Today in History....March 30

On this day in …

* 1822, Florida became a U.S. territory

* 1842, Dr. Crawford W. Long of Jefferson, Ga., first used ether as an anesthetic during a minor operation

* 1867, U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward reached agreement with Russia to purchase the territory of Alaska for $7.2 million, a deal widely ridiculed as "Seward's Folly"

* 1870, the 15th amendment to the Constitution, giving all citizens the right to vote regardless of race, was declared in effect by Secretary of State Hamilton Fish. ALSO: Texas was readmitted to the Union

* 1945, the Soviet Union invaded Austria during World War II

* 1964, John Glenn withdrew from the Ohio race for U.S. Senate because of injuries suffered in a fall

* 2002, the Queen Mother, Elizabeth, died in her sleep at Royal Lodge, Windsor, outside London; she was 101 years old

* 2006, American reporter Jill Carroll, a freelancer for The Christian Science Monitor, was released after 82 days as a hostage in Iraq by practitioners of that "religion of peace". ALSO: Major League Baseball began its investigation into alleged steroid use by Barry Bonds and others