On This Day for March 12 - Truman Doctrine pronounced, Jane A. Delano is featured, and more

Created: 2020-03-12 10:04 Updated: 2020-03-12 10:04 Notebook: On this Day in History

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March 12

FEATURED BIOGRAPHY

1862

Jane A. Delano

FEATURED EVENT

1947

Truman Doctrine pronounced

MORE EVENTS ON THIS DAY

Portland Public Service Building, Oregon, by Michael Graves, 1980–82.

2015: American architect and designer Michael Graves, who was one of the principal figures of the postmodernist movement, died in New Jersey. [ Sort fact from fiction in our art and architecture quiz .]

2009: American hedge-fund investment manager Bernie Madoff pled guilty to various crimes related to his operation of a Ponzi scheme that was one of the largest in the world; he was sentenced to 150 years in prison.

2003: The World Health Organization (WHO) issued a worldwide health alert, one of the first in a decade, regarding an illness it later called severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) that struck hundreds of people in China, Hong Kong, and Vietnam. [ Take our viruses, bacteria, and diseases quiz .]

flag-raising ceremony marking the accession of Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland to NATO

1999: Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic became members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) shortly before the group's 50th anniversary.

1993: American lawyer and public official Janet Reno was sworn in as U.S. attorney general, becoming the first woman to hold the office. [ Test your knowledge of women's famous firsts .]