March 2 is the 61st day of the year (62nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 304 days remaining until the end of the year.
Holidays
- Christian Feast Day:
- Feast of ‘Alá (Loftiness), First day of the 19th month of the Bahá’í calendar (Bahá’í Faith) and first day of the Baha’i Nineteen Day Fast
- Omizu-okuri (“Water Carrying”) Festival (Obama, Japan)
- Peasants Day (Burma)
- Texas Independence Day (Texas)
- Victory at Adwa Day (Ethiopia)
- Dr. Seuss’ Birthday, Read Across America Day (United States)
History
In 537, Siege of Rome: The Ostrogoth army under king Vitiges began the siege of the capital. Belisarius conducts a delaying action outside the Flaminian Gate; he and a detachment of his bucellarii are almost cut off.
In 986, Louis V becomes King of the Franks.
In 1121, Dirk VI becomes the Count of Holland.
In 1127, Assassination of Charles the Good, Count of Flanders.
In 1331, Fall of Nicaea to the Ottoman Turks after a siege
In 1444, Skanderbeg organizes a group of Albanian nobles to form the League of Lezhë.
In 1458, George of Poděbrady is chosen as the King of Bohemia.
In 1476, Burgundian Wars: The Old Swiss Confederacy hands Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, a major defeat in the Battle of Grandson in Canton of Neuchâtel.
In 1484, The College of Arms is formally incorporated by Royal Charter signed by King Richard III of England.
In 1498, Vasco da Gama‘s fleet visits the Island of Mozambique.
In 1561, Mendoza, Argentina is founded by Spanish conquistador Pedro del Castillo.
In 1568, Juan Pardo returns to Santa Elena, Florida after exploring the Piedmont interior and south along the Appalachian Mountains.
In 1657, Great Fire of Meireki: A fire in Edo (now Tokyo), Japan, caused more than 100,000 deaths; it lasted three days
In 1717, The Loves of Mars and Venus is the first ballet performed in England.
In 1776, American Revolutionary War: Patriot militia units arrest the Royal Governor of Georgia James Wright and attempt to prevent capture of supply ships in the Battle of the Rice Boats.
In 1791, Long-distance communication speeds up with the unveiling of a semaphore machine in Paris.
In 1791, John Wesley, English cleric and theologian (b. 1703) dies. He was an Anglican cleric and Christian theologian. Wesley is largely credited, along with his brother Charles Wesley, as founding the Methodist movement which began when he took to open-air preaching in a similar manner to George Whitefield. In contrast to Whitefield’s Calvinism, Wesley embraced the Arminian doctrines that were dominant in the 18th-century Church of England. Methodism in both forms became a highly successful evangelical movement in Britain and later in the United States. His work also helped lead to the development of the Holiness movement and Pentecostalism. Wesley helped to organise and form societies of Christians throughout Great Britain, North America and Ireland as small groups that developed intensive, personal accountability, discipleship and religious instruction among members. His great contribution was to appoint itinerant, unordained preachers who travelled widely to evangelise and care for people in the societies. Under Wesley’s direction, Methodists became leaders in many social issues of the day, including the prison reform and abolitionism movements. Although he was not a systematic theologian, Wesley argued in favour of ‘Christian perfection‘ and opposed Calvinism, notably the doctrine of predestination. He held that, in this life, Christians could come to a state in which the love of God “reigned supreme in their hearts”, allowing them to attain a state of outward holiness. His evangelical theology was firmly grounded in sacramental theology and he continually insisted on means of grace as the manner by which God sanctifies and transforms the believer, encouraging people to experience Jesus Christ personally.
In 1797, The Bank of England issues the first one-pound and two-pound banknotes.
In 1799, Congress standardized U.S. weights & measures based on the British system. In 1975 the U.S. government passed the Metric Conversion Act, which made the metric system “the preferred system of weights and measures for U.S. trade and commerce”. The legislation states that the federal government has a responsibility to assist industry as it voluntarily converts to the metric system, i.e., metrification. This is most evident in U.S. labeling requirements on food products, where SI units are almost always presented alongside customary units. According to the CIA Factbook, the United States is one of three nations (along with Liberia and Burma) that have not adopted the metric system as their official system of weights and measures.
In 1807, The U.S. Congress passes the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves, disallowing the importation of new slaves into the country.
In 1808, The inaugural meeting of the Wernerian Natural History Society, a former Scottish learned society, is held in Edinburgh.
In 1811, Argentine War of Independence: A royalist fleet defeats a small flotilla of revolutionary ships in the Battle of San Nicolás on the River Plate.
In 1815, Signing of the Kandyan Convention treaty by British invaders and the King of Sri Lanka.
In 1817, first Evangelical church building dedicated, New Berlin, Penn.
In 1819, the territory of Arkansas was organized.
