By The Associated Press

Today in History

Today is Friday, March 5, the 64th day of 2021. There are 301 days left in the year.

Todayís Highlight in History:

On March 5, 1953, Soviet dictator Josef Stalin died after three decades in power.

On this date:

In 1770, the Boston Massacre took place as British soldiers whoíd been taunted by a crowd of colonists opened fire, killing five people.

In 1868, the impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson began in the U.S. Senate, with Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase presiding. Johnson, the first U.S. president to be impeached, was accused of ìhigh crimes and misdemeanorsî stemming from his attempt to fire Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton; the trial ended on May 26 with Johnsonís acquittal.

In 1927, ìThe Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place,î the last Sherlock Holmes story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, was published in the U.S. in Liberty Magazine.

In 1933, in German parliamentary elections, the Nazi Party won 44 percent of the vote; the Nazis joined with a conservative nationalist party to gain a slender majority in the Reichstag.

In 1946, Winston Churchill delivered his ìIron Curtainî speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, in which he said: ìFrom Stettin in the Baltic, to Trieste in the Adriatic, an ëiron curtainí has descended across the continent, allowing police governments to rule Eastern Europe.î

In 1960, Elvis Presley was discharged from the U.S. Army.

In 1963, country music performers Patsy Cline, Cowboy Copas and Hawkshaw Hawkins died in the crash of their plane, a Piper Comanche, near Camden, Tennessee, along with pilot Randy Hughes (Clineís manager).

In 1977, President Jimmy Carter took questions from 42 telephone callers in 26 states on a network radio call-in program moderated by Walter Cronkite.

In 1982, comedian John Belushi was found dead of a drug overdose in a rented bungalow in Hollywood; he was 33.

In 1998, NASA scientists said enough water was frozen in the loose soil of the moon to support a lunar base and perhaps, one day, a human colony.

In 2003, in a blunt warning to the United States and Britain, the foreign ministers of France, Germany and Russia said they would block any attempt to get U.N. approval for war against Iraq.

In 2006, AT&T announced it was buying BellSouth Corp., a big step toward resurrecting the old Ma Bell telephone system.

Ten years ago: Egyptians turned their anger toward ousted President Hosni Mubarakís internal security apparatus, storming the agencyís main headquarters and other offices. Alberto Granado, 88, whoíd accompanied Ernesto ìCheî Guevara on a journey of discovery across Latin America described in ìThe Motorcycle Diaries,î died in Havana.