Historical Events on March 2

Events 1 - 200 of 242

• 986 Louis V becomes King of the Franks.
• 1121 Dirk VI becomes count of Holland
• 1127 Assassination of Charles the Good, Count of Flanders

• 1458 Hussite George van Podiebrad chosen king of Bohemia

• 1657 Great Fire of Meireki destroys 60-70% of the Japanese capital city of Edo, killing an estimated 100,000 people

• 1699 French Canadian explorer Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville is the first European to discover the mouth of the Mississippi river [1]
• 1717 The Loves of Mars and Venus becomes the first ballet performed in England
• 1776 American troops begin shelling the British in Boston

• 1789 Pennsylvania ends prohibition of theatrical performances
• 1791 Long-distance communication speeds up with the unveiling of a semaphore machine in Paris

• 1799 Congress standardizes US weights & measures
• 1807 US Congress bans the slave trade within the US, effective January 1, 1808

• 1808 The inaugural meeting of the Wernerian Natural History Society, a former Scottish learned society, was held in Edinburgh.
• 1815 Signing of Kandyan treaty by British invaders and Sri Lankan King
• 1817 1st Evangelical church building dedicated, New Berlin, Pennsylvania
• 1819 Territory of Arkansas organized
• 1819 US passed its 1st immigration law
• 1824 Interstate commerce comes under federal control
• 1825 1st grand opera in US sung in English, NYC
• 1829 New England Asylum for the Blind, 1st in US, incorporated, Boston
• 1831 John Frazee becomes 1st US sculptor to receive a federal commission

• 1853 Territory of Washington organized after separating from Oregon Territory
• 1855 Aleksandr Romanov becomes tsar of Russia
• 1858 Frederick Cook of New Orleans, patents a cotton-bale metallic tie
• 1861 Government Printing Office purchases 1st printing plant, Washington
• 1861 US creates Dakota & Nevada Territories out of the Nebraska & Utah territories
• 1865 British newspaper "Morning Chronicle" begins publishing
• 1865 Conferate General Early's army is defeated at the battle of Waynesboro, Virginia, during American Civil War
• 1865 Freedman's Bureau founded for Black Education, 1865
• 1865 Second Taranaki War: The Volkner Incident in New Zealand.
• 1866 1st US company to make sewing needles by machine incorporated, Conn
• 1867 1st Reconstruction act passed by US Congress

• 1867 US Congress abolishes peonage in New Mexico
• 1867 US Congress creates the Department of Education
• 1868 University of Illinois opens

• 1874 National Association of Professional Baseball Players officially adopts the batter's box; decide any player betting on his own team will be expelled; any player betting on any other team to forfeit his pay

• 1888 The Convention of Constantinople is signed, guaranteeing free maritime passage through the Suez Canal during war and peace
• 1889 Kansas passes 1st US antitrust law
• 1890 Norwegian speed skater Oskar Fredriksen sets inaugural 5,000m world record of 9:19.8 in Stockholm, Sweden
• 1893 1st US federal railroad legislation passed; required safety features
• 1895 US Congress renames the Office of Immigration as the Bureau of Immigration

• 1898 Chasing winning target of 275, Australian cricket batsman Joe Darling bashes 160 in 171 minutes with 30 fours to lead Australia to a 6-wicket 5th Test win over England in Sydney; complete 4-1 series rout
• 1899 President McKinley signs bill creating Mt Rainier National Park (5th in US)
• 1901 Hawaii's first telegraph company opens
• 1901 United States Congress passes the Platt amendment, limiting the autonomy of Cuba as a condition for the withdrawal of American troops

• 1904 Stanley Cup, Montreal Arena, Westmount, Quebec: Montreal Wanderers and Ottawa HC tie, 5-5; Montreal disqualified for refusing to play second game in Ottawa

• 1907 Georges Feydeaus' "La Puce à l'Oreille" premieres in Paris
• 1909 Great Britain, France, Germany & Italy asks Serbia to set no territorial demands
• 1915 British vice admiral Sackville Hamilton Carden begins bombardment of Dardanelles forts
• 1915 Vladmir Jabotinsky forms a Jewish military force to fight in Palestine
• 1917 Jones Act: Puerto Rico territory created, US citizenship granted

