Today in History

Today is Wednesday, March 22, the 81st day of 2023. There are 284 days left in the year.

Today's Highlights in History:

On March 22, 1894, hockey's first Stanley Cup championship game was played; home team Montreal defeated Ottawa, 3-1.

On this date:

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 (The Stamp Act was repealed a year later.)

In 1882, President Chester Alan Arthur signed a measure outlawing polygamy.

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

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

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

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.

In 1997, Tara Lipinski, at age 14 years and 10 months, became the youngest ladies' world figure skating champion in Lausanne, Switzerland.

In 2010, Google Inc. stopped censoring the internet for China by shifting its search engine off the mainland to Hong Kong.

In 2019, special counsel Robert Mueller closed his Russia investigation with no new charges, delivering his final report to Justice Department officials. Former President Jimmy Carter became the longest-living chief executive in American history; at 94 years and 172 days, he exceeded the lifespan of the late former President George H.W. Bush.

In 2020, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered all nonessential businesses in the state to close and nonessential workers to stay home. Kentucky Republican Rand Paul became the first member of the U.S. Senate to report testing positive for the coronavirus; his announcement led Utah senators Mike Lee and Mitt Romney to place themselves in quarantine.

Ten years ago: Anxious to keep Syria's civil war from spiraling into even worse problems, President Barack Obama said during a visit to Jordan that he worried about the country becoming a haven for extremists when -- not if -- President Bashar Assad was ousted from power. The Internal Revenue Service said it was a mistake for employees to have made a $60,000 six-minute training video spoofing "Star Trek" and "Gilligan's Island."

Five years ago: President Donald Trump announced that he would replace national security adviser H.R. McMaster with former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton; McMaster became the sixth close Trump adviser or aide to depart in a turbulent six weeks. Trump set in motion tariffs on as much as $60 billion in Chinese imports, and China threatened retaliation; the heightening trade tensions brought a selloff on Wall Street, where the Dow industrials plunged more than 700 points. H. Wayne Huizenga, a college dropout who built a business empire that included Blockbuster Entertainment and three professional sports franchises, died at his Florida home at the age of 80.

One year ago: Ukrainian forces fought off continuing Russian efforts to occupy Mariupol and claimed to have retaken a strategic suburb of Kyiv, mounting a defense so dogged that stoked fears Russia's Vladimir Putin would escalate the war to new heights. Facing Republican senators' pointed questions in her confirmation hearings, Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson forcefully defended her record as a federal judge and declared she would rule "from a position of neutrality" if confirmed as the first Black woman on the high court. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal Party reached an agreement with the leftist opposition New Democratic Party to keep his party in power until 2025. Actor Amanda Bynes was released from a court conservatorship that put her life and financial decisions in her parents' control for nearly nine years.

Today's Birthdays: Evangelist broadcaster Pat Robertson is 93. Actor William Shatner is 92. Actor M. Emmet Walsh is 88. Actor-singer Jeremy Clyde is 82. Singer-guitarist George Benson is 80. Writer James Patterson is 76. CNN newscaster Wolf Blitzer is 75. Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber is 75. Actor Fanny Ardant is 74. Sportscaster Bob Costas is 71. Country singer James House is 68. Actor Lena Olin is 68. Singer-actor Stephanie Mills is 66. Actor Matthew Modine is 64. Actor-comedian Keegan-Michael Key is 52. Actor Will Yun Lee is 52. Olympic silver medal figure skater Elvis Stojko is 51. Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., is 50. Actor Guillermo Diaz is 48. Actor Anne Dudek is 47. Actor Cole Hauser is 48. Actor Kellie Williams is 47. Actor Reese Witherspoon is 47. Rock musician John Otto (Limp Bizkit) is 46. Actor Tiffany Dupont is 42. Rapper Mims is 42. Actor Constance Wu is 41. Actor James Wolk is 38.