Happy days are here again!

Moments In Time

• On March 20, 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s anti-slavery novel, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” is published. The novel, written in reaction to tightened fugitive slave laws, sold 300,000 copies within three months.

• On March 25, 1911, at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company in New York’s Lower East Side, a fire quickly engulfs the factory and claims 146 lives in less than an hour. Trapped inside the flaming building, many of the workers either expired from asphyxiation or leapt from windows — a fatal, 10-story fall. The company’s owners were eventually found guilty on charges of manslaughter.

• On March 22, 1929, Will Rogers signs with Fox to write and star in four films for $600,000. With the dawn of talking pictures in the late 1920s, Rogers became a top box-office draw. His films included “Happy Days” (1929) and “A Connecticut Yankee” (1931).

• On March 26, 1937, America’s first monument to a comic strip hero is unveiled in Crystal City, Texas. The 6-foot-tall, brightly colored concrete statue of Popeye was unveiled in Popeye Park during the city’s second annual Spinach Festival.

• On March 23, 1940, long-running radio game show “Truth or Consequences” debuts. Unlike giveaway game shows where the draw was huge cash prizes, “Truth or Consequences” paid only $15 for right answers. For wrong answers, guests were required to perform outrageous stunts — pushing walnuts across the stage with their noses, howling like a dog, or collecting hundreds of thousands of pennies.