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)