March 19, 1981 (Thursday)
- Two workers died and four were injured after a test of the Space Shuttle Columbia, becoming the first of 14 deaths associated with the American space shuttle program. After a test-firing of the engines and the sounding of the "all clear", the group of six Rockwell International technicians had walked into a chamber of the shuttle, unaware that the area was filled primarily with nitrogen gas, and almost no oxygen. John Bjornstad died immediately, and Forrest Cole was taken off life support on April 1. The Columbia itself would be destroyed on January 16, 2003 on its 28th mission, killing all seven of the astronauts on board.
- Arkansas became the first state to require the teaching of "Creationism", as Governor Frank White signed into law Senate Resolution 590, "An act to require balanced treatment of creation-science and evolution-science in public schools". The act, challenged later in McLean v. Arkansas, had passed the state Senate 22-2 and the state House 69-18.
- Born: Kolo Touré, Ivorian footballer, in Bouake
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Famous quotes containing the word march:
“The march interrupted the light afternoon.
Cars stopped dead, children began to run,
As out of the street-shadow into the sun
Discipline strode....”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)