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Today in History: March 23

1775 American revolutionary hero Patrick Henry, while addressing the House of Burgesses, declares "give me liberty, or give me death!"

1848 Hungary proclaims its independence of Austria.

1862 Confederate General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson faces his only defeat at the Battle of Kernstown, Va

1880 John Stevens of Neenah, Wis., patents the grain crushing mill. This mill allows flour production to increase by 70 percent.

1903 The Wright brothers obtain an airplane patent.

1909 Theodore Roosevelt begins an African safari sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution and National Geographic Society.

1909 British Lt. Ernest Shackleton finds the magnetic South Pole.

1933 The Reichstag gives Adolf Hitler the power to rule by decree.

1970 Mafia boss Carlo Gambino is arrested for plotting to steal $3 million.

1981 U.S. Supreme Court upholds a law making statutory rape a crime for men but not women.

1983US President Ronald Reagan lays out plans for defensive orbiting lasers capable of intercepting and destroying incoming nuclear weapons. Derided by opponents as 'Star Wars,' the Strategic Defense Initiative will cost the US $30 billion, but it will never be fully developed or deployed.

2001 The Russian Mir space station is disposed of, breaking up in the atmosphere before falling into the southern Pacific Ocean near Fiji

2020 Immediate global ceasefire to fight COVID-19 called for by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres

2021 Brazil's daily COVID-19 death toll passes 3,000 (3,251) for the first time (298,676 total deaths reported) as country's Supreme Court blocks President Jair Bolsonaro overturning local restrictions

2023 Canada records record population growth (+2.7%), adding 1 million people in 2022, mostly through immigration

Born on March 23

1908 Joan Crawford, American actress.


JOTD
A woman meets a man in a bar. They talk; they connect; they end up leaving together.
They get back to his place, and as he shows her around his apartment.
She notices that one wall of his bedroom is completely filled with soft, sweet,
cuddly teddy bears.
There are three shelves in the bedroom, with hundreds and hundreds of cute,
cuddly teddy bears carefully placed in rows, covering the entire wall!
It was obvious that he had taken quite some time to lovingly arrange them
and she was immediately touched by the amount of thought he had
put into organizing the display.
There were small bears all along the bottom shelf, medium-sized bears covering the
length of the middle shelf, and huge, enormous bears running all the way along the top shelf.
She found it strange for an obviously masculine guy to have such a large collection of
Teddy Bears, She is quite impressed by his sensitive side. but doesn't mention this to him.
They share a bottle of wine and continue talking and, after awhile, she finds herself
thinking, 'Oh my God! Maybe, this guy could be the one!

Maybe he could be the future father of my children?' She turns to him and kisses him
lightly on the lips He responds warmly.
They continue to kiss, the passion builds, and he romantically lifts her in
his arms and carries her into his bedroom where they rip off each other's
clothes and make hot, steamy love.
She is so overwhelmed that she responds with more passion, more creativity, more heat than she
has ever known. After an intense, explosive night of raw passion with this sensitive guy,
they are lying there together in the afterglow.
The woman rolls over, gently strokes his chest and asks coyly, 'Well, how was it?'

The guy gently smiles at her, strokes her cheek, looks deeply into her eyes, and says:
'Help yourself to any prize from the middle shelf'