SANDY KOZEL

It was on this day in 2003.

Iraqis kick at the toppled statue of Saddam Hussein.

America’s first seven astronauts are announced to the world
during a NASA press conference held on this day in 1959.   

The wedding of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles was
on this day in 2005.

Elvis Presley performed his last live show for the next eight years in Pearl
Harbor, Hawaii. The show raised $62,000 for the U.S.S. Arizona memorial
fund. He bought a $100 ticket for himself then bought dozens more to give
to staff and patients at a military hospital.

Elvis Presley helped raise money to build the USS Arizona Memorial.

Ash Wednesday, a day of fasting, is the first day of Lent in Western
Christianity and occurs 46 days before Easter and can fall as early as
February 4 or as late as March 10. Ash Wednesday is observed by many
Western Christians, including Anglicans, Lutherans, Methodists, Roman
Catholics and Presbyterians. 

Ash Wednesday derives its name from the practice of blessing ashes made
from palm branches blessed on the previous year’s Palm Sunday, and
placing them on the heads of participants.

On November 2, 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed a bill, proposed by Representative Katie Hall of Indiana, to create a federal holiday honoring
Martin Luther King JR. The bill had passed the House of Representatives
by a count of 338 to 90, a veto-proof margin. The holiday was observed for
the first time on January 20, 1986.