Today is Wednesday, March 4, the 64th day of 2020. There are 302 days left in the year.
On March 4, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated for a second term of office; with the end of the Civil War in sight, Lincoln declared: “With malice toward none, with charity for all.”
On this date:
In 1789, the Constitution of the United States went into effect as the first Federal Congress met in New York. (The lawmakers then adjourned for lack of a quorum.)
In 1791, Vermont became the 14th state.
In 1793, George Washington was sworn in for a second term as president of the United States during a ceremony in Philadelphia.
In 1925, President Calvin Coolidge’s inauguration was broadcast live on 21 radio stations coast-to-coast.
In 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt took office as America’s 32nd president.
In 1964, Teamsters president James Hoffa and three co-defendants were found guilty by a federal court in Chattanooga, Tennessee, of jury tampering.
In 1966, John Lennon of The Beatles was quoted in the London Evening Standard as saying, “We’re more popular than Jesus now.” (After his comments caused an angry backlash in the United States, Lennon sought to clarify his remarks, telling reporters, “If I had said television was more popular than Jesus, I might have got away with it.”)
In 1974, the first issue of People magazine, then called People Weekly, was published by Time-Life Inc.; on the cover was actress Mia Farrow.
In 1977, some 1,500 people were killed in an earthquake that shook southern and eastern Europe.
In 1987, President Ronald Reagan addressed the nation on the Iran-Contra affair, acknowledging that his overtures to Iran had “deteriorated” into an arms-for-hostages deal.
In 1994, in New York, four extremists were convicted of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing that killed six people and injured more than a thousand. Actor-comedian John Candy died in Durango, Mexico, at age 43.
In 1998, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that sexual harassment at work can be illegal even when the offender and victim are of the same gender.