Moments in Time – February 28, 2024

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• On March 11, 2021, England’s Prince William made a public statement declaring that the British royal family was not a racist one. The announcement came on the heels of allegations from his sister-in-law, Prince Harry’s wife Meghan Markle, that she had experienced racism from some of the Windsors.
• On March 12, 1999, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland formally joined NATO, endowing the nations with a level of political and military security that had been lacking for much of the 20th century. The move was said to signify the beginning of a united Europe.
• On March 13, 1942, the U.S. Army promoted Julia Otteson Flikke, who served as a nurse during both world wars, to the rank of its first female colonel. Her second-in-command, Captain Florence A. Blanchfield, was appointed lieutenant colonel by Dwight D. Eisenhower and became the first woman in American history to hold permanent military rank.
• On March 14, 2022, singer-songwriter, actress Dolly Parton initially refused a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nomination. The Hall nevertheless kept the nomination in place, and she was ultimately voted in. Parton finally accepted her induction because it was something her fans were eager for.
• On March 15, 1959, Robert Foster created a new world record by holding his breath underwater in a California swimming pool for an astounding 13 minutes and 42.5 seconds. He would hold this record for the next 48 years.
• On March 16, 1876, 20-something variety show dancers Nelly Saunders and Rose Harland fought in America’s first public women’s boxing match at Harry Hill’s gambling resort in New York, for a prize of $200 and a silver plate. After Saunders won by a single point, the pair “left the stage arm in arm.”
• On March 17, 1905, Albert Einstein submitted his first paper on the quantum theory of light to the journal Annalen der Physik. It was the only one of his papers that year that he himself described as “very revolutionary,” and the theory would become a cornerstone of modern physics.

© 2024 King Features Synd., Inc.