Today in HistoryToday is Saturday, March 24, the 83rd day of 2007. There are 282 days left in the year.

ON THIS DATE

In 1882, German scientist Robert Koch announced he had discovered the tuberculosis bacillus.

In 1944, in occupied Rome, the Nazis executed more than 300 civilians in reprisal for an attack by Italian partisans the day before that killed 32 German soldiers.

In 1980, one of El Salvador’s most respected Roman Catholic Church leaders, Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero, was shot to death by gunmen as he celebrated Mass in San Salvador.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

“I like the moment when I break a man’s ego” — former world chess champion Bobby Fischer to Newsweek magazine in 1972.