Today in History
2nd March
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2nd March |
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| 1121 Dirk VI becomes count of Holland | ||
| 1458 Hussite George van Podiebrad chosen king of Bohemia | ||
| 1498 Vasco da Gama's fleet visits Mozambique Island | ||
| 1459 Adrian VI, the only Dutchman to be Pope, was born. | ||
| 1629 English king Charles I leaces house of commons | ||
| 1675 Prince William III installed as governor of Overijssel | ||
| 1725 Georg F Hendels opera "Giulio Cesare in Egitto," premieres in London | ||
| 1776 Americans begin shelling British troops in Boston | ||
| 1791 John Wesley, English theologian and founder of Methodism, died | ||
| 1793 Sam Houston, responsible for winning control of Texas from Mexico and its first president, born. | ||
| 1801 The War of the Oranges between Spain and Portugal began; French troops fought alongside the Spanish after Portugal refused Napoleon's demand to cede much of the country to him. | ||
| 1807 Congress bans slave trade effective January 1, 1808 | ||
| 1819 US passed its 1st immigration law | ||
| 1824 Interstate commerce comes under federal control | ||
| 1835 Francis II, Emperor of Austria and the last Holy Roman Emperor, died. | ||
| 1836 Republic of Texas declares independence from Mexico | ||
| 1855 Aleksandr Romanov becomes tsar of Russia | ||
| 1855 Nicholas I, Tsar of Russia, died; his reign of autocracy and militarism was ended by defeat in the Crimean War. | ||
| 1858 Frederick Cook, New Orleans, patents a cotton-bale metallic tie | ||
| 1861 Government Printing Office purchases 1st printing plant, Washington | ||
| 1861 US creates Dakota & Nevada Territories out of the Nebraska & Utah | ||
| 1865 British newspaper "Morning Chronicle" begins publishing | ||
| 1865 Freedman's Bureau founded for Black Education, 1865 | ||
| 1865 Gen Early's army is defeated at Waynesborough | ||
| 1867 1st Reconstruction act passed by Congress | ||
| 1867 U.S. Congress abolishes peonage in New Mexico | ||
| 1867 U.S. Congress created the Department of Education | ||
| 1867 Jesse James-gang robs bank in Savannah Missouri, 1 dead | ||
| 1877 A U.S. electoral commission declared Rutherford B. Hayes president, the only American president to be elected this way. The original result had been too close to call, with several disputed ballots. | ||
| 1882 Roderick Maclean made an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Queen Victoria at Windsor; he was later declared insane. | ||
| 1889 Kansas passes 1st US antitrust | ||
| 1896 Battle of Aduwa, Abyssinia (Ethiopia) defeats invading Italians | ||
| 1896 George Lohmann takes 9-28 v South Africa at Johannesburg | ||
| 1898 Australia complete a 4-1 series annihilation of England | ||
| 1901 Hawaii's 1st telegraph company opens | ||
| 1904 Gabriele d'Annunzio's "La figlia di Iorio," premieres in Milan | ||
| 1907 General Louis Botha named premier of Transvaal | ||
| 1909 Gr Brit, France, Germ & It asks Serbia to set no territorial demands | ||
| 1910 2 trains crash in snow storm in Wellington Washington, 118 die | ||
| 1915 British vice adm Carden begins bombing of Dardanelles forts | ||
| 1915 Vladmir Jabotinsky forms a Jewish military force to fight in Palestine | ||
| 1917 The Jones Act, establishing Puerto Rico as an American territory, was passed by the U.S. Congress. | ||
| 1917 Tsar Nicholas II of Russia abdicated and a provisional government under Georgy Lvov was formed. | ||
| 1919 1st congress of Communist International opens at the Kremlin | ||
| 1923 Time magazine debuts | ||
| 1925 Dutch Socialists demand drastic disarmament | ||
| 1925 Japan's House of Representatives recognizes male suffrage | ||
