@rh18bold:Today in History

Today is Monday, March 31, the 91st day of 2008. There are 275 days left in the year.

On this date

In 1880, Wabash, Indiana, became the first town in the world to be illuminated by electrical lighting.

In 1889, French engineer Gustave Eiffel unfurled the French tricolour from atop the Eiffel Tower, officially marking its completion.

In 1917, the US purchase of the Danish West Indies for $25 million, agreed the previous August, took effect. They were renamed the US Virgin Islands.In 1949, Newfoundland (now called Newfoundland and Labrador) entered confederation as Canada's tenth province.

In 1959, Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, fleeing Communist Chinese repression of an uprising in Tibet, arrived at the Indian border and was granted political asylum.

In 1979, Britain's military ties with Malta ended after 181 years when the destroyer HMS London left Valletta harbour.

In 1991, the Warsaw Pact, which held Eastern Europe under tight Kremlin control for 36 years, formally ceased to exist as a military alliance when Soviet commanders surrendered their powers.

In 1994, Israel and the PLO signed an agreement to put international observers in the West Bank town of Hebron, the first time Israel had agreed to an international presence in the occupied territories since it captured them in 1967.

Thought for Today

"All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are moveable, and those that move." — Arab proverb.