In 1819, the U.S. passes its first immigration law.
In 1824, interstate commerce comes under federal control as a result of the steamboat case, Gibbons v. Ogden.
In 1825, Roberto Cofresí, one of the last successful Caribbean pirates, is defeated in combat and captured by authorities.
In 1829, the New England Asylum for the Blind, now known as The Perkins School For The Blind, was the first such that opened in Boston, Mass by John Dix Fisher.
In 1831, John Frazee becomes first US sculptor to receive a federal commission.
In 1833, the Force Bill becomes law, giving the president the right to use federal troops to collect custom duties in North Carolina.
In 1836, Texas Revolution: Declaration of independence of the Republic of Texas from Mexico.
In 1853, Washington Territory was organized after separation from the Oregon Territory.
In 1855, Alexander II becomes Tsar of Russia.
In 1858, Frederick Cook, New Orleans, patents a cotton-bale metallic tie.
In 1861, the Dakota & Nevada territories were carved by Congress out of Nebraska & Utah territories respectively.
In 1863, Congress authorizes a track width of 4′ 8 1/2″ as the standard for the Union Pacific Railroad (becomes the accepted width for most of the world). This was the width of carriages in the Roman Army.
In 1865, East Cape War: The Volkner Incident in New Zealand.
In 1865, General Early’s army is defeated at Waynesborough.
In 1866, Excelsior Needle Company of Wolcottville, Connecticut, began making sewing machine needles.
In 1867, The U.S. Congress passes the first Reconstruction Act.
In 1867, U.S. Congress created the Department of Education.
In 1877, U.S. presidential election, 1876: Just two days before inauguration, the U.S. Congress declares Rutherford B. Hayes the winner of the election even though Samuel J. Tilden had won the popular vote on November 7, 1876.
In 1882, Queen Victoria narrowly escapes an assassination attempt by Roderick McLean in Windsor.
In 1885, Sino-French War: French victory in the Battle of Hoa Moc near Tuyen Quang, northern Vietnam.
In 1889, the Kansas legislature passed the first antitrust law in the U.S.
In 1897, President Cleveland vetoed legislation that would have required a literacy test for immigrants.
In 1899, Congress established Mount Ranier National Park, the fifth such park in the U.S.
In 1901, The U.S. Congress passes the Platt Amendment limiting the autonomy of Cuba, as a condition of the withdrawal of American troops.
In 1903, In New York City the Martha Washington Hotel opens, becoming the first hotel exclusively for women.
In 1917, The enactment of the Jones-Shafroth Act grants Puerto Ricans United States citizenship.
In 1919, The first Communist International meets in Moscow.
In 1923, Italy, Mussolini admits that women have a right to vote, but declares that the time is not right.
In 1923, Time magazine made its debut. The first issue was 32 pages and featured a charcoal sketch of Congressman Joseph Gurney Cannon on the cover. The magazine was founded by Henry Luce and Briton Hadden.
In 1925, State and federal highway officials developed a nationwide route numbering system and adopted the familiar U.S. shield-shaped, numbered marker. For instance, in the east, there is U.S. 1 that runs from New England to Florida and in the west, the corresponding highway, U.S. 101, from Tacoma, WA to San Diego, CA.
In 1929, the U.S. Court of Customs and Patent Appeals is created by Congress.
In 1930, D. H. Lawrence, English author, poet, and playwright (b. 1885) died at the Villa Robermond in Vence, France, from complications of tuberculosis. He was an English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter who published as D. H. Lawrence. His collected works represent an extended reflection upon the dehumanising effects of modernity and industrialisation. In them, Lawrence confronts issues relating to emotional health and vitality, spontaneity, and instinct. Lawrence’s opinions earned him many enemies and he endured official persecution, censorship, and misrepresentation of his creative work throughout the second half of his life, much of which he spent in a voluntary exile which he called his “savage pilgrimage.” At the time of his death, his public reputation was that of a pornographer who had wasted his considerable talents. E. M. Forster, in an obituary notice, challenged this widely held view, describing him as, “The greatest imaginative novelist of our generation.” Later, the influential Cambridge critic F. R. Leavis championed both his artistic integrity and his moral seriousness, placing much of Lawrence’s fiction within the canonical “great tradition” of the English novel. Lawrence is now valued by many as a visionary thinker and significant representative of modernism in English literature.
In 1933, The film King Kong opens at New York’s Radio City Music Hall. It’s often ranked as the greatest horror film of all time and has spawned a long history of spinoff films.
In 1937, The Steel Workers Organizing Committee signs a collective bargaining agreement with U.S. Steel, leading to unionization of the United States steel industry.
In 1939, Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli is elected Pope and takes the name Pius XII.
In 1941, World War II: First German military units enter Bulgaria after it joins the Axis Pact.
