TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON – MARCH 2
1776 Americans begin shelling British troops in Boston.
1791 Long-distance communication speeds up with the unveiling of a semaphore machine in Paris
1797 The Directory of Great Britain authorizes vessels of war to board and seize neutral vessels, particularly if the ships are American.
1807 US Congress bans the slave trade within the US, effective January 1, 1808
1815 To put an end to robberies by the Barbary pirates, the United States declares war on Algiers.
1836 Texas declares independence from Mexico on Sam Houston’s 43rd birthday.
1853 The Territory of Washington is organized.
1861 The U.S. Congress created the Territory of Nevada.
1865 President Abraham Lincoln rejects Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s plea for peace talks, demanding unconditional surrender.
1867 The first Reconstruction Act is passed by Congress.
1877 Rutherford B. Hayes is declared president by one vote the day before the inauguration.
1889 Congress passes the Indian Appropriations Bill, proclaiming unassigned lands in the public domain; the first step toward the famous Oklahoma Land Rush.
1897 U.S. President Cleveland vetoed legislation that would have required a literacy test for immigrants entering the country.
1899 U.S. President McKinley signed a measure that created the rank of Admiral for the U.S. Navy. The first admiral was George Dewey.
1900 The U.S. Congress voted to give $2 million in aid to Puerto Rico.
1901 Congress passes the Platt amendment, which limits Cuban autonomy as a condition for withdrawal of U.S. troops.
1917 After 300 years of rule by the Romanov Dynasty Czar Nicholas II is forced to abdicate following declining popularity due to the “Bloody Sunday” massacre when palace guards shot and killed defenseless demonstrators marching on the Winter Palace
1917 Congress passes the Jones Act making Puerto Rico a territory of the United States and makes the inhabitants U.S. citizens.
1933 The Original King Kong movie has its world premiere in New York.
1945 MacArthur raises the U.S. flag on Corregidor in the Philippines.
1946 Ho Chi Minh is elected president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
1955 Claudette Colvin refuses to give up her seat in Montgomery, Alabama, nine months before Rosa Parks’ famous arrest for the same offense.
1969 The supersonic airliner an British and French joint project, Concorde, has it’s maiden flight reaching 10,000ft and 300mph .
1969 On this date, the two greatest communist powers of the world opened fire against each other. The climax of this “clash” occurred in the eastern portion of the U.S.S.R., on the Ussuri River between Soviet and Chinese Troops.
1973 Federal forces surround Wounded Knee, South Dakota, which is occupied by members of the militant American Indian Movement who are holding at least 10 hostages.
1981 The United States plans to send 20 more advisors and $25 million in military aid to El Salvador.
1985 The U.S. government approved a screening test for AIDS that detected antibodies to the virus that allowed possibly contaminated blood to be kept out of the blood supply.
2001 The Taliban began the destruction of ancient Buddha statues in Afghanistan.
2002 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan: US conventional forces first delpoyed as part of Operation Anaconda
2004 Al-Qaeda terrorists carry out a series of explosions that killed at least 178 and injured at least 500 Iraqi Shi’a Muslims commemorating the Day of Ashura.
2005 The death toll for US Military fighting in Iraq reaches 1,500, the current toll on November 28th 2007 is 3878.
2006 An Italian parliamentary commission has reached the conclusion that the Soviet Union was behind the 1981 assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II.
** history.net, onthisday.com, infoplease.com, timeanddate.com, thepeoplehistory.com, on-this-day.com **
