Today in History

Today is Wednesday, March 28, the 87th day of 2018. There are 278 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On March 28, 1898, the U.S. Supreme Court, in United States v. Wong Kim Ark, ruled 6-2 that Wong, who was born in the United States to Chinese immigrants, was an American citizen.

On this date:

In 1797, Nathaniel Briggs of New Hampshire received a patent for a washing machine.

In 1834, the U.S. Senate voted to censure President Andrew Jackson for the removal of federal deposits from the Bank of the United States.

In 1930, the names of the Turkish cities of Constantinople and Angora were changed to Istanbul and Ankara.

In 1941, novelist and critic Virginia Woolf, 59, drowned herself near her home in Lewes, East Sussex, England.

In 1942, during World War II, British naval forces staged a successful raid on the Nazi-occupied French port of St. Nazaire in Operation Chariot, destroying the only dry dock on the Atlantic coast capable of repairing the German battleship Tirpitz.

In 1943, composer Sergei Rachmaninoff, 69, died in Beverly Hills, California.

In 1955, John Marshall Harlan II was sworn in as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

In 1969, the 34th president of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower, died in Washington D.C. at age 78.

In 1978, in Stump v. Sparkman, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld, 5-3, the judicial immunity of an Indiana judge against a lawsuit brought by a young woman who'd been ordered sterilized by the judge when she was a teenager.

In 1979, America's worst commercial nuclear accident occurred with a partial meltdown inside the Unit 2 reactor at the Three Mile Island plant near Middletown, Pennsylvania.

In 1987, Maria von Trapp, whose life story inspired the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical "The Sound of Music," died in Morrisville, Vermont, at age 82.

In 1990, President George H.W. Bush presented the Congressional Gold Medal to the widow of U.S. Olympic legend Jesse Owens.

Ten years ago: President George W. Bush declared that Iraq was standing at a defining moment as it struggled to put down heavily armed Shiite militias in new flare-ups of violence. Cuba made it legal for its citizens to own cellphones in their own names.

Five years ago: President Barack Obama, flanked by grim-faced mothers who lost their children to guns, urged lawmakers not to "get squishy" in the face of powerful forces against gun control legislation. Pope Francis washed and kissed the feet of a dozen inmates, including two young women, at a juvenile detention center in a surprising departure from church rules that restricted the Holy Thursday ritual to men. British actor Richard Griffiths, 65, remembered by movie fans for being grumpy Uncle Vernon in the "Harry Potter" movies, died in Coventry, England.

One year ago: President Donald Trump proposed immediate budget cuts of $18 billion from programs like medical research, infrastructure and community grants so that U.S. taxpayers, not Mexico, could cover the down payment on the border wall. Wells Fargo said it would pay $110 million to settle a class-action lawsuit over up to 2 million accounts its employees opened for customers without getting their permission.

Today's Birthdays: Author Mario Vargas Llosa is 82. Country musician Charlie McCoy is 77. Movie director Mike Newell is 76. Actress Conchata Ferrell is 75. Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte is 73. Actress Dianne Wiest is 72. Country singer Reba McEntire is 63. Olympic gold medal gymnast Bart Conner is 60. Actress Alexandra Billings (TV: "Transparent") is 56. Rapper Salt (Salt-N-Pepa) is 52. Actress Tracey Needham is 51. Actor Max Perlich is 50. Movie director Brett Ratner is 49. Country singer Rodney Atkins is 49. Actor Vince Vaughn is 48. Rapper Mr. Cheeks (Lost Boyz) is 47. Actor Ken L. is 45. Singer-songwriter Matt Nathanson is 45. Rock musician Dave Keuning is 42. Actress Annie Wersching is 41. Actress Julia Stiles is 37. Singer Lady Gaga is 32. Electronic musician Clayton Knight (Odesza) is 30.

Thought for Today: "It isn't what people think that's important, but the reason they think what they think." -- Eugene Ionesco, Romanian-French playwright (born in 1909, died this date in 1994).