March 1st in History
On this day in history —
- Romulus, legendary first king of Rome, celebrates the first Roman triumph (752 BCE)
- The city of Rio de Janeiro is founded (1565 CE)
- The “Salem Witches” are arrested (1692 CE)
- The Continental Congress adopts the Articles of Confederation (1781 CE)
- Ohio officially becomes a state — in 1953, retroactively, because Congress didn’t pass an actual resolution back in the day (1803 CE)
- Nebraska becomes a state with much less hoo-hah (1867 CE)
- Cover story —Yellowstone National Park is created (1872 CE)
- The infant son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh is kidnapped (1932 CE)
- The first hydrogen bomb, the 15 megaton “Castle Bravo,” is detonated at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific, giving rise to the bathing suit of the same name – most of it was blown away (1954 CE)
- Four Puerto Rico nationalists shoot 30 rounds into the House of Representatives from the balcony, wounding five members of Congress (1954 CE)
- The Peace Corps is established (1961 CE)
- The Soviet spacecraft Venera 3 crash-lands on Venus, the first terrestrial spacecraft to land on another planet’s surface (1966 CE)
- The “Watergate Seven” are indicted by a grand jury; Richard Nixon is secretly named an “unindicted co-conspirator” (1974 CE)
It’s the birthday of —
- Justin Bieber, teen idol (1994 CE)
- Chris Webber, disgraced NBA star (1973 CE)
- Ron Howard, child star who didn’t go bad (1954 CE)
- Catherine Bach, “daisy dukes” wearer (1954 CE)
- Elvin Bethea, oiler (1946 CE)
- Roger Daltrey — who? (1944 CE)
- Harry Belafonte, banana boat man (1927 CE)
- Robert Bork, would-be justice (1927 CE)
- Deke Slayton, Mercury astronaut (1924 CE)
- William Gaines, publisher of EC Comics and Mad Magazine (1922 CE)
- Yitzhak Rabin (יִצְחָק רַבִּין), Nobel Peace Prize winner (1922 CE)
- Harry Caray, cow holier (1917 CE)
- Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man author (1914 CE)
- David Niven, elegant actor (1910 CE)
- Glenn Miller, big band leander (1904 CE)
- Frédéric Chopin, composer (1810 CE)
- Martial, Roman poet and epigrammatist (40 CE)
Deaths —
- Andrew Breitbart, faux newsman (2012 CE)
- Edwin Land, Polaroid inventor (1991 CE)
- Joe Besser, stooge (1988 CE)
- Jackie Coogan, Uncle Fester (1984 CE)
- Arthur Koestler, author (1983 CE)
- Pauline Musters, shortest woman who ever lived, 23″ tall (1895 CE)
Holidays —
- Beer Day (Iceland)
- Independence Day (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
- Samiljeol (삼일절) (South Korea)
- Martenitsa (Bulgaria)
- Mărțișor (Romania)
- National Pig Day (United States)
- New Year (ancient Rome)
- St. David’s Day (Wales)
- Last day of the Festival of Ayyám-i-Há (Bahá’í)