TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – March 3
1791 Congress establishes US Mint
1791 1st Internal Revenue Act (taxing distilled spirits & carriages)
1803 The first impeachment trial of a U.S. Judge, John Pickering, begins.
1817 Mississippi Territory is divided into Alabama Territory & Mississippi
1820 Missouri Compromise passes, allowing slavery in Missouri
1837 Congress increases Supreme Court membership from 7 to 9
1845 Florida becomes the 27th U.S. state.
1845 1st US law overriding a Presidential veto (John Tyler’s)
1849 Territory of Minnesota is organized
1849 US Department of the Interior established by Congress
1857 Second Opium War: France and the United Kingdom declare war on China
1863 Idaho Territory forms
1863 President Abraham Lincoln signs the conscription act compelling U.S. citizens to report for duty in the Civil War or pay $300.00.
1877 Rutherford B. Hayes, the republican governor of Ohio is elected president, his election confirmed by an electoral commission after disputed election the previous November.
1917 1st major strike of the Russian “February Revolution” starts at the giant Putilov factory in Petrograd
1921 Toronto’s Dr Banting & Dr Best announce discovery of insulin
1923 The first issue of Time magazine is published. It’s editor, Henry R. Luce, is just out of Yale.
1931 President Herbert Hoover signs a bill that makes Francis Scott Key’s “Star Spangled Banner,” the national anthem.
1934 John Dillinger breaks out of jail using a wooden pistol
1952 The U.S. Supreme Court upholds New York’s Feinberg Law banning Communist teachers in the United States.
1969 Sirhan Sirhan testifies in a court in Los Angeles that he killed Robert Kennedy.
1972 it was announced that consumer interest rates could dramatically increase. For instance, buyers as of this date may be required to pay 372 percent interest on a $10.00 loan.
1972 Sculpted figures of Jefferson Davis, Robert E Lee, & Stonewall Jackson are completed at Stone Mountain GA
1991 Iraqi generals & General Schwarzkopf meet to discuss cease fire
1991 Los Angeles police officers severely beat motorist Rodney King, the beating is famously captured on amateur video and later leads to riots when the police officers are acquitted
1992 President Bush apologizes for raising taxes after pledging not to
1999 Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky appears on national television to explain her affair with President Bill Clinton.
2003 New embassies opened in Kenya and Tanzania, to replace those lost in the 1998 terrorist bombings.
2009 12 gunmen fire on the bus carrying the Sri Lankan cricket team on their way to play a match at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore, Pakistan.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
