On this day in 1964, the strongest earthquake in American
history, measuring 9.2 on the Richter scale, hit southern
Alaska, creating a deadly tsunami. Some 131 people were
killed and thousands injured.

The massive earthquake had its epicenter about 12 miles
north of Prince William Sound. Approximately 300,000 s
quare miles of U.S., Canadian, and international territory
were affected.

Anchorage, Alaska’s largest city, sustained the most
property damage, with about 30 blocks of dwellings
and commercial buildings damaged or destroyed in
the downtown area. Fifteen people were killed or
fatally injured as a direct result of the three-minute
quake, and then the ensuing tsunami killed another
110 people. 

The west Pacific volcanic island of Iwo Jima was
declared secure by the U.S. military after weeks
of fiercely fighting its Japanese defenders.  

 
CARLATA BRADLEY

Diana Ross was the lead singer of the vocal group The Supremes,
who became Motown‘s most successful act during the 1960s and
one of the world’s best-selling girl groups of all time.

They remain the best-charting female group in history, with a total
of twelve number-one hit singles on the Billboard Hot 100..

Following her departure from the Supremes in 1970, Ross began
a successful solo music career. Diana is 80 years young today.

On March 26, 1953, American medical researcher Dr. Jonas Salk announces on a national radio show that he has successfully
tested a vaccine against poliomyelitis, the virus that causes the
crippling disease of polio.

In one of the darkest moments of America’s industrial history,
the Triangle Shirtwaist Company factory in New York City
burned, killing 146 workers, on March 25, 1911. The tragedy
led to the development of a series of laws and regulations
that better protected the safety of factory workers.     

The Triangle factory, owned by Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, 
It was a sweatshop in every sense of the word: a cramped
space lined with workstations and packed with immigrant
workers, mostly teenage women who did not speak English.