In March, the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) decreased 0.1% seasonally adjusted (SA); rising 2.4% over the last 12 months, not seasonally adjusted (NSA), the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. The index for all items less food and energy rose 0.2% in March, SA; up 2.1% over the year, NSA.

Wednesday, the Dow lost 218.55 points (0.90%) to finish at 24,189.45, the NASDAQ decreased 25.28 points (0.36%) to 7,069.03, and the S&P 500 was down 14.68 points (0.55%) at 2,642.19. The Russell 2000 was up 3.37 points (0.22%) at 1,546.80, and the Wilshire 5000 closed 103.08 points (0.37%) lower at 27,467.68.

ON THIS DATE: In 1770, the British government moved to mollify outraged colonists by repealing most of the clauses of the hated Townshend Act. Initially passed on June 29, 1767, the Townshend Act constituted an attempt by the British government to consolidate fiscal and political power over the American colonies by placing import taxes on many of the British products bought by Americans, including lead, paper, paint, glass and tea. In 1861, the bloodiest four years in American history—the Civil War—began when Confederate shore batteries under General P.G.T. Beauregard opened fire on Union-held Fort Sumter in South Carolina’s Charleston Bay. In 1945, while on a vacation in Warm Springs, Georgia, President Franklin Roosevelt suffered a stroke and died. In 1961, aboard the spacecraft Vostok 1, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin became the first human being to travel into space, as well as the first to orbit the planet. In 1954, Bill Haley and the Comets recorded “(We’re Gonna) Rock Around The Clock.” In 1981, the space shuttle Columbia is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, becoming the first reusable manned spacecraft to travel into space.