Today is Thursday, March 29, the 89th day of 2012. There are 277 days left in the year.

1798 ― Republic of Switzerland forms

1827 ― 20,000 attend Ludwig van Beethoven’s burial in Vienna

1848 ― Niagara Falls stops flowing for 30 hours due to an ice jam

1852 ― Ohio makes it illegal for children under 18 and women to work more than 10 hours a day

1936 ― Nazi propaganda claims 99 percent of Germans voted for Nazi candidates

1951 ― ``King & I" opens at St. James Theater NYC for 1,246 performances

1971 ― Chilean President Allende nationalizes banks/copper mines

1971 ― First Lieutenant William L. Calley, Jr. found guilty in My Lai (Vietnam) massacre

1985 ― Wayne Gretzky breaks own NHL season record with 126th assist

1994 ― Serbs and Croats signed a ceasefire to end the war in Croatia