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Alben W. Barkley (1877–1956) was the 35th vice president of the United States, serving from 1949 to 1953. He was elected the U.S. representative from Kentucky's first district in 1912 as a liberal Democrat, supporting President Woodrow Wilson's New Freedom domestic agenda and foreign policy. In 1927 he entered the U.S. Senate, where he supported the New Deal, and was elected to succeed Joseph T. Robinson, Senate Majority Leader, upon Robinson's death in 1937. He resigned as majority leader after President Franklin D. Roosevelt ignored his advice and vetoed the Revenue Act of 1943, but the veto was overridden and he was unanimously re-elected to the position. Barkley had a better working relationship with Harry S. Truman, who ascended to the presidency after Roosevelt's death in 1945. At the 1948 Democratic National Convention, Barkley gave a keynote address that energized the delegates. Truman selected him as a running mate for the upcoming election, and the two scored an upset victory. (Full article...)

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75 Wall Street

... that an excavation for 75 Wall Street (pictured) revealed an old crock linked with a leader of the Tammany Hall political machine?
... that Albert Smijers was one of the first Dutch musicologists to receive a doctorate?
... that the high number of free tenants recorded in the 1299 Red Book of Worcester may be a result of manumissions granted by Bishop Godfrey Giffard?
... that Jean Webster daily served hundreds of people free food directly out of her home kitchen for over a decade?
... that the detention of two British surveyors for around an hour in 1878 formed part of the justification for the Anglo-Zulu War?
... that Bill Smyth fought as a Marine at Iwo Jima and later played four seasons for the Los Angeles Rams?
... that long ladders have unlimited risk?
... that according to its founders, Pink Peacock is the only "queer Yiddish anarchist vegan pay-what-you-can cafe" in the world?

In the news

B-1791, the aircraft involved in the crash

China Eastern Airlines Flight 5735 (aircraft pictured) crashes in Guangxi, China, killing all 132 people on board.
Serdar Berdimuhamedow succeeds his father Gurbanguly and takes office as president of Turkmenistan.
A 7.3-magnitude earthquake strikes off the coast of Fukushima, Japan, killing at least four people and injuring more than 225 others.

On this day

March 22: World Water Day

Phan Xích Long

1508 – Ferdinand II of Aragon appointed Amerigo Vespucci to the post of Chief Navigator of Spain.
1784 – The Emerald Buddha, considered to be the sacred palladium of Thailand, was installed in its current location at Wat Phra Kaew on the grounds of the Grand Palace in Bangkok.
1913 – Phan Xích Long (pictured), the self-proclaimed emperor of Vietnam, was arrested for organising a revolt against the colonial rule of French Indochina, which was nevertheless carried out by his supporters the following day.
1942 – Second World War: British and Italian naval forces fought the Second Battle of Sirte in the Gulf of Sidra north of Libya.

John Kemp (d. 1454)
Ahmed Cevdet Pasha (b. 1822)
Odysseas Angelis (d. 1987)

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Today's featured picture

Rye (Secale cereale) is a grass grown extensively as a grain, a cover crop and a forage crop. It belongs to the Triticeae tribe and is closely related to both wheat and barley. This picture is an 1878 oil-on-canvas painting by Ivan Shishkin, depicting boundless rye fields in the Central Black Earth Region of western Russia. The canvas hangs in the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow.

Painting credit: Ivan Shishkin

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