| 1925 Nationwide road numbering system & US shield marker adopted | ||
| 1927 Babe Ruth becomes highest paid baseball player ($70,000 per year) | ||
| 1930 D. H. Lawrence, English novelist, and author of "Lady Chatterley's Lover," died. | ||
| 1931 Mikhail Gorbachev, former president of the Soviet Union, born. He introduced liberalizing reforms known as "glasnost" and "perestroika." | ||
| 1933 Most powerful earthquake in 180 years hit Japan | ||
| 1934 Union Pacific tests light-weight high-speed passenger train, Omaha | ||
| 1937 Mexico nationalizes oil | ||
| 1938 Landslides & floods cause over 200 deaths (LA Calif) | ||
| 1938 Trials of Soviet leaders begins in the Soviet Union | ||
| 1939 Eugenio Pacelli chosen as Pope Pius XII | ||
| 1939 Mass Legislature votea to ratify the Bill of Rights - 147 years late | ||
| 1940 Soviet armies conquer Tuppura Island Finland | ||
| 1942 Admiral Helfrich departs Java for Ceylon | ||
| 1943 The Battle of the Bismark Sea began; twelve Japanese ships carrying reinforcements to New Guinea were sunk by Allied planes, killing nearly 4,000. | ||
| 1943 1st transport from Westerbork Neth to Sobibor concentration camp | ||
| 1943 Sea battle in Bismarck Sea finishes, US & Australia win | ||
| 1944 Fumes from locomotive stalled in a tunnel suffocates 521 in Italy | ||
| 1945 8th Air Force bombs Dresden | ||
| 1945 King Michael of Romania gives in to Communist governament | ||
| 1946 Dutch troops land on East Bali | ||
| 1946 Ho Chi Minh was elected president of North Vietnam. | ||
| 1946 Kingman Douglass, becomes deputy director of CIA | ||
| 1949 Capt. James Gallagher completed the first non-stop round the world flight. He completed the 23,452-mile (37,742-km) flight in 94 hours 1 minute. | ||
| 1955 King Norodom Sihanukh of Cambodia succeeded by his father | ||
| 1956 Morocco tears up the Treaty of Fez, declares independence from France | ||
| 1958 1st surface crossing of Antarctic continent is completed in 99 days | ||
| 1958 Dr. Vivian Fuchs completed the first crossing of Antarctica by land. | ||
| 1962 In Burma the army led by Ne Win seized power in a coup, ousting U Nu; military rule ended on the same date in 1974 and Ne Win became president under a new constitution. | ||
| 1966 215,000 US soldiers in Vietnam | ||
| 1968 USAF displays Lockheed C-5A Galaxy, biggest plane in the world | ||
| 1968 USSR launches space probe Zond 4; fails to leave Earth orbit | ||
| 1969 The first of two prototype Concordes made its maiden flight from Toulouse. | ||
| 1969 Chinese-Russian borders fight (approx 70 die) | ||
| 1970 American Airlines' 1st flight of a Boeing 747 | ||
| 1970 A new constitution came into effect in Rhodesia turning the country into a republic. | ||
| 1972 Pioneer 10 launched for Jupiter flyby | ||
| 1973 "Black September" terrorists occupy Saudi Embassy in Khartoum | ||
| 1976 Walt Disney World logged its 50 millionth guest | ||
| 1977 Bette Davis is 1st woman to receive Life Achievement Award | ||
| 1977 Libya amends constitution | ||
| 1981 Aircraft hijacked by 3 Pakistani terrorists | ||
| 1983 Compact Disc recordings developed by Phillips & Sony introduced | ||
| 1983 USSR performs underground nuclear test | ||
| 1984 Iran offensive against Iraq fails | ||
| 1985 US approves screening test for AIDS | ||
| 1989 12 European nations agree to ban chlorofluorocarbon production by 2000 | ||
| 1990 In South Africa, Nelson Mandela was elected deputy president of the African National Congress. | ||
| 1995 British trader Nick Leeson arrested for collapse of Barings Bank PLC | ||
| 1995 Ferry boat sinks off Sumbe Angola, 42+ killed | ||
| 1995 Seven-time Italian prime minister Giulio Andreotti was ordered to stand trial on charges of having been a member of the Mafia. |