• 1919 1st congress of Communist International opens at the Kremlin

• 1922 WBAP-AM, Fort Worth Texas, begins broadcasting
• 1922 WLW-AM in Cincinnati, Ohio, begins radio transmissions
• 1925 Dutch Socialists demand drastic disarmament
• 1925 Japan's House of Representatives recognizes male suffrage
• 1925 Nationwide road numbering system & US shield marker adopted
• 1925 SDAP-Second-Faction of parliament demands drastic disarmament

• 1929 US Congress creates Court of Customs & Patent Appeals
• 1930 1st US indoor glider flight, St Louis Terminal Building
• 1932 Australian golf trick-shot artist Joe Kirkwood posts an incredible 83 using only his putter over 18 holes at Belleaire, Florida; round includes 6 pars and 1 birdie

• 1933 Sanriku earthquake of 8.4 and tsunami hit Japan, country's most powerful earthquake in 180 years
• 1934 Union Pacific tests light-weight high-speed passenger train, Omaha

• 1937 Mexico nationalizes oil
• 1938 Landslides & floods cause over 200 deaths (Los Angeles California)
• 1938 Trials of Soviet leaders begins in the Soviet Union

• 1939 Massachusetts Legislature votes to ratify the US Bill of Rights - 147 years late
• 1940 Beaten by a nose in both the 1937 and 1938 Santa Anita Handicaps, Seabiscuit finally wins the Big 'Cap in his final race; retires the leading money-winning horse in the world
• 1940 Soviet armies conquer Tuppura Island, Finland
• 1940 The first televised intercollegiate track meet is seen in NYC on W2XBS; NYU wins the meet presented live from Madison Square Garden
• 1941 World War II: First German military units enter Bulgaria after it joined the Axis Pact.

• 1942 Admiral Helfrich departs Java for Ceylon
• 1943 1st transport from Westerbork Netherlands to Sobibor concentration camp

• 1944 Fumes from locomotive stalled in a tunnel suffocate 521 in Italy
• 1945 King Michael of Romania gives in to Communist government
• 1945 US 8th Air Force bombs Dresden
• 1946 Dutch troops land on East Bali

• 1946 Kingman Douglass becomes deputy director of CIA
• 1949 1st automatic street light (New Milford, Ct)
• 1949 Lucky Lady II (USAF B-50 Superfortress), completes 1st nonstop round- the-world flight at Fort Worth, Texas, covering 23,452-mis in 94 hrs
• 1955 King Norodom Sihanukh of Cambodia succeeded by his father
• 1955 William Inge's "Bus Stop" premieres in NYC
• 1955 William Inge's stage drama "Bus Stop", opens at the Music Box Theater, NYC; runs for 478 performances

• 1956 French-Moroccan Agreement signed in Paris rescinds the Treaty of Fez, declaring independence of Morocco from France
• 1958 1st surface crossing of Antarctic continent is completed in 99 days
• 1958 Yemen announces it would join the United Arab Republic

• 1965 Montcalm Community College founded in Sidney, Mich

• 1965 US Air Force begins Operation Rolling Thunder, a three year sustained bombing campaign against North Vietnam
• 1966 215,000 US soldiers in Vietnam
• 1966 After suffering a hairline fracture of his right hind foot, 5-time US Horse of the Year Kelso is immediately retired; racing's all-time leading money winner with lifetime earnings of $1,977,896

• 1967 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
• 1968 Ice Dance Championship at Geneva won by Towler & Ford of Great Britain
• 1968 Ice Pairs Championship at Geneva won by Belousova & Protopopov of the Soviet Union
• 1968 Men's Figure Skating Champions in Geneva won by Emmerich Danzer of Austria
• 1968 USAF displays Lockheed C-5A Galaxy, biggest plane in the world, with a cargo compartment 37m long
• 1968 USSR launches space probe Zond 4; fails to leave Earth orbit
• 1969 1st test flight of the supersonic Concorde

• 1969 Chinese-Russian borders fight (approx 70 die)

• 1970 American Airlines begins their first service using a Boeing 747, between New York's JFK International Airport and Los Angeles International

• 1970 Supreme Court ruled draft evaders can not be penalized after 5 years
• 1970 White government of Rhodesia declares itself a republic

• 1972 NASA launches its Pioneer 10 space probe to Jupiter, NASA's first mission to the outer planets
• 1973 "Black September" terrorists occupy Saudi Embassy in Khartoum

