This Day in History

On March 5, 1770, the Boston Massacre took place as British soldiers who'd been taunted by a crowd of colonists opened fire, killing five people.

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In 1933, in German parliamentary elections six days after the Reichstag fire, the Nazi Party won 44% of the vote; the Nazis joined with a conservative nationalist party to gain a slender parliamentary majority.

In 1946, Winston Churchill delivered a speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, in which he said: "From Stettin in the Baltic, to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent."

In 1953, Soviet dictator Josef Stalin died from a stroke at age 74 after nearly three decades in power.

In 1963, country music performers Patsy Cline, Cowboy Copas and Hawkshaw Hawkins died in the crash of their plane, a Piper Comanche, near Camden, Tennessee, along with pilot Randy Hughes (Cline's manager).

In 1979, NASA's Voyager 1 space probe made its closest approach to Jupiter, sending back photographs of the planet and its moons.

In 1982, comedian John Belushi was found dead of a drug overdose in a rented bungalow at Hollywood's Chateau Marmont hotel; he was 33.

In 2004, Martha Stewart was convicted in New York of conspiracy, obstructing justice and lying to the government about why she'd sold her Imclone stock just before the stock's price plummeted; her ex-stockbroker, Peter Bacanovic, also was found guilty in the stock scandal. (Each later received a five-month prison sentence.)

In 2022, a promised ceasefire in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol collapsed amid scenes of terror in the besieged town. The number of people fleeing the country reached 1.4 million just 10 days after Russian forces invaded.

Today's birthdays: Actor Fred Williamson is 87. Magician Penn Jillette is 70. Actor Adriana Barraza is 69. Football Hall of Famer Michael Irvin is 59. Actor-comedian Aasif Mandvi is 59. Rock musician John Frusciante (Red Hot Chili Peppers) is 55. Actor Eva Mendes is 51. Model Niki Taylor is 50. Singer-songwriter Amanda Shires is 43.