Today on March 24 1379 The Gelderse war ended. 1545 German Parliament opened in Worms. 1720 In Paris, banking houses closed due to financial crisis. 1765 Britain passed the Quartering Act that required the American colonies to house 10,000 British troops in public and private buildings. 1832 Mormon Joseph Smith was beaten, tarred and feathered in Ohio. 1837 Canada gave blacks the right to vote 1880 The first "hail insurance company" was incorporated in Connecticut. It was known as Tobacco Growers Mutual Insurance Company. 1882 In Berlin, German scientist Robert Koch announced the discovery of the tuberculosis germ (bacillus). 1904 Vice Adm. Tojo sank seven Russian ships as the Japanese strengthened their blockade of Port Arthur. 1905 In Crete, a group led by Eleutherios Venizelos claimed independence from Turkey. 1906 In Mexico, the Tehuantepec Istmian Railroad opened as a rival to the Panama Canal. 1911 In Denmark, penal code reform abolished corporal punishment. 1924 Greece became a republic. 1927 Chinese Communists seized Nanking and break with Chiang Kai-shek over the Nationalist goals. 1938 The U.S. asked that all powers help refugees fleeing from the Nazis. 1944 In Rome, The Gestapo rounded up innocent Italians and shot them to death in response to a bomb attack that killed 32 German policemen. Over 300 civilians were executed. 1946 The Soviet Union announced that it was withdrawing its troops from Iran. 1955 The first oil drill seagoing rig was put into service. 1976 The president of Argentina, Isabel Peron, was deposed by her country's military. 1985 Thousands demonstrated in Madrid against the NATO presence in Spain. 1989 The Exxon Valdez spilled 240,000 barrels (11 million gallons) of oil in Alaska's Prince William Sound after it ran aground. 1997 The Australian parliament overturned the world's first and only euthanasia law. 1998 In Jonesboro, AR, two young boys open fire at students from woods near a school. Four students and a teacher were killed and 10 others were injured. The two boys were 11 and 13 years old cousins. 1999 The 7-mile tunnel under Mont Blanc in France was an inferno after a truck carrying flour and margarine caught on fire. At least 30 people were killed. 2001 Apple Computer Inc's operating system MAC OS X went on sale. 2005 The government of Kyrgyzstan collapsed. 2006 In Spain, the Basque separatist group ETA announced a permanent cease-fire. 2014 It was announced that the U.S. and its allies would exclude Russia from the G8 meeting and boycott a planned summit in Sochi in response to Russia's takeover of Crimea. 2016 Do smiled.