• 1974 1st class postage raised to 10 cents from 8 cents

• 1976 Walt Disney World logs its 50 millionth guest

• 1977 Libya amends constitution
• 1978 Soyuz 28 carries 2 cosmonauts (1 Czechoslovakian) to Salyut 6
• 1980 Phoenix point guard Mike Bratz ends NBA free throw streak of 57 games with a miss in the Suns' 123-115 home win over the LA Lakers
• 1981 Aircraft hijacked by 3 Pakistani terrorists

• 1981 Howard Stern begins broadcasting on WWDC in Washington, D.C.
• 1982 Terror group "The Illuminated Path" frees 260 prisoners in Peru
• 1983 Compact Disc recordings developed by Phillips & Sony introduced
• 1983 USSR performs underground nuclear test
• 1984 Iran offensive against Iraq fails
• 1985 FDA in the US approves an ELISA screening test for AIDS antibody for all blood banks
• 1986 1st million-dollar purse for a handicap race won at Santa Anita

• 1986 Protesters try to stop Land Rover motor company being sold to US
• 1986 Qualifier Kenny Knox is the last player to score in the 80’s (R3 80) and still win a PGA Tour event, the Honda Classic at TPC Eagle Trace; total 287 is highest winning score in PGA tournament history

• 1988 The flaming basketball is adopted as NBA franchise Miami Heat’s official logo from over 13,000 entries; Mark Henderson submits the winning entry
• 1989 12 European nations agree to ban chlorofluorocarbon production by 2000
• 1989 GreenLeft (GroenLinks) political party forms from merger of four left-wing parties: the Communist Party, the Pacifist Socialist Party, the Political Party of Radicals, and the Evangelical People's Party in the Netherlands

• 1989 Tanker Exxon Houston runs aground in Hawaii, spills 117,000 gallons of oil
• 1990 Greyhound Bus goes on strike
• 1991 Del Ballard Jr throws most famous gutter ball in PBA Tour history
• 1991 NC State point guard Chris Corchiani becomes 1st NCAA Div I player to record 1,000 career assists in a 89-84 loss to Wake Forest

• 1991 UN votes in favor of US resolutions for cease fire with Iraq
• 1991 US Army controversially destroys a retreating Iraqi Republican Guard column at Rumaila Oil Field, despite a ceasefire being observed
• 1992 American swimmer Anita Nall breaks the 200m breaststroke world record twice in the one day at the US Swimming championships in Indianapolis; wins final in 2:25.35
• 1992 Moldova joins the United Nations.

• 1993 Winnipeg Jets Finnish right wing Teemu Selänne breaks NHL record for goals by a rookie with a hat-trick in a 7-4 loss to the visiting Quebec Nordiques; passes Mike Bossy's mark of 52
• 1994 American politician William Natcher, (Rep-D-Ky), casts his 18,401 & last consecutive vote
• 1994 Branch Davidian cult leader David Koresh promises to surrender if taped statement is broadcasted, it is, but he doesn't

• 1995 "Smokey Joe's Cafe" opens at Virginia Theater NYC
• 1995 British trader Nick Leeson arrested for collapse of Barings Bank PLC
• 1995 Ferry boat sinks off Sumbe Angola, 42+ killed
• 1995 Joe Mullen becomes 2nd NHL player to appear in 300 NHL games with 3 different teams when he plays for the Penguins in a 6-3 loss in Buffalo; Pittsburgh 379, St. Louis 301, Calgary 345
• 1995 Space shuttle STS-67 (Endeavour 8), launches
• 1997 Australians Greg Blewett (214) and Steve Waugh (160) bat for the entire 3rd day of the 1st cricket Test against South Africa in Johannesburg; set up Australian innings and 196 run victory
• 1997 Michael Andretti wins at Homestead in a Swift chassis, marking the first Champ Car victory in an American-built chassis since 1983; first-ever Champ Car start for the Swift
• 1997 Saudi Arab billionaire Prince al-Waleed bin Talal acquires 5% of Apple
• 1997 Soyuz TM-24 returns to Earth (Russia)
• 1998 Data sent from the Galileo spacecraft indicates that Jupiter's moon Europa has a liquid ocean under a thick crust of ice

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