Topic: On This Day...

[Simon]

Mar 20 1899

Martha M. Place, the first woman to be honored by a seat in the electric chair, dies at Sing-Sing Prison, executed for murder.

Mar 20 1928

Fred Rogers, born today in Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood.

Mar 20 1960

South African police massacre 69 black civil rights demonstrators in Sharpeville incident, which moves African National Congress to abandon its policy of nonviolence.

Mar 20 1968

The U.S. goes off the gold standard, turning paper dollars into paper tigers.

Mar 20 1969

John Lennon and Yoko Ono get married in Gibraltar. The pair go on to make, uh, beautiful music together until Lennon manages to get himself shot in New York.

Mar 20 1995

Members of the Aum cult release Sarin nerve gas in the Tokyo subway. Eleven people die and 5,500 are injured. The cult's doctrine of "Poa" make mass murder the way to save their own souls. They had intended eventually to produce 70 tons of the gas.

Mar 20 1995

Last words of Thomas J. Grasso, executed in Oklahoma by lethal injection: "I did not get my Spaghetti-O's, I got spaghetti. I want the press to know this."

Mar 20 1996

Erik and Lyle Menendez convicted of First Degree Murder. They killed their parents for their money, and then lied all about it.