March 23 Birthday
On March 23, 1775, Patrick Henry addressed the Second Virginia Convention at St. John's Church in Richmond. He argued that the colonies should raise a militia to defend against British aggression. His conclusion — "I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!" — was delivered while holding a letter opener as a symbolic dagger. Whether he actually said these exact words is debated — the speech was not transcribed at the time and was reconstructed from memory forty-two years later by Henry's biographer, William Wirt. The congregation reportedly sat in stunned silence, and some men were seen wiping tears. Henry's speech helped push Virginia toward supporting the Revolution. The church where he spoke still stands. President Reagan announced the Strategic Defense Initiative on this day in 1983, proposing a space-based system to intercept and destroy incoming nuclear missiles. The concept was technologically impossible — the technology did not exist and, despite billions of dollars of research, still does not. The Soviets, however, did not know that. They believed SDI could work, and the prospect of an American missile shield that would neutralize their nuclear deterrent panicked them. The arms race that followed accelerated the Soviet economic collapse. Whether SDI was a brilliant bluff or a sincere but delusional project is still debated. What is not debated is that it contributed to the end of the Cold War — not by working, but by being feared. The Mir space station reentered Earth's atmosphere on March 23, 2001, burning up over the South Pacific. Mir had been launched in 1986 and was occupied almost continuously for fourteen years. It was the first modular space station — assembled in orbit from separate launches — and its design informed the International Space Station. Mir survived a collision with a Progress cargo ship in 1997, a fire, and multiple computer failures. Cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov spent 437 consecutive days aboard Mir, the longest single spaceflight in history. The station was deorbited because Russia could no longer afford to maintain it while also contributing to the ISS. Wernher von Braun, born this day in 1912, designed the V-2 rocket that rained terror on London and Antwerp during World War II. The V-2 was built by slave labor from the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp — 20,000 prisoners died building it. Von Braun joined the SS and was aware of the conditions. After the war, he was brought to the United States under Operation Paperclip, where he designed the Saturn V rocket that took Apollo 11 to the Moon. He is both the man who built the weapon that killed thousands and the man who enabled humans to walk on another world. People born on March 23 fall under the zodiac sign of Aries. The birthstone is Aquamarine and the birth flower is Daffodil. Historical events on March 23 include 1775: Patrick Henry delivers "Give me liberty or give me death" speech, 1983: Reagan announces Strategic Defense Initiative ("Star Wars"), 2001: Russian Mir space station burns up over the Pacific Ocean. Famous people born on March 23 include Wernher von Braun (1912), Roger Bannister (1929), Chaka Khan (1953).