MOMENTS IN TIME - March 18, 2010

The History Channel

* On April 3, 1860, the first Pony Express mail, traveling by horse and rider relay teams, simultaneously leaves St. Joseph, Mo., and Sacramento, Calif. Ten days later, the westbound rider completed the approximately 1,800-mile journey and arrived in Sacramento, beating the eastbound mail’s arrival in St. Joseph by two days.

* On March 31, 1889, the Eiffel Tower is dedicated in Paris. Tower designer Gustave Eiffel, a noted bridge builder, was a master of metal construction and designed the framework of the Statue of Liberty, which had recently been erected in New York Harbor.

* On April 2, 1902, the first American theater devoted solely to movies opens in Los Angeles. Housed in a circus tent, the venue was dubbed “The Electric Theater.” Admission was 10 cents for a one-hour show.

* On March 29, 1927, Major Henry O’Neil de Hane Segrave becomes the first man to break the 200-mph barrier. Driving a 1,000-horsepower Mystery Sunbeam, Segrave averaged 203.8 mph on the course at Daytona Beach, Fla.

* On April 4, 1933, the dirigible The Akron crashes in New Jersey, killing 73 people. A miscommunication by crewmembers sent the Akron directly into a storm instead of around it. The storm’s winds caused the ship to plunge nearly 1,000 feet in a few seconds.

* On April 1, 1970, President Richard Nixon signs legislation officially banning cigarette ads on television and radio. Nixon, who was an avid pipe smoker, indulging in as many as eight bowls a day, supported the legislation at the increasing insistence of public-health advocates.

* On March 30, 1981, President Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest outside a Washington, D.C., hotel by John Hinckley Jr., a deranged drifter. Reagan, apparently unaware that he’d been shot, was shoved into his limousine by a Secret Service agent and rushed to the hospital. In an impressive feat for a 70-year-old man with a collapsed lung, he walked into George Washington University Hospital under his own power.

(c) 2010 King Features Synd., Inc.