In 1943, World War II: Battle of the Bismarck Sea – United States and Australian forces sink Japanese convoy ships.
In 1944, Gen. MacArthur returns to his headquarters on Leyte.
In 1945, MacArthur raises the U.S. flag on Corregidor in the Philippines.
In 1945, Toward the close of World War II, units of the U.S. 9th Army reached the Rhine River opposite Dusseldorf, Germany.
In 1946, Ho Chi Minh is elected the President of North Vietnam.
In 1949, Captain James Gallagher lands his B-50 Superfortress Lucky Lady II in Fort Worth, Texas after completing the first non-stop around-the-world airplane flight in 94 hours and one minute.
In 1949, The first automatic street light is installed in New Milford, Connecticut.
In 1951, The U.S. Navy launches the USS Barracuda (SSK-1), the first modern submarine designed to hunt enemy submarines.
In 1953, the comic strip “Rivets” debut; it lasted through Jan 1986.
In 1955, King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia abdicates the throne in favor of his father, King Norodom Suramarit.
In 1956, Morocco gains its independence from France.
In 1958, British explorer Dr. Vivian Fuchs completed the first land crossing of Antarctica in 99 days.
In 1959, A NEW KIND OF TELEPHONE Connecticut-based Southern New England Telephone is testing an experimental push-button phone in the New Haven area, to see if customers dial fewer wrong numbers
In 1962, In Burma, the army led by General Ne Win seizes power in a coup d’état.
In 1962, Wilt Chamberlain sets the single-game scoring record in the National Basketball Association by scoring 100 points.
In 1965, The US and South Vietnamese Air Force begin Operation Rolling Thunder, a sustained bombing campaign against North Vietnam.
In 1969, In Toulouse, France, the first test flight of the Anglo-French Concorde is conducted.
In 1969, Soviet and Chinese forces clash at a border outpost on the Ussuri River.
In 1970, Rhodesia declares itself a republic, breaking its last links with the British crown.
In 1970, American Airlines had its first flight of a Boeing 747.
In 1970, Timothy Leary, former Harvard psychology professor and LSD advocate, is given 10 years for smuggling marijuana.
In 1972, The Pioneer 10 space probe is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida with a mission to explore the outer planets.
In 1974, A grand jury in Washington, D.C. concludes that President Nixon was indeed involved in the Watergate cover-up.
In 1977, the U.S. House of Representatives adopted a strict code of ethics that limited outside earnings and required detailed financial disclosures by its members.
In 1978, Czech Vladimír Remek becomes the first non-Russian or non-American to go into space, when he is launched aboard Soyuz 28.
In 1983, Compact Discs and players are released for the first time in the United States and other markets. They had previously been available only in Japan.
In 1987, Randolph Scott, American actor and director (b. 1898) died of heart and lung ailments in 1987 at the age of 89 in Beverly Hills, California. He was an American film actor whose career spanned from 1928 to 1962. As a leading man for all but the first three years of his cinematic career, Scott appeared in a variety of genres, including social dramas, crime dramas, comedies, musicals (albeit in non-singing and non-dancing roles), adventure tales, war films, and even a few horror and fantasy films. However, his most enduring image is that of the tall-in-the-saddle Western hero. Out of his more than 100 film appearances more than 60 were in Westerns; thus, “of all the major stars whose name was associated with the Western, Scott most closely identified with it.” Scott’s more than 30 years as a motion picture actor resulted in his working with many acclaimed screen directors, including Henry King, Rouben Mamoulian, Michael Curtiz, John Cromwell, King Vidor, Allan Dwan, Fritz Lang, and Sam Peckinpah. He also worked on multiple occasions with prominent directors: Henry Hathaway (eight times), Ray Enright (seven), Edwin R. Marin (seven), André de Toth (six), and most notably, his seven film collaborations with Budd Boetticher. Scott also worked with a diverse array of cinematic leading ladies, from Shirley Temple and Irene Dunne to Mae West and Marlene Dietrich. Tall (6 ft 2.5 in; 189 cm), lanky, and handsome, Scott displayed an easygoing charm and courtly Southern drawl in his early films that helped offset his limitations as an actor, where he was frequently found to be stiff or “lumbering”. As he matured, however, Scott’s acting improved while his features became burnished and leathery, turning him into the ideal “strong, silent” type of stoic hero.
In 1989, Twelve European Community nations agree to ban the production of all chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) by the end of the century.
In 1990, Nelson Mandela is elected deputy President of the African National Congress.
In 1990, More than 6,000 drivers and thousands of other employees went on strike against Greyhound, the only nationwide intercity bus line. (the company, later declaring an impasse in negotiations, fired the strikers).
In 1991, Battle at Rumaila Oil Field brings an end to the 1991 Gulf War.
