Moments in Time – March 20, 2025

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• On March 31, 1492, King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile issued the Alhambra Decree, which mandated that all Jews be expelled from the country by the end of July. The church had already forced much of Spain’s Jewish population to convert, and modern historians estimate that around 40,000 Jews emigrated.
• On April 1, 1963, ABC aired the first episode of “General Hospital,” which became the longest-running serial program produced in Hollywood. On the same day, rival network NBC premiered its own medical-themed soap opera, “The Doctors.” Both networks aimed to capitalize on the popularity of shows such as “Dr. Kildare” and “Ben Casey.”
• On April 2, 1992, mob boss John Gotti, aka the “Teflon Don” due to his notable ability to avoid conviction, was found guilty on 13 counts, including murder and racketeering, and sentenced to life in prison. A decade later, he died of throat cancer at age 61.
• On April 3, 1948, “The Louisiana Hayride,” a country radio program broadcast out of Shreveport, Louisiana, debuted. It launched the careers of several country music giants, and also that of a certain teenage, honey-voiced aspirant by the name of Elvis Presley.
• On April 4, 1975, Operation Babylift, an American airlift to the U.S. and other Western nations of Vietnamese children deemed war orphans, had a disastrous start when an Air Force cargo jet crashed shortly after takeoff in Saigon, killing more than 135 passengers.
• On April 5, 1984, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar scored the 31,420th point of his career, breaking Wilt Chamberlain’s NBA all-time scoring record. Abdul-Jabbar’s record would remain intact for almost four decades.
• On April 6, 1909, American explorer Robert Peary believed he had fulfilled a long-cherished dream when he, his assistant Matthew Henson and four Inuits reached what they determined to be the North Pole. Decades after Peary’s death, however, navigational errors were discovered in his travel log, in all probability placing his expedition several miles short of its goal.

© 2025 King Features Synd., Inc.