Today is Tuesday, March 12th, the 71st day of the year.There are 294 days until the end of the year.
On this day:
In 1894, the first bottles of Coca-Cola were sold.
In 1912, the Girl Scouts organization was founded.The group was originally known as the American Girl Guides.
In 1933, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivered the first of his fireside chats to America.
In 1955, jazz legend Charlie "Bird" Parker died at the age of 34.
In 1964, civil rights activist Malcolm X resigned from the Nation of Islam.
In 1980, a Chicago jury found John Wayne Gacy guilty of 33 murders.He was later sentenced to death.
In 1985, former President Richard Nixon announced he would give up Secret Service protection and would instead hire his own protection.The move was designed to save taxpayers three-million dollars each year.
In 1987, legendary Ohio State University football coach Woody Hayes died at the age of 74.
In 1992, Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker announced they were divorcing.
In 1996, Mahmoud Abdul Rauf of the Denver Nuggets was suspended without pay for refusing to stand during the national anthem.He cited his Islamic beliefs as the reason for his actions.
In 2000, in an unprecedented moment in the history of the church, Pope John Paul the Second asked God's forgiveness for the sins of Roman Catholics through the ages, including wrongs inflicted on Jews, women and minorities.
In 2001, talk show host Morton Downey, Jr. died at the age of 67.
In 2002, Houston homemaker Andrea Yates was convicted of murder in the drowning deaths of her five children in the family bathtub.She was later sentenced to life in prison.
In 2003, more than nine months after she was kidnapped from the bedroom of her Salt Lake City, Utah home, 15-year-old Elizabeth Smart was reunited with her family.Police arrested drifter David Brian Mitchell and Wanda Barzee who were with Smart when police stopped the car she was riding in following a witness tip.
In 2003, actress Lynne Thigpen died at the age of 54.Thigpen's acting credits included the TV series "The District" and the children's series "Where In The World Is Carmen San Diego?"
In 2008, four days after reports surfaced linking him to a high priced prostitution ring, New York Governor Eliot Spitzer announced his resignation from office.
In 2011, NFL owners locked out players after the league and its players association failed to come to terms on a new collective bargaining agreement.The lockout marked the first work stoppage in the NFL since 1987.
In 2013, the first day of the papal conclave ended without the election of a new Pope.Black smoke emerged from a chimney in the Sistine Chapel signaling that the first vote to choose the new head of the Roman Catholic Church was unsuccessful.