Today in History

Today is Sunday, March 15, the 75th day of 2020. There are 291 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On March 15, 1913, President Woodrow Wilson met with about 100 reporters for the first formal presidential press conference.

On this date:

In 44 B.C., Roman dictator Julius Caesar was assassinated by a group of nobles that included Brutus and Cassius.

In 1493, Italian explorer Christopher Columbus arrived back in the Spanish harbor of Palos de la Frontera, two months after concluding his first voyage to the Western Hemisphere.

In 1820, Maine became the 23rd state.

In 1919, members of the American Expeditionary Force from World War I convened in Paris for a three-day meeting to found the American Legion.

In 1941, Richard C. Hottelet, a correspondent for the United Press, was arrested in Berlin by the German secret police on suspicion of espionage. (Hottelet was released four months later in a prisoner exchange.)

In 1944, during World War II, Allied bombers again raided German-held Monte Cassino.

In 1956, the Lerner and Loewe musical play "My Fair Lady," based on Bernard Shaw's "Pygmalion," opened on Broadway.

In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson, addressing a joint session of Congress, called for new legislation to guarantee every American's right to vote. The result was passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

In 1985, the first internet domain name, symbolics.com, was registered by the Symbolics Computer Corp. of Massachusetts.

In 1998, CBS' "60 Minutes" aired an interview with former White House employee Kathleen Willey, who said President Bill Clinton had made unwelcome sexual advances toward her in the Oval Office in 1993, a charge denied by the president. Dr. Benjamin Spock, whose child care guidance spanned half a century, died in San Diego at 94.

In 1999, an Amtrak train slammed into a steel-filled truck at a crossing in Bourbonnais, Illinois, killing 11 people.

In 2005, former WorldCom chief Bernard Ebbers was convicted in New York of engineering the largest corporate fraud in U.S. history. (He was later sentenced to 25 years in prison.)

Ten years ago: Michael David Barrett, an insurance executive who'd shot surreptitious hotel videos of ESPN reporter Erin Andrews, was sentenced in federal court in Los Angeles to 2 1/2 years in prison. (He was released in July 2012.) The United States demanded that Israel call off a contentious building project in east Jerusalem.

Five years ago: The United States and Iran plunged back into negotiations in Lausanne, Switzerland, hoping to end a decades-long standoff on Iran's nuclear program. A pair of suicide bombers attacked two churches in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore, killing at least 15 people. Mike Porcaro, 59, who'd carved out a long, successful career as the bass player for the award-winning pop group Toto, died in Los Angeles. Actress-dancer Sally Forrest, 86, died in Beverly Hills, California.

One year ago: A gunman killed 51 people at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, streaming the massacre live on Facebook; Brenton Tarrant, an Australian white supremacist, is awaiting trial on charges including 51 counts of murder. President Donald Trump issued the first veto of his presidency, rejecting an effort by Congress to block the emergency declaration he had used to try to shake loose funding for his border wall; lawmakers failed to override the veto.

Today's Birthdays: Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is 87. Actor Judd Hirsch is 85. Jazz musician Charles Lloyd is 82. Rock musician Phil Lesh is 80. Singer Mike Love (The Beach Boys) is 79. Rock singer-musician Sly Stone is 77. Rock singer-musician Howard Scott (War; Lowrider Band) is 74. Rock singer Ry Cooder is 73. Actress Frances Conroy is 67. Actor Craig Wasson is 66. Rock singer Dee Snider (Twisted Sister) is 65. Actor Joaquim de Almeida is 63. Actress Park Overall is 63. Movie director Renny Harlin is 61. Model Fabio is 59. Singer Terence Trent D'Arby (AKA Sananda Maitreya) is 58. Rock singer Bret Michaels (Poison) is 57. Rhythm-and-blues singer Rockwell is 56. Actor Chris Bruno is 54. Actress Kim Raver is 53. Rock singer Mark McGrath (Sugar Ray) is 52. Rock musician Mark Hoppus is 48. Country singer-musician Matt Thomas (Parmalee) is 46. Actress Eva Longoria is 45. Rapper-musician will.i.am (Black Eyed Peas) is 45. Rock DJ Joseph Hahn (Linkin Park) is 43. Rapper Young Buck is 39. Rock musician Ethan Mentzer is 38. Actor Sean Biggerstaff is 37. Actor Kellan Lutz is 35. Actress Caitlin Wachs is 31.

Thought for Today: "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).