#Middlebury
On March 6, 1776, a committee of the New York Provincial Congress instructs Major William Malcolm to dismantle the Sandy Hook lighthouse to prevent the lighthouse from helping the British by warning ships of the rocky shore. He succeeded.- On March 3, 1845, Congress reins in President John Tyler’s zealous use of the presidential veto, overriding it with the necessary two-thirds vote. This marked Congress’ first use of the Constitutional provision allowing veto overrides.
- On March 1, 1932, Charles Lindbergh, Jr., the 20-month-old son of aviation hero Charles Lindbergh, is kidnapped from the family’s new mansion in New Jersey. The baby’s body was found a mile from the home. One of the $70,000 ransom bills was discovered and tracked to a German immigrant. He was tried, convicted and electrocuted in 1936.
- On March 4, 1944, Louis “Lepke” Buchalter, the head of Murder, Inc., is executed at Sing Sing Prison in New York. Lepke’s downfall came when several members of his notorious killing squad turned into witnesses for the government.
- On Feb. 28, 1953, Cambridge University scientists James Watson and Francis Crick announce that they have determined the double-helix structure of DNA, the molecule containing human genes. The molecular biologists were aided significantly by the work of another researcher, Rosalind Franklin, although she did not share the subsequent Nobel Prize.
- On March 5, 1963, the Hula Hoop, a hip-swiveling toy that became a huge fad across America when it was first marketed by Wham-O in 1958, is patented. An estimated 25 million Hula Hoops were sold in its first four months of production.
- On March 2, 1978, two men steal the corpse of the film actor Charles Chaplin from a cemetery in Switzerland. Chaplin’s wife refused to pay the $600,000 ransom and police later arrested two auto mechanics who were convicted of grave robbing and attempted extortion.
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