Today is March 4, the sixty fourth day of the year.
There are 302 days left in the year.
Highlights in history on this date:
1632 - Sweden's King Gustavus II resumes his Palatinate campaign in Germany.
1681 - England's King Charles II grants a charter to William Penn for an area of land that later becomes Pennsylvania.
1789 - The Constitution of the United States goes into effect as the first Federal Congress meets in New York City.
1797 - British troops under Lord Lake quell rebellion in Ulster, Ireland.
1829 - An unruly crowd mobs the White House during the inaugural reception for US President Andrew Jackson.
1917 - German army begins major withdrawal on Western Front in World War I.
1933 - The start of US President Franklin Roosevelt's first administration has the first woman to serve in Cabinet: Labor Secretary Frances Perkins.
1945 - Soviet troops reach Baltic Sea in drive across German province of Pomerania.
1965 - Syria orders nationalization of nine oil companies, including affiliates of two US concerns.
1970 - French submarine with 57 aboard is lost in Mediterranean Sea off the Riviera.
1972 - Soviet Union signs agreement with Libya to jointly develop and refine Libyan oil, a pact seen as a pressure tactic against Western oil companies.
1973 - Eight Black September terrorists end their occupation of Saudi Arabian Embassy in Khartoum, Sudan, after slaying three foreign diplomats.
1977 - Earthquake devastates Bucharest and other towns in Romania, where death toll eventually reaches more than 1,000.
1987 - US President Ronald Reagan addresses the nation on the Iran-Contra affair, acknowledging his overtures to Iran had "deteriorated" into an arms-for-hostages deal.
1988 - Sikh separatists slaughter dozens of Hindus at religious festival in Kari Sari, India.
1989 - Convoys of emergency food and fuel supplies from Soviet Union reach Afghan capital of Kabul.
1990 - ANC loyalists overthrow the government of South African homeland of Ciskei.
1991 - Fierce fighting is reported in Basra, Iraq, between the Republican Guard and opponents of Saddam Hussein.
1992 - Algeria bans the Islamic Salvation Front. The Islamists take to arms and more than 75,000 people, most of them civilians, are killed in the years to come.
1994 - Four Muslim extremists are convicted in the World Trade Center bombing in New York.
1996 - A suicide bomber strikes outside Tel Aviv's biggest shopping center, killing at least 14 people. It is the fourth bombing in Israel in nine days.
1997 - Convoys of policemen and soldiers move into chaotic southern Albania, where the government has lost control after protests that began with the failure of pyramid investment schemes.
1998 - Flash floods in Pakistan kill at least 300 people, including dozens of schoolchildren trapped by raging waters. Another 1,500 people are missing and feared dead.
2001 - Bosnian Croat nationalists pledge to create their own state in Bosnia, threatening efforts to establish a lasting peace in a Balkan country struggling for stability in the aftermath of war.
2002 - The parliament of the Serbian province of Kosovo elects ethnic Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova as president, ending a political deadlock that delayed the formation of a government.
Today's Birthdays:
Prince Henry the Navigator, patron of explorers (1394-1460)
Antonio Vivaldi, Italian composer (1648-1741)
Sir Henry Raeburn, Scottish artist (1756-1823)
Charles Goren, US contract bridge authority (1901-1991)
Miriam Makeba, South African singer (1932--)
Patricia Heaton, US actress (1958--)
Chastity Bono, daughter of Sonny and Cher (1969--)
Deepak Tijori, actor
Shankar Mahadevan, musician