Page One

Today is Wednesday, March 13, the 72nd day of 2002. There are 293 days left in the year. 

Today’s Highlight in History: 

One hundred and fifty years ago, on March 13, 1852, “Uncle Sam” made his debut as a cartoon character in the New York Lantern. 

On this date: 

In 1781, the planet Uranus was discovered by Sir William Herschel. 

In 1868, the impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson began in the U.S. Senate. 

In 1901, the 23rd president of the United States, Benjamin Harrison, died in Indianapolis. 

In 1906, American suffragist Susan B. Anthony died in Rochester, N.Y. 

In 1925, a law went into effect in Tennessee prohibiting the teaching of evolution. 

In 1933, banks began to re-open after a “holiday” declared by President Franklin Roosevelt. 

In 1969, the Apollo 9 astronauts splashed down, ending a mission that included the successful testing of the Lunar Module. 

In 1980, Ford Motor Chairman Henry Ford II announced he was stepping down. 

In 1980, a jury in Winamac, Ind., found Ford Motor Co. innocent of reckless homicide in the fiery deaths of three young women riding in a Ford Pinto. 

In 1996, a gunman burst into an elementary school in Dunblane, Scotland, and opened fire on a class of kindergartners, killing 16 children and one teacher before killing himself. 

Ten years ago: The U.N. Security Council stood firm in its demand that Iraq comply totally with Gulf War cease-fire resolutions, rebuffing an appeal for leniency from Saddam Hussein’s special envoy, deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz. 

Five years ago: A Jordanian soldier fired on Israeli junior high school girls on a field trip, killing seven of them. (The soldier, Cpl. Ahmed Daqamseh, was later sentenced by a military court to life in prison.) In a southern Egyptian village, four masked militants shot and killed 14 people before escaping. 

One year ago: France announced its first case of foot-and-mouth disease, prompting the U.S. Department of Agriculture to suspend imports of livestock and fresh meat from the European Union. Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian national who was arrested with a carload of explosives just before New Year’s Eve 1999, went on trial in Los Angeles on charges of plotting to bomb Seattle and other U.S. cities during the millennium celebrations. (He was convicted of terrorism the following month.) 

Today’s Birthdays: Country singer Jan Howard is 72. Opera singer Rosalind Elias is 71. Songwriter Mike Stoller is 69. Singer-songwriter Neil Sedaka is 63. Actor William H. Macy is 52. Actor Fred Berry (“What’s Happening!!”) is 51. Actress Deborah Raffin is 49. Comedian Robin Duke is 48. Actress Dana Delany is 46. Rock musician Adam Clayton (U2) is 42. Jazz musician Terence Blanchard is 40. Actor Christopher Collet is 34. Actress Annabeth Gish is 31. Actress Tracy Wells is 31. Rapper Khujo (Goodie Mob) is 30. Actor Danny Masterson (“That 70’s Show”) is 26.