This Week in History: March 25-29
This Week in History: March 25-29
March 25, 2013 -- intro: Check out some of the most important political events that happened this week in history.
quicklist: 1title: March 25text:1931: Ida B. Wells-Barnett, a former slave who became an activist and early proponent of civil rights, died on this day. She was journalist whose main cause was to do away with the practice of lynching.
1996: The U.S. government issued a newly redesigned $100 bill. The U.S. Treasury put $80 billion-worth of the redesigned bill into circulation.
2012: President Barack Obama arrived in Seoul, South Korea, for a three-day trip centered around an international nuclear security summit. Top officials from more than 50 countries, including China and Russia, joined President Obama at the summit.
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quicklist:2title: March 26text:1979: The Camp David peace treaty was signed by Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin during a ceremony at the White House. The signing established diplomatic and commercial ties between Egypt and Israel that ended longtime hostility between the two countries.
1982: The groundbreaking of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial took place in Washington, D.C. The memorial commemorated more than 58,000 Americans who were killed in Vietnam or remained missing.
2011: Geraldine Ferraro, the first woman to run for vice president on a major party ticket, died at Massachusetts General Hospital at age 75. Ferraro, who ran as Walter Mondale's vice presidential running mate in 1984 on the Democratic Party ticket, died of complications from multiple myeloma, a blood cancer that she had battled for 12 years.
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quicklist:3title: March 27 text:1866: President Andrew Johnson vetoed the civil rights bill, which later become the 14th Amendment after his veto was overridden by Congress.
In his veto message Johnson said, "I regret that the bill, which has passed both houses of Congress, entitled, 'An act to protect all persons in the United States in their civil rights and furnish the means of their vindication,' contains provisions which I can not approve consistently with my sense of duty to the whole people and my obligations to the Constitution of the United States. I am therefore constrained to return it to the Senate, the House in which it originated, with my objections to its becoming a law."
1976: The Metrorail system in Washington, D.C., under construction since 1969, opened its first phase on this day in 1976.
1998: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, approved the use of the Viagra, an oral drug that treats impotence.
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quicklist:4title: March 28text: 1834: The U.S. Senate censured President Andrew Jackson for the removal of federal deposits from the Bank of the United States.
According to the Senate website, "President Andrew Jackson had vetoed an act to re-charter the Bank of the United States. That veto became a major issue in his 1832 reelection campaign, as he decisively defeated Sen. Henry Clay. After the election, Jackson moved to withdraw federal deposits from that bank.
"When the new Congress convened in December 1833, Clay's anti-administration coalition in the Senate held an eight-vote majority over Jackson's fellow Democrats. Clay then challenged Jackson on the bank issue with a Senate resolution seeking a paper the president had read to his cabinet. When Jackson refused, Clay introduced the censure resolution."
1969: Dwight David Eisenhower, 34th president of the United States, died at age 78 after a long battle against coronary heart disease.
1990: Jesse Owens, the sprinter and long jumper who won four gold medals at the Olympic Games in Berlin in 1936, posthumously received the Congressional Gold Medal from President Bush for ''humanitarian contributions in the race of life.'' The medal was presented to Owens's widow, Ruth, in a ceremony at the White House on the 10th anniversary of his death.
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quicklist: 5title: March 29text:1865: The final campaign of the Civil War, called the Appomattox campaign, began in Virginia. The series of battles resulted in the surrender of Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia and the end of the Civil War.
1961: The 23rd amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. Ratification extended voting rights in presidential elections to residents living in the District of Columbia.
1995: An amendment to the Constitution of the United States with respect to the number of terms of office of members of the Senate and the House of Representatives was rejected by the U.S. House. The amendment would have limited terms to 12 years in both the House and the Senate.
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