Other Notable Events, March 22

In 1791, The U.S. Congress enacted legislation forbidding slave trading with foreign nations.

In 1941, the Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River began producing electric power for the Pacific Northwest.

In 1945, representatives from Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Transjordan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Yemen met in Cairo to establish the Arab League.

In 1968, U.S. President Lyndon Johnson recalled U.S. Army Gen. William Westmoreland as commander of U.S. troops in Vietnam and made him Army chief of staff. Gen. Creighton Abrams took over in Saigon.

In 1974, the U.S. Senate passed and sent to the states for ratification the 27th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, a measure popularly known as the Equal Rights Amendment. However, the required number of states failed to ratify it before the deadline.

In 1987, Chad troops drove Libyan forces from a key airstrip in northern Chad, apparently ending Moammar Gadhafi's seven-year occupation. The Libyans abandoned $500 million worth of Soviet-made tanks and airplanes.

In 1992, 27 people were killed when a USAir plane bound for Cleveland skidded off a runway at New York's LaGuardia Airport during a snowstorm and landed in the bay.

In 1997, Comet Hale-Bopp made its closest approach to Earth -- about 122 million miles.

In 2000, Pope John Paul II visited a Palestinian refugee camp and declared the conditions there to be degrading.

In 2003, as the war in Iraq gained momentum, a U.S. Army maintenance convoy made a wrong turn and was ambushed. Eleven soldiers were killed and seven, including Pfc. Jessica Lynch, were captured.

In 2004, the founder and spiritual leader of the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas, Ahmed Yassin, was killed in an Israeli missile strike in the Gaza Strip.

In 2005, North Korea's government-controlled news agency claimed the country beefed up its nuclear weapons arsenal to counter U.S. security threats.

In 2006, General Motors, in a reported deal with the United Auto Workers Union, said it would offer buyout and early retirement packages to each of its 113,000 unionized employees.

Also in 2006, Basque separatists who live mostly in Spain declared a cease-fire and ending their long violent struggle for independence.

In 2007, violence erupted in Somalia between government forces and militia fighters one day after at least 22 people were killed. Hundreds of Mogadishu residents fled their homes.

In 2008, Yousaf Raza Gillani, former speaker of Parliament, was chosen prime minister of Pakistan. And, opposition candidate Ma Ying-jeou won the Taiwanese presidential election.

Also in 2008, the Bush administration bullied and threatened foreign leaders to build a show of support for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Chilean diplomat Heraldo Munoz said in a new book.

In 2010, the largest U.S. community organizing group, known as ACORN, announced it was disbanding because of declining revenues.

In 2011, a senior U.S. official confirmed Russia and the United States have begun exchanging nuclear stockpile information under the new arms reduction treaty.

An Israeli court sentenced former President Moshe Katsav to seven years in prison for rape and sexual harassment.

In 2012, U.S. President Barack Obama had ordered approval of the southern part of the Keystone pipeline from Oklahoma to the Gulf Coast. The pipeline is designed to transport synthetic crude oil and diluted asphalt to the Gulf of Mexico and other U.S. destinations from Alberta, Canada.

Also in 2012; a group of military officers seized control of the Mali government and ousted President Amadou Toumani Toure who had planned to step down after the April elections.