Today is Monday, March 6, the 65th day of 2017. There are 300 days left in the year.
Today's Highlight in History:
On March 6, 1857, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Dred Scott v. Sandford, ruled 7-2 that Scott, a slave, was not an American citizen and therefore could not sue for his freedom in federal court.
On this date:
In 1834, the city of York in Upper Canada was incorporated as Toronto.
In 1836, the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, fell to Mexican forces after a 13-day siege.
In 1853, Verdi's opera "La Traviata" premiered in Venice, Italy.
In 1933, a national bank holiday declared by President Franklin D. Roosevelt aimed at calming panicked depositors went into effect. Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak, wounded in an attempt on Roosevelt's life the previous month, died at a Miami hospital at age 59.
In 1944, U.S. heavy bombers staged the first full-scale American raid on Berlin during World War II.
In 1953, Georgy Malenkov was named premier of the Soviet Union a day after the death of Josef Stalin.
In 1957, the British Gold Coast and British Togoland became the independent state of Ghana.
In 1967, the daughter of Josef Stalin, Svetlana Alliluyeva (ah-lee-loo-YAY'-vah), appeared at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi and declared her intention to defect to the West. Singer-actor Nelson Eddy, 65, died in Palm Beach, Florida.
In 1970, a bomb being built inside a Greenwich Village townhouse by the radical Weathermen accidentally went off, destroying the house and killing three group members.
In 1981, Walter Cronkite signed off for the last time as principal anchorman of "The CBS Evening News."
In 1987, 193 people died when the British ferry Herald of Free Enterprise capsized off the Belgian port of Zeebrugge (zay-BRUKH'-ah). The first "Lethal Weapon" movie, starring Mel Gibson and Danny Glover, was released by Warner Bros.
In 1997, a gunman stole a million-dollar Picasso portrait ("Tete de Femme") from a London gallery. (The painting was recovered and two suspects arrested a week later.) Britain's Queen Elizabeth II launched the first official royal website.