In 1992, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, San Marino, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan join the United Nations.
In 1993, 1993 Storm of the Century begins to form over the North Atlantic Ocean. (The Perfect Storm)
In 1993, in the third day of a standoff between federal agents and Branch Davidians near Waco, Texas, local radio stations broadcast a taped statement in which the group’s leader, David Koresh, promised to surrender. However, the standoff continued.
In 1993, junk-bond swindler Michael Milken was released on probation.
In 1994, Six senior White House officials appeared in court regarding Bill Clinton’s involvement in an Arkansas land deal. Controversy is known as the Whitewater scandal.
In 1995, Researchers at Fermilab announce the discovery of the top quark.
In 1995, The Senate rejected the balanced-budget amendment, 65 in favor, 35 against, two votes shy of the two-thirds majority needed for passage.
In 1995, Yahoo! is incorporated.
In 1995, The last UN peacekeepers in Somalia were evacuated.
In 1997, it was revealed that Vice President Gore had raised millions of dollars for the 1996 campaign through direct telephone solicitations, and that some of the calls were made on special phones installed in government buildings for that purpose.
In 1998, Data sent from the Galileo spacecraft indicates that Jupiter‘s moon Europa has a liquid ocean under a thick crust of ice.
In 1998, The Justice Department told an appeals court Monday Microsoft Corp. broke a promise and used monopoly power to force its Web browsing software on personal computer makers.
In 1999, Conservative commentator Pat Buchanan launched a third White House bid. Texas Governor George W. Bush announced he was forming a presidential exploratory committee.
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In 1999, Dusty Springfield, English singer (The Lana Sisters and The Springfields) (b. 1939) dies due to complications to cancer. Born Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O’Brien, known professionally as Dusty Springfield, was an English pop singer and record producer whose career extended from the late 1950s to the 1990s. With her distinctive sensual sound, she was an important blue-eyed soul singer and at her peak was one of the most successful British female performers, with six top 20 singles on the United States Billboard Hot 100 and sixteen on the United Kingdom Singles Chart from 1963 to 1989. She is a member of both the US Rock and Roll and UK Music Halls of Fame. International polls have named Springfield among the best female rock artists of all time. Her image, supported by a peroxide blonde bouffant hairstyle, evening gowns, and heavy make-up, made her an icon of the Swinging Sixties
In 2002, U.S. invasion of Afghanistan: Operation Anaconda begins, (ending on March 19 after killing 500 Taliban and al Qaeda fighters, with 11 Western troop fatalities).
In 2004, War in Iraq: Al-Qaeda carries out the Ashoura Massacre in Iraq, killing 170 and wounding over 500.
In 2010, Winston Churchill, English politician (b. 1940) dies. He was a British Conservative Party politician and a grandson of former Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill, his namesake.
Before becoming a Member of Parliament, he was a journalist, notably in the Middle East during the Six Day War, during which time he met numerous Israeli politicians, including Moshe Dayan, and published a book recounting the war.
In 2010, Dr. Vickie Lake and team failed to convince the majority of the Jackson Tennessee city council that a curfew law was justified within the boundaries of the city of Jackson. The council voted 3-5-1. Councilmen Randy Wallace, Maurice Hays and Pepper Bray voted in favor of the curfew. Councilman Dodd abstained and the remaining council voted no. Dr. Lake’s team was given the month to provide the council with rock solid evidence to support the need to limit the rights of the citizens of the city and they were unable to present conclusive information during that time. The team continued to support the findings of other studies that were not conclusive.
In 2012, A tornado outbreak occurred over a large section of the Southern United States and into the Ohio Valley region, resulting in 40 tornado-related fatalities.
In 2013, Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam rejected an estimated $1 billion a year from the federal government to expand TennCare to 180,000 Tennesseans, saying he wanted to bargain for a better deal that would ensure the state won’t have to shoulder that cost later down the road. (Hint he doesn’t have the votes).
In 2014, A massive winter storm system packing cold air, snow and freezing rain was bearing down on the U.S. East Coast, causing federal and local offices in Washington to close on Monday after it pummeled the central United States over the weekend.
In 2014, Tennessee State Representative Jimmy Eldridge agreed to support Communist based program of state owned telecommunications by sponsoring HB 2482 which states:
Municipal Government – As introduced, authorizes municipal electric systems and other governmental utility authorities that provide broadband services, such as cable and Internet service, to provide such services to economic development, education, and health care projects within a community improvement area under certain circumstances. – Amends TCA Title 7.
In 2014, The Jackson City Council voted to change the Building Codes to those recommended by the United Nations in concurrence with Agenda 21. …. say bye bye to building that you want…..
In 2017, The elements Moscovium, Tennessine, and Oganesson were officially added to the periodic table at a conference in Moscow, Russia.
