2002 – Operation Anaconda, the largest U.S.-led ground offensive since the Gulf War, ended in eastern Afghanistan. During the operation, which began on March 2, it was reported that at least 500 Taliban and al Qaeda fighters were killed. Eleven allied troops were killed during the same operation
1279 – A Mongolian victory in the Battle of Yamen ends the Song Dynasty in China
1286 – Alexander III, King of Scots, killed accidentally at Kinghorn, Fife.
1452 – Frederick III of Hapsburg crowned Roman German Emperor
1540 – Court of Holland names Amsterdam sheriff John Hubrechtsz a “heretic”
1571 – Spanish troops occupied Manila.
1628 – The Massachusetts colony was founded by Englishmen.
1644 – 200 members of the Peking imperial family/court committed suicide.
1682 – Assembly of the French clergy issues a declaration stating, among other things, that the power of the King is not subject to papal authority
1687 – French explorer La Salle was murdered by his own men while searching for the mouth of the Mississippi River, in the Gulf of Mexico.
1702 – Upon the death of William III of Orange, Anne Stuart, the sister of Mary, succeeds to the throne of England, Scotland and Ireland
1748 – The English Naturalization Act passed granting Jews right to colonize in the U.S.
1775 – Poland & Prussia signed a trade agreement.
1808 – Charles IV, king of Spain, abdicates after riots and a popular revolt at the winter palace Aranjuez. His son, Ferdinand VII, takes the throne
1831 – The first bank robbery in America was reported. The City Bank of New York City lost $245,000 in the robbery.
1866 – The immigrant ship Monarch of the Seas sank in Liverpool killing 738.
1879 – Jim Currie opened fire on the actors Maurice Barrymore and Ben Porter near Marshall, TX. The shots wounded Barrymore and killed Porter.
1900 – U.S. President McKinley asserted that there was a need for free trade with Puerto Rico.
1903 – The U.S. Senate ratified the Cuban treaty, gaining naval bases in Guantanamo and Bahia Honda.
1906 – Reports from Berlin estimated the cost of the German war in S.W. Africa at $150 million.
1908 – The state of Maryland barred Christian Scientists from practicing without medical diplomas.
1915 – Pluto was photographed for the first time. However, it was not known at the time.
1917 – The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Adamson Act that made the eight-hour workday for railroads constitutional.
1918 – Congress authorizes time zones & approves daylight saving time
1920 – US Senate rejects Treaty of Versailles for 2nd time refusing to ratify League of Nations’ covenant (maintaining isolation policy)
1924 – U.S. troops were rushed to Tegucigalpa as rebel forces took the Honduran capital.
1937 – Commons passes bill banning Canadian enlistment in the Spanish Civil War
1942 – FDR orders men between 45 & 64 to register for non military duty
1943 – Frank Nitti, Chicago Outfit Boss after Al Capone committed suicide at the Chicago Central Railyard.
1945 – About 800 people were killed as Japanese kamikaze planes attacked the U.S. carrier Franklin off Japan.
1947 – Chiang Kai-Shek’s government forces took control of Yenan, the former headquarters of the Chinese Communist Party.
1949 – The Soviet People’s Council signed the constitution of the German Democratic Republic, and declared that the North Atlantic Treaty was merely a war weapon.
1963 – In Costa Rica, U.S. President John F. Kennedy and six Latin American presidents pledged to fight Communism.
1965 – The wreck of the SS Georgiana, valued at over $50,000,000, said to have been most powerful Confederate cruiser, discovered by then teenage diver and pioneer underwater archaeologist E. Lee Spence exactly 102 years after its destruction.
1968 – Students at Howard University students seized an administration building.
1969 – British troops take over the Caribbean island Anguilla following internal political wranglings.
1972 – India and Bangladesh signed a friendship treaty.
1973 – Dean tells Nixon, “There is a cancer growing on the Presidency”
1975 – Pennsylvania is first state to allow girls to compete with boys in High School sports
1977 – Congo President Marien Ngouabi was killed by a suicide commando.
1979 – The U.S. House of Representatives began broadcasting its daily business on TV.
1981 – During a test of the space shuttle Columbia two workers were injured and one was killed.
1984 – A Mobile oil tanker spilled 200,000 gallons into the Columbia River.
1985 – IBM announced that it was planning to stop making the PCjr consumer-oriented computer.
1987 – Televangelist Jim Bakker resigns as head of the PTL Club due to a brewing sex scandal; he hands over control to Jerry Falwell.
1988 – Two British soldiers were killed by mourners at a funeral in Belfast, North Ireland. The soldiers were shot to death after being dragged from a car and beaten.
1990 – Latvia’s political opposition claimed victory in the republic’s first free elections in 50 years.
1991 – NFL owners strip Phoenix of 1993 Super Bowl game due to Arizona not recognizing Martin Luther King Day
1997 – Police fired tear gas and warning shots in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, to quell a protest against the government’s plan to use foreign mercenaries to crush a separatist rebellion
1998 – The World Health Organization warned of tuberculosis epidemic that could kill 70 million people in next two decades.
1999 – 53 people were killed and dozens were injured when a bomb exploded in a market place in southern Russia.
2000 – Vector Data Systems conducted a simulation of the 1993 Branch Davidian siege in Waco, TX. The simulation showed that the government had not fired first.
2001 – California officials declared a power alert and ordered the first of two days of rolling blackouts.
2002 – Operation Anaconda, the largest U.S.-led ground offensive since the Gulf War, ended in eastern Afghanistan. During the operation, which began on March 2, it was reported that at least 500 Taliban and al Qaeda fighters were killed. Eleven allied troops were killed during the same operation.
2003 – U.S. President George W. Bush announced that U.S. forces had launched a strike against “targets of military opportunity” in Iraq. The attack, using cruise missiles and precision-guided bombs, were aimed at Iraqi leaders thought to be near Baghdad.
2004 – A Swedish DC-3 shot down by a Russian MiG-15 in the 1950s is finally recovered after years of work. The remains of the crew are left in place, pending further investigations
2013 – NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity discovers further evidence of water-bearing minerals
2014 – Russia captures the Ukrainian naval base in Sevastopol
2018 – Mississippi signs into law the US’s strictest abortion laws, no termination after 15 weeks
2019 – Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev announces his resignation after nearly 30 years in office, the last soviet-era head of state
2021 – Icelandic volcano Fagradalsfjall erupts for the first time in 800 years and after more than 50,000 earthquakes
2023 – UBS, Switzerland’s largest bank agrees to buy its rival Credit Suisse (established 1856) for about $3.2 billion to help ease global financial panic, in deal brokered by Swiss government
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
