On This Day (March 26)

[MSFixR]

• 1027 – Pope John XIX crowned Conrad II as Holy Roman Emperor.
• 1636 – Utrecht University, one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands and one of the largest in Europe, was established.
• 1827 - Ludwig van Beethoven, German composer died. (b. 1770)
  
  
  Symphony No. 9, Op. 125 "Choral", Fourth Movement "Ode to Joy" (Finale)
  Leonard Bernstein, conducting the Vienna Philharmonic
  
  
• 1874 - Robert Frost, American poet born. (d. 1963)
• 1892 - Walt Whitman, American poet died. (b. 1819) (“Leaves of Grass”)
• 1902 - Cecil Rhodes, English explorer died. (b. 1853) (Rhodes was a British-born South African businessman, mining magnate, and politician. He was the founder of the diamond company De Beers, which today markets 60% of the world's rough diamonds and at one time marketed 90%. He was an ardent believer in colonialism and was the founder of the state of Rhodesia, which was named after him.)
• 1953 - Jonas Salk announces his polio vaccine.
• 1971 – After the Pakistan Army attempted to curb the Bengali nationalist movement in Operation Searchlight, East Pakistan declared its independence from Pakistan to form Bangladesh, starting the Bangladesh Liberation War.
• 1973 – The Young and the Restless, the most watched daytime drama on American television since 1988, was first broadcast.
  
  Picture of the Day
  
  
  
  The School of Athens or "Scuola di Atene" in Italian is one of the most famous paintings by the Italian Renaissance artist Raphael. It was painted between 1509 and 1510 as a part of Raphael's commission to decorate with frescoes the rooms that are now known as the Stanze di Raffaello, in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican.