1790: John Tyler is born: On this day in 1790, future President John Tyler is born in Charles City County, Virginia. Tyler was the last president to hail from the colonial Virginia planter class that also produced George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe. Through influential family ties, Tyler gained a seat in the Virginia House of Delegates in 1811, and then went on to serve in the army during the War of 1812 and in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1816 to 1821. More here

1929: Herbert Hoover has telephone installed in Oval Office: On this day in 1929, President Herbert Hoover has a phone installed at his desk in the Oval Office of the White House. It took a while to get the line to Hoover’s desk working correctly and the president complained to aides when his son was unable to get through on the Oval Office phone from an outside line. Previously, Hoover had used a phone located in the foyer just outside the office. Telephones and a telephone switchboard had been in use at the White House since 1878, when President Rutherford B. Hayes had the first one installed, but no phone had ever been installed at the president’s desk until Hoover’s administration. More here

1951: The Mad Bomber strikes in New York: On this day in 1951, a homemade device explodes at Grand Central Station in New York City, startling commuters but injuring no one. In the next few months, five more bombs were found at landmark sites around New York, including the public library. Authorities realized that this new wave of terrorist acts was the work of the Mad Bomber.

New York’s first experience with the so-called Mad Bomber was on November 16, 1940, when a pipe bomb was left in the Edison building with a note that read, “Con Edison crooks, this is for you.” More bombs were recovered in 1941, each more powerful than the last, until the Mad Bomber sent a note in December stating, “I will make no more bomb units for the duration of the war.” He went on to say that Con Edison, New York’s electric utility company, would be brought to justice in due time. More here

1973: U.S. withdraws from Vietnam: Two months after the signing of the Vietnam peace agreement, the last U.S. combat troops leave South Vietnam as Hanoi frees the remaining American prisoners of war held in North Vietnam. America’s direct eight-year intervention in the Vietnam War was at an end. In Saigon, some 7,000 U.S. Department of Defense civilian employees remained behind to aid South Vietnam in conducting what looked to be a fierce and ongoing war with communist North Vietnam. More here

1982: Earthquake and volcano do double damage in Mexico: The combination of an earthquake and a volcanic eruption at El Chichon in southern Mexico converts a hill into a crater, kills thousands of people and destroys acres of farmland on this day in 1982. The eruptions, which continued for over a week, caught many of the area residents unaware and unprepared. More here

1999: The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above the 10,000 mark (10,006.78) for the first time: On March 29, 1999, the average closed above the 10,000 mark (10,006.78) after flirting with it for two weeks. This prompted a celebration on the trading floor, complete with party hats. The scene at the exchange made front page headlines on many U.S. newspapers such as The New York Times. On May 3, 1999, the Dow achieved its first close above the 11,000 mark (11,014.70). Total gains for the decade exceeded 315%; from the 2,753 level to 11,497. More here

2004: Ireland becomes the first country in the world to ban smoking in all work places, including bars and restaurants: In the Republic of Ireland, the main opposition was from publicans. Ireland was the world’s first country to introduce a full workplace smoking ban. The Irish workplace ban was introduced with the intention of protecting workers from passive smoking (“second-hand smoke”) and to discourage smoking in a nation with a high percentage of smokers. Many pubs introduced “outdoor” arrangements (generally heated areas with shelters). It was speculated by opponents that the ban would increase the amount of drinking and smoking in the home, but recent studies showed this was not the case.

Ireland’s Office of Tobacco Control website indicates that “an evaluation of the official hospitality sector data shows there has been no adverse economic effect from the introduction of this measure (the March 2004 national ban on smoking in bars, restaurants, etc). It has been claimed that the ban was a significant contributing factor to the closure of hundreds of small rural pubs, with almost 440 fewer licenses renewed in 2006 than in 2005. More here

2010: Two female suicide bombers hit the Moscow Metro system at the peak of the morning rush hour, killing 40: The 2010 Moscow Metro bombings were suicide bombings carried out by two women during the morning rush hour of March 29, 2010, at two stations of the Moscow Metro (Lubyanka and Park Kultury), with roughly 40 minutes interval between. At least 40 people were killed, and over 100 injured. Russian officials called the incident “the deadliest and most sophisticated terrorist attack in the Russian capital in six years”, a reference to the Avtozavodskaya and Rizhskaya bombings in 2004. At the time of the attacks, an estimated 500,000 people were commuting through Moscow’s metro system. More here

More today in History here and here

Previous entries here