March 23
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Featured Event
Division of Armed Forces History, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
Last U.S. Army pigeons put up for sale
On this day in 1957, the last of the U.S. Army’s combat pigeons were retired. Trained pigeons had served during wartime for more than 50 years, traveling hundreds or even thousands of miles to deliver messages. The birds were especially valuable during World War I, as telegraph lines could be easily cut or intercepted. One pigeon, Cher Ami, is credited with carrying a message that saved members of the U.S. Army’s 77th Division in 1918. However, as new forms of communication emerged, pigeons became increasingly obsolete. They were officially retired in 1956, and those that had seen combat were placed in zoos. The remaining 1,018 pigeons were sold to eager customers. [Read today’s edition of Today in History > >]
Featured Biography
Featured Biography
Archive Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
American actress Elizabeth Taylor, who died this day in 2011, earned acclaim—and two Academy Awards—for her portrayal of emotionally volatile characters, though her acting was often overshadowed by her personal life.
Famous Birthdays
More on March 23
© DigitalGlobe/ScapeWare3d—Maxar/Getty Images
2021
The Suez Canal, one of the world’s most heavily used shipping lanes, was blocked after one of the largest container ships in the world, the Ever Given, ran aground. It took six days to clear the vessel. [Take our quiz about canals and straits.]
NASA
2001
Although designed for only 5 years of service, the Soviet/Russian space station Mir ended 15 years in orbit when it reentered Earth’s atmosphere, falling into the South Pacific Ocean. [Sort fact from fiction in our space exploration quiz.]
© 1997 Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation
1998
James Cameron’s epic drama Titanic (1997) won 11 Academy Awards, tying the record set by Ben-Hur (1959). [Test your knowledge of this blockbuster of titanic proportions.]
Katsumi Kasahara—AP/Shutterstock.com
1996
Lee Teng-hui won Taiwan’s first direct presidential election; during his time in office, Lee worked to democratize Taiwan’s political system. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about Asia.]
Courtesy, The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library
1983
In a nationwide television address, U.S. President Ronald Reagan announced the Strategic Defense Initiative, popularly known as Star Wars, a proposed strategic defensive system against potential nuclear attacks. [Discover how well you know U.S. presidents.]
Image: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1976
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights entered into force, incorporating almost all the international human rights proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948.
© Everett Historical/Shutterstock.com
1933
The German Reichstag, dominated by the Nazi Party and German National People’s Party, voted to pass the Enabling Act, thereby assuring Nazi primacy, in a process that began with the Reichstag fire about a month prior. [Take our quiz about infamous Nazis.]
Rene Burri/Magnum
1910
Japanese director Kurosawa Akira—who won worldwide acclaim with subtle, brilliantly composed films, such as Rashōmon (1950), that combined Japanese historic themes with a Western sense of action and drama—was born. [Test your knowledge of cinema.]
Courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art Film Stills Archive, New York City
1908
American actress Joan Crawford, who made her initial impact as a vivacious Jazz Age flapper but later matured into a star of psychological melodramas, was born. [Sort fact from fiction in our actors quiz.]
Bryn Mawr College Archives
1882
German mathematician Emmy Noether, whose innovations in higher algebra made her the most creative abstract algebraist of modern times, was born. [Take our math quiz.]
Courtesy of Otis Elevator Co.
1857
American inventor Elisha Otis installed the first commercial elevator, in a department store in New York City. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about inventions and inventors.]
© Fine Art Images—Heritage Images/Getty Images
1849
At the Battle of Novara, during the first Italian War of Independence, outnumbered Austrian troops under Field Marshal Joseph Radetzky destroyed the poorly trained Italian troops of Charles Albert, king of Sardinia-Piedmont. [Match the battle with the war.]
Architect of the Capitol
1806
Having completed the first U.S. overland expedition to the Pacific coast, explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark began their return to St. Louis, Missouri, where their journey had begun in May 1804.
Currier & Ives, c1876/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (neg. no. LC-USZC2-2452)
1775
Patrick Henry, a major figure of the American Revolution, delivered the well-known speech featuring the phrase “give me liberty or give me death” at the second Virginia Convention, at St. John’s Church, Richmond. [ How much do you know about the American Revolution?]