Todayis Monday, March 11, the 70th day of 2002. There are 295 days left in the year.

On this dateIn 1810, Emperor Napoleon of France was married by proxy to Archduchess Marie Louise of Austria.

In 1888, the famous ‘Blizzard of ‘88’ struck the northeastern United States, resulting in some 400 deaths.

In 1959, the Lorraine Hansberry drama ‘A Raisin in the Sun’ opened at New York’s Ethel Barrymore Theatre.

In 1965, the Rev. James J. Reeb, a white minister from Boston, died after being beaten by whites during civil rights disturbances in Selma, Ala.

In 1977, more than 130 hostages held in Washington, D.C., by Hanafi Muslims were freed after ambassadors from three Islamic nations joined the negotiations.

In 1982, protesting his innocence, Sen. Harrison A. Williams Jr., D-N.J., resigned after 23 years in the Senate, rather than face expulsion in the wake of his ABSCAM conviction.

In 1985, Mikhail S. Gorbachev was chosen to succeed the late Soviet President Konstantin U. Chernenko.

Thought for Today

<*“Never vote for a tax bill nor against an appropriations bill.” — American political maxim.