In 1975, President Gerald R. Ford vetoes the Privacy Act, passed by Congress in reaction to the excesses of his predecessor Richard M. Nixon.

Justifying his action, Ford says, "Although I understand Congress wanted to rein in the executive branch to prevent abuses, I believe that with our nation at war, with American boys still dying not only in Southeast Asia but in a Communist-threatened nation ninety miles off our own shore, I cannot support tying the hands of our investigative agencies. Subversion is a real threat, and we must take to hand whatever tools we can to keep it from harming us".

Ford's veto is met with anger on Capitol Hill.

The incoming Ninety-fourth Congress, in which the President's party will have thirty fewer seats in the House and six fewer in the Senate, will include numerous freshman members elected on promises to 'clean up the mess' from Watergate, including Nixon's controversial domestic espionage operations, and even some veteran Republicans will privately concede that the veto sends the wrong message.

On this day in 1990, deposed Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaucescu, who along with his wife Elena had escaped Bucharest seven days earlier, was arrested in Switzerland while attempting to secure political asylum at the North Korean embassy in Geneva.

In 1954, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) is formally reorganized into the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). In keeping with the ostensibly peaceful purposes of the new organization, it will be under civilian rather than military control, a choice which angers some in the Pentagon who saw President Eisenhower's commitment to space as a bonanza for the Defense Department.

Dr. Thomas Keith Glennan of the Atomic Energy Commissions is named first NASA Administrator. By mid-March, after two months of bureaucratic infighting, NASA is finally staffed and offices established in Washington and Huntsville, Alabama. The Huntsville facility will do much of the early development work on the satellite.

In 1959, the government of strongman General Fulgiencio Batista in Cuba falls to left-wing rebels led by former law student Fidel Castro. General Batista escapes to Miami.

Reaction in the U.S. is swift and hostile. Over the next few months, the Eisenhower administration will organize and launch a semi-secret campaign of economic sabotage and military raids, operating out of bases in the United States, Nicaragua and Costa Rica.

Under the supervision of Vice-President Nixon, right-wing Cubans who have fled their island country are organized into a secret army in preparation for an invasion, which they will spearhead but the U.S. military is to support, aimed at 'freeing' Cuba.

Unaware of Ike's covert destabilization efforts, Senator Joseph McCarthy will lose no time in going to the media to blame the Eisenhower administration for the fall of Batista. 'We can choose to believe that the Administration is incompetent,' he thunders, 'or that it is riddled with traitors, as was the Democrat administration of Truman before it, or both. There are no other choices.'

Even as the administration's plans go forward, the Wisconsin senator will keep up his assault. A fuming Eisenhower has no choice but to let him, in order not to expose the anti-Castro operation.

In 1808, the Africa Act, passed by Parliament the previous October, goes into effect, banning the African slave trade and empowering British naval vessels to intercept and impound slave ships on the high seas.

The Act inspires fury in the slaveholding American colonies, sparking talk of a new rebellion.

In 1958, after a number of embarrassing public failures, the U.S. finally orbits an artificial satellite, Explorer I.

Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy, who had demanded a congressional investigation after the Soviets beat the U.S. into space the previous October, rushes to take credit. 'This is what happens when you hold these eggheads' feet to the fire,' he says at a news conference.

McCarthy's comments fuel resentment among space scientists and the Senator's colleagues on the Hill, who will band together to strip him of authority over the Sputnik inquiry he had instigated and to change its focus from rooting out 'traitors' in the scientific community to building up America's scientific and technological infrastructure.