12-03-2025
Today in History: March 12, Gandhi begins ‘Salt March'
In 1912, mill owners in Lawrence ended what was known as 'Bread and Roses'' strike, restoring much of the pay cuts to their low wage workers after congressional hearings exposed brutal factory conditions.
In 1912, the Girl Scouts of the USA had its beginnings as Juliette Gordon Low of Savannah, Ga., founded the first American troop of the Girl Guides.
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In 1928, the St. Francis Dam north of Los Angeles failed, sending 12 billion gallons of water into San Francisquito Canyon and killing over 400 people.
In 1930, Mohandas Gandhi began his 24-day, 240 mile 'Salt March,' to the Indian village of Dandi, as an act of non-violent civil disobedience to protest the salt tax levied by colonial Britain.
In 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered the first of his 'fireside chats,' a series of evening radio broadcasts to the American public.
In 1938, Nazi Germany annexed Austria, as German troops crossed the border.
In 1947, President Truman announced what became known as the 'Truman Doctrine' to help Greece and Turkey resist Communism during the Cold War.
In 1980, a Chicago jury found John Wayne Gacy Jr. guilty of the murders of 33 men and boys. (He was executed in May 1994.)
In 2003, Elizabeth Smart, a girl who vanished from her bedroom nine months earlier, was found alive in a Salt Lake City suburb with two drifters, Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Barzee. (Mitchell is serving a life sentence for kidnapping; Barzee was released from prison in 2018.)
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In 2020, with COVID-19 cases rising, the Boston Marathon was postponed for the firs time in its history.
