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"A Death in the Family" is a 1988 storyline in Batman, an American comic book published by DC Comics. Written by Jim Starlin and penciled by Jim Aparo, it is considered one of the most important Batman stories as it features the death of his sidekick Robin at the hands of his archenemy, the Joker. Jason Todd, the second character to assume the Robin persona, was introduced in 1983 to replace Dick Grayson, but became unpopular among fans. Editor Dennis O'Neil recalled a 1982 Saturday Night Live sketch in which viewers phoned in, voting to boil or spare Larry the Lobster. Similarly, DC set up a 900 number to allow fans to decide Todd's fate, and fans voted to kill him off. Todd's demise had a lasting effect on Batman stories, pushing the comic-book mythos in a darker direction. It remains a popular story among readers and has been reprinted in trade paperback. An animated interactive-film adaptation, Batman: Death in the Family, was released in 2020. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Statue of Alfred the Great

... that the legs of the statue of Alfred the Great in Southwark (pictured) are at least 1,600 years older than the torso?
... that Brigadier General Francis G. Brink, the first commander of Military Assistance Advisory Group Indochina, was found dead at the Pentagon with three bullet wounds in the chest?
... that fried caterpillars are a traditional dish in Angola?
... that Polish Home Army resistance fighter Witold Pilecki volunteered to infiltrate the Auschwitz concentration camp?
... that Castle Ten Berghe, a manor house built during the 13th century, is now run as a bed and breakfast with a neo-Gothic architectural style?
... that the main storyline of the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episode "The Perfect Pear" comes from a long-running joke among the show's staff?
... that Children's Fantasy Literature is the first work to address the genre's 500-year history in depth?
... that the 1978 New York City newspaper strike has been theorized to have caused great misery in Boston sports fans?

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On this day

March 4: Feast day of Saint Casimir (Catholicism)

John Flamsteed

1675 – John Flamsteed (pictured) was appointed the first Astronomer Royal by King Charles II of England.
1804 – Irish convicts formerly involved at the Battle of Vinegar Hill during the Irish Rebellion of 1798 began an uprising against British colonial authorities in New South Wales, Australia.
1837 – Chicago, Illinois, was incorporated as a city after its population increased in seven years from 200 to more than 4,000.
1943 – The Holocaust: Almost all Jews in Bulgarian-occupied northern Greece were deported to Treblinka extermination camp to be killed.
2012 – A series of blasts occurred at an arms dump in Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo, killing at least 250 people and injuring 2,300 others.

Stephen III of Hungary (d. 1172)
Miriam Makeba (b. 1932)
Harold Barrowclough (d. 1972)

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John Neal

Articles by American writer John Neal were published in newspapers, magazines, and literary journals and are part of his bibliography. Neal was the United States' first art critic, author of the first history of American literature, the first American to be published in any British literary magazine, and one of the first male advocates of women's rights and feminist causes in the United States. As an early and outspoken theater critic, he drafted a future for American drama that was only partially realized sixty years later. His critiques of literature helped launch the careers of many well-known American authors and his essays on art were recognized as "prophetic". One of the leading critics of his time, his writing also addressed gender, race, slavery, children, education, law, politics, architecture, religion, gymnastics, civics, American history, science, phrenology, travel, language, political economy, and temperance. Literary historian Fred Lewis Pattee found that "his critical judgments have held. Where he condemned, time has almost without exception condemned also." (Full list...)

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Margaret D. Foster (March 4, 1895 – November 5, 1970) was an American chemist. In 1918, she became the first female chemist to work for the United States Geological Survey, developing ways to detect minerals within naturally occurring bodies of water, and was recruited to work on the Manhattan Project during World War II, developing new techniques of quantitative analysis for the radioactive elements uranium and thorium. This photograph depicts Foster working with chemicals in a laboratory in 1919.

Photograph credit: National Photo Company; restored by Adam Cuerden

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