On This Day: March 26

This is the 85th day of the year.

Fact of the Day: earthquakes

Major earthquakes can set the whole Earth ringing like a giant bell. The frequencies are too low for the human ear to detect, but they can be measured by sensitive seismographs. After a Chilean earthquake in 1950, with a magnitude of 8.7 on the Richter scale and an intensity of 11 on the Mercalli scale - the Earth reverberated for a month.

Holidays

Feast day of St. William of Norwich, St. Liudger, St. Felix of Trier, St. CaSt.ulus of Rome, St. Braulio, and St. Basil of Rome.

Bangladesh: Independence Day.

Spain: Fiesta del Arbol / Feast of the Tree or Arbor Day.

Hawaii: Prince Jonah Kuhio Kalanianaole Day (birthdate Hawaii's second delegate to Congress).

Events

1804 - The Louisiana Purchase was divided into the Territory of Orleans and the District of Louisiana.

1885 - The Eastman Dry Plate and Film Co. of Rochester, New York, manufactured the first commercial motion picture film.

1953 - Dr. Jonas Salk announced the success of his vaccine against poliomyelitis.

1964 - The musical "Funny Girl" opened on Broadway.

1971 - East Pakistan proclaimed its independence, taking the name Bangladesh.

1979 - At the White House, Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin signed an historic peace agreement.

1982 - Groundbreaking ceremonies took place in Washington, D.C. for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

2000 - Vladimir Putin was elected Russia's second democratically-chosen president.

Births

1874 - Condé Nast, American publisher.

1875 - Robert Frost, American Pulitzer Prize-winning poet.

1880 - Duncan Hines, American author, traveler, cake mix inventor.

1904 - Joseph Campbell, American author, mythologist.

1911 - Tennessee (Thomas) Williams, American Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright.

1914 - William Westmoreland, U.S. Army General, head of forces in Vietnam.

Deaths

2003 - Former U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-NY.