Today is Monday, March 23, 2015. On this date in American History:

1775 - Patrick Henry gave a speech at St. John's Church in Richmond, VA. He urged Virginians to ally themselves with besieged Boston and concluded the speech with the words “I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”

1806 - Explorers Lewis and Clark reached the Pacific coast and began their return journey to the east.

1862 - Confederate General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson (pictured) was defeated when his attack on Union forces failed at the Battle of Kernstown, Virginia.

1965 - America's first two-person space flight took off from Cape Kennedy with astronauts Virgil I. Grissom and John W. Young aboard. The craft was the Gemini 3.

1983 - U.S. President Reagan first proposed development of technology to intercept enemy missiles. The proposal became known as the Strategic Defense Initiative and "Star Wars."

◼ National Federation of Republican Women: From the NFRW Americanism Committee