Today in History.

On March 12, 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered the first of his 30 radio addresses that came to be known as ''fireside chats,'' telling Americans what was being done to deal with the nation's economic crisis.

Today is Thursday, March 12, the 71st day of 2015. There are 294 days left in the year.

On this date:

In 1664, England's King Charles II granted an area of land on the East Coast of present-day North America known as New Netherland to his brother James, the Duke of York.

In 1857, the original version of ''Simon Boccanegra,'' an opera by Giuseppe Verdi, was poorly received at its premiere in Venice, Italy. (Verdi offered a revised version in 1881.)

In 1912, the Girl Scouts of the USA had its beginnings as Juliette Gordon Low of Savannah, Georgia, founded the first American troop of the Girl Guides.

In 1925, Chinese revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen died.

In 1938, the Anschluss merging Austria with Nazi Germany took place as German forces crossed the border between the two countries.

In 1940, Finland and the Soviet Union concluded an armistice during World War II. (Fighting between the two countries flared again the following year.)

In 1955, legendary jazz musician Charlie ''Bird'' Parker died in New York at age 34.

In 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson won the New Hampshire Democratic primary, but Sen. Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota...