TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – MARCH 1
1562 In Vassy, France, Catholics massacred over 1,000 Huguenots. The event started the First War of Religion.
1642 York, Maine becomes the first incorporated American city.
1692 Sarah Goode, Sarah Osborne and Tituba are arrested for the supposed practice of witchcraft in Salem, Mass.
1776 French minister Charles Gravier advises his Spanish counterpart to support the American rebels against the English.
1780 Pennsylvania becomes the first U.S. state to abolish slavery.
1781 In America, the Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation.
1803 Ohio becomes the 17th state to join the Union.
1811 Egyptian ruler Mohammed Ali massacred the leaders of the Mameluke dynasty.
1815 Napoleon lands at Cannes, France, returning from exile on Elba, with a force of 1,500 men and marches on Paris.
1845 U.S. President Tyler signed the congressional resolution to annex the Republic of Texas.
1867 Nebraska became the 37th U.S. state.
1872 The U.S. Congress authorized the creation of Yellowstone National Park. It was the world’s first national park.
1875 Congress passes the Civil Rights Act, which is invalidated by the Supreme Court in 1883.
1896 Henri Becquerel discovers radioactivity
1919 The Korean coalition proclaims their independence from Japan.
1932 The Lindbergh baby is kidnapped from the Lindbergh home near Princeton, New Jersey.
1935 Germany officially establishes the Luftwaffe.
1941 Nashville, Tennessee becomes the home of the very first FM radio station in the country.
1947 The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is formed
1950 Klaus Emil Julius Fuchs, 38, a civil servant from Harwell in Berkshire, a top nuclear scientist is jailed for fourteen years at the Old Bailey for spying for the Soviet Union where he pleaded guilty to four offences under the Official Secrets Act.
1954 Five U.S. congressmen were shot and injured during a House session today when Puerto Rican spectators who yelled “Free Puerto Rico” fired shots into the United States Capitol building.
1954 US tests hydrogen bomb in the Pacific archipelago of Bikini, part of the Marshall Islands.
1960 1,000 Black students pray and sing the national anthem on the steps of the old Confederate Capitol in Montgomery, Ala.
1961 President John F. Kennedy establishes the Peace Corps as a new agency within the Department of State.
1973 The Palestinian terrorist group Black September storm the Saudi Arabian embassy in the Sudanese capital Khartoum, taking diplomats hostage. ( this was the same terrorist organization that murdered nine Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics.
1974 A grand jury indicts seven of President Nixon’s aides for the conspiracy on Watergate.
1985 The Pentagon accepts the theory that an atomic war would block the sun, causing a “nuclear winter.”
1994 Israel released about 500 Arab prisoners in an effort to placate Palestinians over the Hebron massacre.
1995 Internet giant Yahoo! is incorporated
2003 Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was captured by CIA and Pakistani agents near Islamabad. He was the suspected mastermind behind the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001.
2003 In the U.S., approximately 180,000 personnel from 22 different organizations around the government became part of the Department of Homeland Security. This completed the largest government reorganization since the beginning of the Cold War.
2007 The Swiss Army have been accused of invading Liechtenstein, as troops incorrectly map-read their way into it during a military exercise. A 171-strong Swiss company had traveled two kilometres into Liectenstein before realizing their error.
2012 The suspected gunman, TJ Lane, in a deadly school shooting will face charges as a juvenile in the US state of Ohio. Lane was suspected of killing three students and wounding two at Chardon High School.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
