By The Associated Press
                      - Today is Tuesday, March 30, the 89th day of 1999. There are 276 days
                        left in the year.

                      - On March 30, 1981, President Reagan was shot and seriously injured
                        outside a Washington, D.C., hotel by John W. Hinckley Jr. Also
                        wounded were White House press secretary James Brady, a Secret
                        Service agent and a District of Columbia police officer.
                      - In 1822, Florida became a U.S. territory.
                      - In 1842, Dr. Crawford W. Long of Georgia first used ether as an
                        anesthetic during a minor operation.
                      - In 1867, U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward reached agreement
                        with Russia to purchase the territory of Alaska for $7.2 million, a
                        deal roundly ridiculed as "Seward's Folly."
                      - In 1870, the 15th amendment to the Constitution, giving black men
                        the right to vote, was declared in effect.
                      - In 1870, Texas was readmitted to the Union.
                      - In 1909, the Queensboro Bridge, linking the New York boroughs of
                        Manhattan and Queens, opened.
                      - In 1945, the Soviet Union invaded Austria during World War II.
                      - In 1979, Airey Neave, a leading member of the British parliament,
                        was killed by a bomb planted by the Irish National Liberation Army.
                      - Ten years ago: "The Heidi Chronicles" by Wendy Wasserstein won the
                        Pulitzer Prize for drama; in the journalism category, the Anchorage
                        Daily News won the public service award for its reports on
                        alcoholism and suicide among native Alaskans.
                      - Five years ago: Serbs and Croats signed a cease-fire to end their
                        war in Croatia while Bosnian Muslims and Serbs continued to battle
                        each other. The Clinton administration announced it was lifting
                        virtually all export controls on non-military products to China and
                        the former Soviet bloc.
                      - One year ago: Rolls-Royce was purchased by German automaker BMW in a
                        $570 million deal.

                      *Happy Birthday*
                      - Singer Frankie Laine is 86.
                      - Former CIA Director Richard Helms is 86.
                      - Actor Richard Dysart is 70.
                      - Actor John Astin is 69.
                      - Game show host Peter Marshall is 69.
                      - Actor-director Warren Beatty is 62.
                      - Rock musician Eric Clapton is 54.
                      - Actor Paul Reiser is 42.
                      - Rap artist M.C. Hammer is 36.
                      - Singer Tracy Chapman is 35.
                      - Singer Celine Dion is 31.