On This Day in History, March 19 ... On this day in 1931, Nevada legalizes gambling. In an attempt to lift the state out of the hard times of the Great Depression, the Nevada state legislature votes to legalize gambling. Located in the Great Basin desert, few settlers chose to live in Nevada after the United States acquired the territory at the end of the Mexican War in 1848. In 1859, the discovery of the Comstock Lode of gold and silver spurred the first substantial number of settlers into Nevada to exploit the territorys mining opportunities. Five years later, during the Civil War, Nevada was hastily made the 36th state in order to strengthen the Union. --- On this day in 1945, the commander of the German Home Army, Gen. Friedrich Fromm, is shot by a firing squad for his part in the July plot to assassinate the Fuhrer. The fact that Fromms participation was half-hearted did not save him. By 1944, many high-ranking German officials had made up their minds that Hitler must die. He was leading Germany in a suicidal war on two fronts, and they believed that assassination was the only way to stop him. According to the plan, coup detat would follow the assassination, and a new government in Berlin would save Germany from complete destruction at the hands of the Allies. All did not go according to plan, however. Col. Claus von Stauffenberg was given the task of planting a bomb during a conference that was to be held at Hitlers holiday retreat, Berchtesgaden (but was later moved to Hitlers headquarters at Rastenburg). Stauffenberg was chief of staff to Gen. Friedrich Fromm. Fromm, chief of the Home Army (composed of reservists who remained behind the front lines to preserve order at home), was inclined to the conspirators plot, but agreed to cooperate actively in the coup only if the assassination was successful. --- On March 19, 1953, legendary filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille wins the only Academy Award of his career when The Greatest Show on Earth takes home an Oscar for Best Picture. The film, a big-budget extravaganza about circus life, starred Charlton Heston, Betty Hutton, and Cornel Wilde. Born in Ashfield, Massachusetts, in 1881, DeMille came from a theatrical family and studied acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. In 1913, hoping to exploit the fledgling movie industry, he joined with Jesse Lasky, Samuel Goldwyn, and Arthur Freed in forming the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company, which later grew into Paramount Pictures. He produced and co-directed a silent western called The Squaw Man (1914), which at six reels was the first feature-length film made in the small town of Hollywood, California. --- On this day in 2005, John DeLorean, an innovative auto industry executive and founder of the DeLorean Motor Company, dies at the age of 80 in New Jersey. In the early 1980s, the DeLorean Motor Company produced just one model, the DMC-12, a sleek sports car with gull-wing doors that opened upward, before going bankrupt. John DeLorean was charged with drug trafficking in an effort to raise funds for his struggling company. Approximately 9,000 DMC-12s in total were produced. The car later became a collectors item and received a big publicity boost when it was featured as a time-travel machine in the Back to the Future movies starring Michael J. Fox. DeLorean was born on January 6, 1925, and grew up in Detroit. He worked as an engineer for the Packard Motor Company and later moved to General Motors, where he was credited with developing the Pontiac GTO, the first muscle car, which launched in 1964. DeLorean quickly rose through the ranks at GM, becoming the youngest general manager of the Pontiac division and then several years later, the youngest head of Chevrolet. He earned a reputation for corporate innovation and was also known for his flashy, jet-set lifestyle.
Posted on: Wed, 19 Mar 2014 10:18:27 +0000
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