Moments in Time: Civil War
The History Channel
On March 23, 1983, Barney Clark died of varied complications 112 days after becoming the world's first person to receive a permanent artificial heart. The last four months of his life had been spent in a hospital bed at the University of Utah Medical Center in Salt Lake City, where he was attached to a 350-pound console that pumped air in and out of the implant through a system of hoses.
On March 24, 1943, G.I. Joe, one of military history's most decorated homing pigeons, was hatched. During World War II, he flew 20 miles in 20 minutes, just in time to save a battalion from being bombed, and was credited with saving some 1,000 British troops.
On March 25, 1957, the U.S. Customs Department confiscated 520 copies of Allen Ginsberg's book "Howl." Poet and bookstore owner Lawrence Ferlinghetti had published it the previous fall, leading to his arrest on obscenity charges. But he was found not guilty after nine literary experts testified at his trial that the poem was not in fact obscene.
On March 26, 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson decided to convene a nine-man panel of retired presidential advisors after Defense Secretary Clark Clifford told him that the Vietnam War was "a real loser." The group became known as the Wise Men and included generals, members of the State Department and McGeorge Bundy, National Security Advisor to both John F. Kennedy's and Johnson's administrations.
On March 27, 1998, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the use of the drug Viagra, an oral medication to treat male impotence, which was originally studied for its effects on hypertension and angina pectoris.
On March 28, 2006, Duke University officials suspended its men's lacrosse team for two games following allegations that team members had sexually assaulted a stripper hired to perform at a party. The following spring all charges were dropped for lack of evidence, and nearly two decades later the accuser admitted her story was false.
On March 29, 1865, the final campaign of the Civil War began in Virginia when Union troops under General Ulysses S. Grant moved against the Confederate trenches around Petersburg.
(c) 2026 King Features Synd., Inc.