March 26 Birthday
March 26, 1979: President Carter hosted the signing of the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty on the South Lawn of the White House. Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin shook hands, ending thirty years of war. The treaty was the result of thirteen days of negotiation at Camp David in September 1978, during which Carter mediated between the two leaders — who despised each other — and nearly collapsed from exhaustion. Egypt became the first Arab nation to recognize Israel. Sadat and Begin received the Nobel Peace Prize. Sadat was assassinated by Islamic extremists in 1981. The treaty has held for over forty years, though it is a cold peace — Egypt maintains diplomatic relations with Israel but popular sentiment remains hostile. On March 26, 1997, police discovered thirty-nine bodies in a mansion in Rancho Santa Fe, California. The members of the Heaven's Gate cult had committed suicide by ingesting phenobarbital and vodka, then covering their heads with plastic bags. They believed that the Hale-Bopp comet was being followed by a spacecraft, and that by "exiting their human containers" they could board the ship and ascend to the "Next Level." They wore identical black shirts and sweatpants, Nike sneakers, and armbands reading "Heaven's Gate Away Team." The leader, Marshall Applewhite, had told them that Earth was about to be "recycled" and the only escape was to leave their bodies. The group had run a web design company called Higher Source. They were skilled with computers and had used the internet to recruit members. It was the first mass suicide associated with the internet. The Soviet Union held its first multi-candidate elections on this day in 1989. The Congress of People's Deputies was a new legislative body created by Gorbachev's reforms, and for the first time, voters could choose among multiple candidates — though the Communist Party still controlled the process. Boris Yeltsin won a seat with 89% of the vote, and Andrei Sakharov, the dissident physicist, was also elected. The election was televised, and millions watched the proceedings — politicians arguing openly, criticizing the Party, debating the future of the country. The spectacle was unprecedented. The Soviet people had never seen their leaders challenged in public. The election did not save the Soviet Union; it showed that the system could not survive openness. Robert Frost, born this day in 1874, was eighty-six when he recited "The Gift Outright" at Kennedy's inauguration. He had written a new poem for the occasion but could not read it in the glare, so he recited the older one from memory. He died two years later. Tennessee Williams, born this day in 1911, wrote A Streetcar Named Desire in 1947. He died in 1983 in a New York hotel room, having choked on a bottle cap. He was sixty-one. People born on March 26 fall under the zodiac sign of Aries. The birthstone is Aquamarine and the birth flower is Daffodil. Historical events on March 26 include 1979: Egypt-Israel peace treaty signed at White House, 1997: 39 members of Heaven's Gate cult found dead in Rancho Santa Fe, California, 1989: First free multi-candidate elections held in the Soviet Union. Famous people born on March 26 include Robert Frost (1874), Tennessee Williams (1911), Sandra Day O'Connor (1930).