Today in History.....March 14

On this day in …

* 1997, Joe Gringo's son #1 was born, Happy Birthday!

* 1743, the first recorded town meeting in America was held, at Faneuil Hall in Boston

* 1794, Eli Whitney received a patent for his cotton gin, an invention that revolutionized America's cotton industry

* 1900, Congress ratified the Gold Standard Act

* 1923, President Harding became the first chief executive to file an income tax report

* 1939, the republic of Czechoslovakia was dissolved, opening the way for Nazi, ym"sh, occupation

* 1951, during the Korean War, United Nations forces recaptured Seoul

* 1964, a jury in Dallas found Jack Ruby guilty of murdering Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of President Kennedy

* 1965, Israel's cabinet formally approved establishment of diplomatic relations with West Germany

* 1991, a British court reversed the convictions of the "Birmingham Six," who had spent 16 years in prison for an Irish Republican Army bombing, and ordered them released

* 1996, during a visit to Israel, President Clinton pledged $100 million to the fight against terrorism

* 2001, inspectors tightened U.S. defenses against foot-and-mouth disease a day after a case was confirmed in France

* 2005, a judge in San Francisco ruled that California's ban on gay "marriage" was unconstitutional. China's parliament enacted a law authorizing force to stop rival Taiwan from pursuing formal independence