Today in History

Today is Friday, March 22, the 81st day of 2013. There are 284 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On March 22, 1963, The Beatles' debut album, "Please Please Me," was released in the United Kingdom by Parlophone.

On this date:

In 1312, Pope Clement V issued a papal bull ordering dissolution of the Order of the Knights Templar.

In 1638, religious dissident Anne Hutchinson was expelled from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for defying Puritan orthodoxy.

In 1765, the British Parliament passed the Stamp Act of 1765 to raise money from the American colonies, which fiercely resisted the tax. (The Stamp Act was repealed a year later.)

In 1820, U.S. naval hero Stephen Decatur was killed in a duel with Commodore James Barron near Washington, D.C.

In 1894, hockey's first Stanley Cup championship game was played; home team Montreal defeated Ottawa, 3-1.

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

In 1941, the Grand Coulee hydroelectric dam in Washington state went into operation.

In 1943, the Khatyn Massacre took place during World War II as German forces killed 149 residents of the village of Khatyn, Belarus, half of them children.

In 1958, movie producer Mike Todd, the husband of actress Elizabeth Taylor, and three other people were killed in the crash of Todd's private plane near Grants, N.M.

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 hotel towers in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

In 1988, both houses of Congress overrode President Ronald Reagan's veto of the Civil Rights Restoration Act.

In 1993, Intel Corp. unveiled the original Pentium computer chip.

Ten years ago: Anti-war activists marched again in dozens of cities, marshaling well over 100,000 in Manhattan and sometimes trading insults with backers of the U.S.-led war on Iraq. U.S. forces reported seizing a large weapons cache in Afghanistan.

Five years ago: Vice President Dick Cheney, visiting the Middle East, said the U.S. had an "enduring and unshakable" commitment to Israel's security and its right to defend itself against those bent on destroying the Jewish state. Jeffrey Buttle of Canada won the men's title at the World Figure Skating Championships in Goteborg, Sweden.

One year ago: Coroner's officials ruled singer Whitney Houston died by drowning the previous February, but that heart disease and cocaine use were contributing factors. In a dramatic end to a 32-hour standoff, a masked French SWAT team slipped into the Toulouse apartment of an Islamic extremist suspected of seven killings, sparking a firefight that ended with the suspect jumping out the window and being fatally shot in the head.

Today's Birthdays: USA Today founder Allen H. Neuharth is 89. Composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim is 83. Evangelist broadcaster Pat Robertson is 83. Actor William Shatner is 82. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, is 79. Actor M. Emmet Walsh is 78. Actor-singer Jeremy Clyde is 72. Singer-guitarist George Benson is 70. Writer James Patterson is 66. CNN newscaster Wolf Blitzer is 65. Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber is 65. Actress Fanny Ardant is 64. Sportscaster Bob Costas is 61. Country singer James House is 58. Actress Lena Olin is 58. Singer-actress Stephanie Mills is 56. Actor Matthew Modine is 54. Country musician Tim Beeler is 45. Actress Anne Dudek is 38. Actor Cole Hauser is 38. Actress Kellie Williams is 37. Actress Reese Witherspoon is 37. Rock musician John Otto (Limp Bizkit) is 36. Rapper Mims is 32. Rock musician Lincoln Parish (Cage the Elephant) is 23.

Thought for Today: "Kindness consists in loving people more than they deserve." -- Joseph Joubert, French moralist (1754-1824).

Copyright 2013, The Associated Press. All rights reserved.