Today in History

Today is Saturday, March 28, the 87th day of 2015. There are 278 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On March 28, 1979, America's worst commercial nuclear accident occurred with a partial meltdown inside the Unit 2 reactor at the Three Mile Island plant near Middletown, Pennsylvania.

On this date:

In 1515, St. Teresa of Avila was born Teresa de Cepeda y Ahumada.

In 1834, the U.S. Senate voted to censure President Andrew Jackson for the removal of federal deposits from the Bank of the United States.

In 1854, during the Crimean War, Britain and France declared war on Russia.

In 1930, the names of the Turkish cities of Constantinople and Angora were changed to Istanbul and Ankara.

In 1935, the notorious Nazi propaganda film "Triumph des Willens" (Triumph of the Will), directed by Leni Riefenstahl, premiered in Berlin with Adolf Hitler present.

In 1941, novelist and critic Virginia Woolf, 59, drowned herself near her home in Lewes, East Sussex, England.

In 1955, John Marshall Harlan II was sworn in as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

In 1965, an earthquake of magnitude 7.4 struck La Ligua, Chile, leaving about 400 people dead or missing, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

In 1987, Maria von Trapp, whose life story inspired the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical "The Sound of Music," died in Morrisville, Vermont, at age 82.

In 1990, President George H.W. Bush presented the Congressional Gold Medal to the widow of U.S. Olympic legend Jesse Owens.

Ten years ago: The Colorado Supreme Court threw out the death penalty in a rape-and-murder case because five of the trial jurors had consulted the Bible and quoted Scripture during deliberations. (The U.S. Supreme Court refused to consider reinstating the death sentence of Robert Harlan, who ended up being resentenced to life in prison for the murder of cocktail waitress Rhonda Maloney.) A major earthquake off the west coast of Indonesia killed some 1,300 people.

Five years ago: President Barack Obama secretly visited Afghanistan near the front lines of the increasingly bloody 8-year-old war. Actress-writer June Havoc, 97, whose childhood in vaudeville was immortalized in the musical "Gypsy," died in Stamford, Connecticut. Jazz guitarist Herb Ellis died in Los Angeles at age 88.

One year ago: Russian President Vladimir Putin called President Barack Obama to discuss a solution to the crisis in Ukraine; the leaders agreed that top U.S. and Russian diplomats should work on the details. Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan became the first man in 12 years to win the Olympic and world figure skating titles in the same year. Jeremiah Denton, 89, a former U.S. senator who'd survived 7 1/2 years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam, died in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Ray Rice married Janay Palmer a day after the Baltimore Ravens running back was indicted for aggravated assault for punching his fiancee in an Atlantic City, New Jersey, casino elevator. (Charges against Rice were dropped when he agreed to enter an intervention program.)

Thought for Today: "Those who say they give the public what it wants begin by underestimating public taste and end by debauching it." — T.S. Eliot, American-Anglo poet and critic (1888-1965).

(Above Advance for Use Saturday, March 28)