1933: FDR gives first fireside chat: On this day in 1933, eight days after his inauguration, President Franklin D. Roosevelt gives his first national radio address or “fireside chat,” broadcast directly from the White House.

Roosevelt began that first address simply: “I want to talk for a few minutes with the people of the United States about banking.” He went on to explain his recent decision to close the nation’s banks in order to stop a surge in mass withdrawals by panicked investors worried about possible bank failures. The banks would be reopening the next day, Roosevelt said, and he thanked the public for their “fortitude and good temper” during the “banking holiday.” More here

1947: Truman Doctrine is announced: In a dramatic speech to a joint session of Congress, President Harry S. Truman asks for U.S. assistance for Greece and Turkey to forestall communist domination of the two nations. Historians have often cited Truman’s address, which came to be known as the Truman Doctrine, as the official declaration of the Cold War. More here

1964: New Hampshire becomes the first U.S. state to legally sell lottery tickets: Begun in 1964, the New Hampshire Lottery (originally known as the New Hampshire Sweepstakes) is the oldest US mainland-based lottery. (The Puerto Rico Lottery has been in operation since 1934.) New Hampshire’s games include Mega Millions, Powerball, Hot Lotto, and numerous scratch tickets. New Hampshire is part of the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL), which it joined in 1995. It is also a member of the Tri-State Lottery in northern New England. These games are always drawn in New Hampshire. More here

2003: Police recover Elizabeth Smart and arrest her abductors: On this day in 2003, 15-year-old Elizabeth Smart is finally found in Sandy, Utah, nine months after being abducted from her family s home. Her alleged kidnappers, Brian David Mitchell, a drifter who the Smarts had briefly employed at their house, and his wife, Wanda Barzee, were charged with the kidnapping, as well as burglary and sexual assault. More here

2003: The Dixie Chicks backlash begins: In response to the critical comments made about him by Dixie Chicks singer Natalie Maines in the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, President George W. Bush offered this response: “The Dixie Chicks are free to speak their mind. They can say what they want to say.” Of the backlash the Dixie Chicks were then facing within the world of country music, President Bush added: “They shouldn’t have their feelings hurt just because some people don’t want to buy their records when they speak out.” This music-related sideshow to the biggest international news story of the year began on March 12, 2003, when the British newspaper The Guardian published its review of a Dixie Chicks concert at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London two nights earlier. More here

2003: Zoran ?in?i?, Prime Minister of Serbia, is assassinated in Belgrade: Zoran ?in?i?, Ph.D. (1 August 1952 – 12 March 2003) was a Serbian Prime minister, Mayor of Belgrade, long-time opposition politician and a philosopher by profession. ?in?i? was a founder of the modern Democratic Party and became its president in 1994[2]. During the 1990s, he was one of the leaders of the opposition to the regime of Slobodan Miloševi?, and became Prime Minister of Serbia in 2001 after the overthrow of Miloševi?. As Prime minister, he advocated pro-democratic reforms and European integrations of Serbia. He was assassinated in 2003 by members of the Serbian organised crime. More here

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