On March 10, 1959, Tibetans banded together in revolt, surrounding
the summer palace of the Dalai Lama in defiance of Chinese
occupation forces.

China’s occupation of Tibet began nearly a decade before, in October 1950, when troops from its People’s Liberation Army (PLA) invaded
the country, barely one year after the Communists gained full control
of mainland China. The Tibetan government gave into Chinese
pressure the following year, signing a treaty that ensured the power
of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the country’s spiritual leader, over
Tibet’s domestic affairs. Resistance to the Chinese occupation built steadily over the next several years, including a revolt in several
areas of eastern Tibet in 1956. By December 1958, rebellion was simmering in Lhasa, the capital, and the PLA command threatened
to bomb the city if order was not maintained.

On March 4, 1933, at the height of the Great Depression, Franklin
Delano Roosevelt was inaugurated as the 32nd president of the
United States. In his famous inaugural address, delivered outside
the east wing of the U.S. Capitol, Roosevelt outlined his “New
Deal”—an expansion of the federal government as an instrument
of employment opportunity and welfare—and told Americans that
“the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Although it was a
rainy day in Washington, and gusts of rain blew over Roosevelt
as he spoke, he delivered a speech that radiated optimism a
nd competence, and a broad majority of Americans united
behind  their new president and his radical economic proposals
to lead the nation out of the Great Depression.

SANDY KOZEL

The movie King Kong opened in New York City on March 2, 1933,
to rave reviews, and has since been ranked by Rotten Tomatoes 
as the greatest horror film of all time and the fifty-sixth greatest
film of all time. In 1991, it was deemed "culturally, historically
and aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and
selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.

Robert William Armstrong (November 20, 1890 – April 20, 1973)
Vina Fay Wray (September 15, 1907 – August 8, 2004)

President John F. Kennedy addresses the first group of
Peace Corps volunteers headed for Ghana and Tanzania.

On March 1, 1961, President John F. Kennedy issued Executive
Order #10924, establishing the Peace Corps as a new agency
within the Department of State. The same day, he sent a message
to Congress asking for permanent funding for the agency, which
would send trained American men and women to foreign nations
to assist in development efforts. The Peace Corps captured the imagination of the U.S. public, and during the week after its
creation thousands of letters poured into Washington from
young Americans hoping to volunteer.

SANDY KOZEL

Hitler (seated second from left) poses with members of his
first cabinet in the chancellery.