March 1909 - March 23, 1909 (Tuesday)

March 23, 1909 (Tuesday)

• Less than three weeks out of the White House, former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt departed New York on the steamer Hamburg, bound for an African safari from which he would not return until June 16, 1910. The expedition was sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution.
• New York became the second state to make Columbus Day a legal holiday, to be celebrated on October 12 annually. Colorado had been the first, in a bill approved on April 1, 1907.