GOOD MORNING – TODAY IS MONDAY, March 23, the 82nd day of 2015 with 283 to follow. Sunrise in the Boston area is @ 6:43 and sunset is @ 6:58. The moon is waxing. The morning stars are stars are Mercury, Neptune & Saturn. The evening stars are Jupiter, Mars, Uranus & Venus.

ON THIS DAY IN: 1743 – George Frederic Handel’s “Messiah” had its London premiere.

1775 – Patrick Henry made his famous call for America’s independence from Britain, “Give me liberty, or give me death!” at a political convention.

1794 – Josiah G. Pierson patented a rivet machine.

1848 – Hungary proclaimed its independence of Austria.

1857 – Elisha Otis installed the first modern passenger elevator in a public building, in New York City.

1858 – Eleazer A. Gardner of Philadelphia patented the cable streetcar.

1880 – John Stevens patented the device called a grain crushing mill.

1903 – The Wright brothers obtained an airplane patent.

1909 – British Lt. Ernest Shackleton found the magnetic South Pole.

1919 – Benito Mussolini founded his Fascist political movement in Italy. The name Fasci di Combattimento, came from the Italian peasant revolutionaries, or “Fighting Bands,” from the 19th century.

1942 – The U.S. Army started moving Japanese-Americans to internment camps.

1950 – “Beat the Clock” premiered on TV.

1956 – Pakistan became an independent republic within the British Commonwealth.

1981 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states could require, with some exceptions, parental notification when teen-age girls seek abortions.

1989 – After 33 years, Dick Clark retired from hosting “American Bandstand.”

2001 – Russia’s orbiting Mir space station ended its 15-year trip with a fiery plunge into theSouth Pacific.