History & Celebrations Today – March 29

Celebrations Today – March 29

Holidays and observances

Celebrations Today – USA: March 29

National Lemon Chiffon Cake Day
National Mom and Pop Business Owners Day
National Little Red Wagon Day – Last Wednesday in March
Manatee Appreciation Day – Last Wednesday in March
National Children’s Picture Book Day
National Eat an Eskimo Pie Day
National Hot Tub Day

Today in US History: March 29

Ice Jam on the Niagara

Niagara Falls
Niagara Falls, General View from Hennepin Point, Winter, 1914.
Taking the Long View: Panoramic Photographs, 1851-1991

An enormous ice dam formed at the source of the Niagara River on the eastern shore of Lake Erie on March 29, 1848. Just after midnight, the thunderous sound of water surging over the great falls at Niagara came to a halt as the flow of water became severely restricted due to the ice jam. The eerie silence persisted throughout the day and into the next evening until the waters of Lake Erie broke through the blockage and resumed their course down the river and over the falls.

American Falls
American Falls from Goat Island, Niagara, circa 1908.
Touring Turn-of-the-Century America: Photographs from the Detroit Publishing Company, 1880-1920

By 1848, Niagara Falls was already a popular tourist spot, attracting thousands of visitors each summer. Daguerreotypist Platt Babbitt set up a studio and began taking images of tourists watching the falls in 1853.

The commercial development of the land surrounding the falls sparked a movement to preserve the falls’ natural beauty through public ownership. These efforts culminated in the July 15, 1885, opening of the 400-acre Niagara Reservation State Park. Now known as the Niagara Falls State Park, it is the oldest state park in the country.

In his address at the opening of the park, James T. Carter, an eminent New York lawyer and legal scholar, made an eloquent plea for the preservation, through public ownership, of scenic wonders. “These visions of Infinite Beauty here unfolded to the eye are not a property,” Carter insisted, “but a shrine—a temple erected by the hand of the Almighty for all the children of men.” Carter’s address is featured in The Evolution of the Conservation Movement, 1850-1920.

Today in History – March 29-External Links

Today’s Weather in History
Today in Earthquake History
This Day in Naval History
Today’s Document from the National Archives
Today’s Events, Births & Deaths –Wikipedia
Today in History by AP
On this Day -1950 to 2005 – Today’s Story–BBC
On This Day: The New York Times
This Day in History –History.com
Today in Canadian History – Canada Channel
History of Britain that took place On This Day
Russia in History –Russiapedia