, the board of trustees at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., a liberal arts college for the deaf, selected Elisabeth Zinser, a hearing woman, to be school president. (Outraged students shut down the campus, forcing selection of a deaf president, I. King Jordan, instead.)

Ten years ago: A somber President George W. Bush readied the nation for war against Saddam Hussein, hurling some of his harshest invectives yet at the Iraqi leader during a prime-time news conference. The United States ratified a treaty on cutting active U.S. and Russian long-range nuclear warheads by two-thirds. Democrats blocked President Bush's nomination of Miguel Estrada to a federal appeals court.

Five years ago: A Palestinian killed eight students at a Jewish seminary in Jerusalem before he was slain. Twin bombings in a shopping district in Baghdad killed at least 68 people and wounded 130 others.

One year 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 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 he'd operated for 20 years. (Stanford was sentenced to 110 years in prison.) Six British soldiers patrolling near the border between Helmand and Kandahar provinces in Afghanistan were killed by a bomb.

Today's Birthdays: Orchestra conductor Julius Rudel is 92. Former FBI and CIA director William Webster is 89. Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan is 87. Author Gabriel Garcia Marquez is 86. Orchestra conductor Lorin Maazel is 83. Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova is 76. Former Sen. Christopher Bond, R-Mo., is 74. Actress-writer Joanna Miles is 73. Actor Ben Murphy is 71. Opera singer Dame Kiri Te Kanawa is 69. Singer Mary Wilson (The Supremes) is 69. Rock musician Hugh Grundy (The Zombies) is 68. Rock singer-musician David Gilmour (Pink Floyd) is 67. Actress Anna Maria Horsford is 66. Actor-director Rob Reiner is 66. Singer Kiki Dee is 66. Rock singer-musician Phil Alvin (The Blasters) is 60. Actor Tom Arnold is 54. Former child actress Suzanne Crough (kroh) is 50. Actor D.L. Hughley is 49. Country songwriter Skip Ewing is 49. Actor Shuler Hensley is 46. Actress Connie Britton is 46. Actress Moira Kelly is 45. Actress Amy Pietz is 44. Rock musician Chris Broderick (Megadeth) is 43. NBA player Shaquille O'Neal is 41. Country singer Trent Willmon is 40. Country musician Shan Farmer (Ricochet) is 39. Rapper Beanie Sigel is 39. Rapper Bubba Sparxxx is 36. Rock musician Chris Tomson (Vampire Weekend) is 29. Actor Eli Marienthal is 27. Actor Jimmy Galeota is 27. Actor Dillon Freasier (Film: "There Will Be Blood") is 17. Actress Savannah Stehlin is 17.

Thought for Today: "Learn by others' mistakes because you do not live long enough to make them all yourself." -- Author unknown.

Copyright 2013, The Associated Press. All rights reserved.