Updated March 20, 2012, 2:28 pm
On March 20, 1995, in Tokyo, 12 people were killed, more than 5,500 others sickened when packages containing the poisonous gas sarin leaked on five separate subway trains.
Go to article »On March 20, 1856, Frederick W. Taylor, an American inventor who helped industries worldwide become more efficient, was born. Following his death on March 21, 1915, his obituary appeared in The Times.
Go to obituary » | Other birthdays »
On This Date
By The Associated Press
1413 England’s King Henry IV died. 1727 Sir Isaac Newton – physicist, mathematician and astronomer – died in London. 1815 Napoleon Bonaparte entered Paris, beginning his Hundred Days rule. 1816 The Supreme Court affirmed its right to review state court decisions. 1828 Playwright Henrik Ibsen was born in Skien, Norway. 1852 Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel about slavery, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” was published. 1969 Rock musician John Lennon of the Beatles married Yoko Ono in Gibraltar. 1987 The Food and Drug Administration approved the sale of AZT, a drug shown to prolong the lives of some AIDS patients. 1995 A doomsday cult released sarin nerve gas in five Tokyo subway stations, killing 12 people and injuring more than 5,500. 1996 A jury in Los Angeles convicted Erik and Lyle Menendez of first-degree murder in the shotgun slayings of their millionaire parents. (They are serving life without parole.) 1997 Liggett Group settled 22 state lawsuits by admitting the industry markets cigarettes to teenagers and agreeing to warn on every pack that smoking is addictive. 2004 The U.S. military charged six soldiers with abusing inmates at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Current Birthdays
By The Associated Press
Actor-writer-director Carl Reiner turns 90 years old today.
AP Photo/Dan Steinberg
Director Spike Lee turns 55 years old today.
AP Photo/Peter Kramer
1931 Hal Linden, Actor (“Barney Miller”), turns 81 1939 Brian Mulroney, Former Canadian prime minister, turns 73 1948 Bobby Orr, Hockey Hall of Famer, turns 64 1950 William Hurt, Actor, turns 62 1950 Carl Palmer, Rock musician (Emerson, Lake and Palmer), turns 62 1958 Holly Hunter, Actress, turns 54 1963 Kathy Ireland, Model, turns 49 1968 Liza Snyder, Actress (“Yes, Dear”), turns 44 1970 Michael Rapaport, Actor, turns 42
Historic Birthdays
Frederick W. Taylor 3/20/1856 – 3/21/1915 American efficiency expertGo to obituary »
60 Ovid 3/20/43BC – //AD 17
Roman poet known for his “Metamorphoses”49 Torbern Olof Bergman 3/20/1735 – 7/8/1784
Swedish chemist and naturalist87 Jean-Antoine Houdon 3/20/1741 – 7/15/1828
French sculptor in the 18th century Rococo style68 George Caleb Bingham 3/20/1811 – 7/7/1879
American frontier politician and painter63 E.Z.C. Judson 3/20/1823 – 7/16/1886
American adventurer and writer of 19th century “dime novels”78 Henrik Ibsen 3/20/1828 – 5/23/1906
Norwegian playwright92 Charles William Eliot 3/20/1834 – 8/22/1926
American educator86 B. F. Skinner 3/20/1904 – 8/18/1990
American psychologist and exponent of behaviorism77 Sir Michael Redgrave 3/20/1908 – 3/21/1985
English stage and screen actor80 Alfonso Garcia Robles 3/20/1911 – 9/2/1991
Mexican Nobel Peace Prize-winning diplomat and advocate of nuclear disarmament73 John Ehrlichman 3/20/1925 – 2/14/1999
American presidential assistant during Nixon administration
