1933 - “My friends, I want to talk for a few minutes with the people of the United States about banking.” President Franklin D. Roosevelt gives the first of his “fireside chats” on  radio. He tells Americans what steps he's taking to deal with the Great Depression.

1980 - In Chicago, a jury finds John Wayne Gacy, Junior guilty of murdering 33 men and boys. Bernard Carey is the prosecutor at Gacy's trial. "Certainly, in this country there's been no single murder trial with so many victims, nor I think we'll ever find a man as evil as John Wayne Gacy."The next day, Gacy is sentenced to death. He's executed more than 14 years later.

1912 - Juliette Gordon Low creates the Girl Guides, which later become the Girl Scouts of America.

And 1987 - In New York, the musical “Les Miserables” opens on Broadway.

Today in History, March 12th, Ross Simpson, the Associated Press.