March 3


March 3 is the 62nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (63rd in leap
years). There are 303 days remaining.

Events

   * 1431 - Eugenius IV becomes Pope
   * 1791 - The United States Mint is created by the United States Congress.
   * 1820 - The United States Congress passes the Missouri Compromise
   * 1845 - Florida is admitted as the 27th U.S. state.
   * 1845 - For the first time the United States Congress passes legislation
     overriding a presidential veto.
   * 1849 - Minnesota is organized as a United States territory.
   * 1849 - The United States Department of the Interior is established.
   * 1849 - The United States Congress passes the Gold Coinage Act allowing
     the minting of gold coins.
   * 1857 - France and the United Kingdom declare war on China.
   * 1863 - Idaho is organized as a United States territory.
   * 1865 - The United States Congress authorizes formation of the
     Freedmen's Bureau
   * 1873 - Censorship: The United States Congress enacts the Comstock Law,
     making it illegal to send any "obscene, lewd, or lascivious" books
     through the mail.
   * 1877 - Rutherford B. Hayes is inaugurated as the 19th President of the
     United States.
   * 1879 - The United States Geological Survey is created
   * 1885 - A subsidiary of the American Bell Telephone Company, American
     Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T), is incorporated in New York.
   * 1904 - Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany becomes the first person to make a
     political recording of a document, using Thomas Edison's cylinder.
   * 1905 - Tsar Nicholas II of Russia agrees to create an elected assembly
     (the Duma).
   * 1910 - Rockefeller Foundation: J.D. Rockefeller Jr. announces his
     retirement from managing his businesses so that he could devote full
     time to being a philanthropist.
   * 1915 - NACA, the predecessor of NASA founded
   * 1918 - Germany, Austria and Russia sign the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
     ending Russia's involvement in World War I.
   * 1931 - The United States adopts "The Star-Spangled Banner" as the
     national anthem.
   * 1933 - Mount Rushmore National Memorial is dedicated
   * 1938 - Glenn Cunningham breaks the world record for the indoor mile run
     by completing the distance in 4 minutes, 4.4 seconds.
   * 1939 - In Bombay, Mohandas Gandhi begins to fast in protest of the
     autocratic rule in India.
   * 1943 - 173 people are killed in a crush while trying to enter an
     air-raid shelter at Bethnal Green tube station in London
   * 1945 - World War II: Previously neutral Finland declares war on the
     Axis powers.
   * 1949 - The Tucker automobile Corporation folds
   * 1955 - Elvis Presley appears on television for the first time, on the
     program Louisiana Hayride
   * 1959 - The San Francisco Giants officially name their new stadium
     Candlestick Park.
   * 1961 - Hassan II becomes King of Morocco
   * 1969 - Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 9 to test the lunar module.
   * 1969 - In a Los Angeles, California court, Sirhan Sirhan admits that he
     killed presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy.
   * 1976 - Fleetwood Mac records Rumours, which will be a blockbuster album
     in 1977
   * 1978 - Charles Chaplin's remains are stolen from Cosier-sur-Vevey,
     Switzerland but are recovered 11 weeks later near Lake Geneva.
   * 1985 - Censorship: Women Against Pornography award their "Pig Award" to
     Huggies Diapers for claiming that their television ads had "crossed the
     line between eye-catching and porn."
   * 1991 - An amateur video captures the beating of Rodney King by Los
     Angeles police officers.
   * 1995 - In Somalia, the United Nations peacekeeping mission ends.
   * 1999 - LaGrand case: The State of Arizona executes Walter LaGrand, a
     German national involved in an armed robbery that led to a death.
     Walter's brother Karl had been executed a week earlier; Germany had
     initiated legal action in the International Court of Justice to attempt
     to save Walter.
   * 1999 - Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones begin their attempt to
     circumnavigate the world in a hot air balloon without stopping. Their
     journey ended in success on March 20.

Births

   * 1805 - Jonas Furrer, Swiss politician and first President of the Swiss
     Confederation (+ 1861)
   * 1831 - George Pullman, inventor, industrialist
   * 1845 - Georg Cantor, German mathematician (+ 1918)
   * 1847 - Alexander Graham Bell, Scottish inventor (+ 1922)
   * 1873 - William Green, labor union leader, President of the American
     Federation of Labor (+ 1952)
   * 1895 - Matthew Ridgway, Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, United States
     Army Chief of Staff
   * 1893 - Beatrice Wood, artist, ceramicist (+ 1998)
   * 1911 - Jean Harlow, actress (+ 1937)
   * 1918 - Fritz Thiedemann, equestrian (+ 2000)
   * 1920 - Roland Searle, illustrator
   * 1920 - James Doohan, actor
   * 1926 - James Merrill, Pulitzer Prize winning poet (+ 1995)
   * 1930 - Heiner Gei§ler, politician
   * 1941 - Jutta Hoffmann, actress
   * 1953 - Robyn Hitchcock, musician
   * 1958 - Miranda Richardson, actress
   * 1962 - Jackie Joyner-Kersey, athlete
   * 1966 - Tone Loc, musician

Deaths

   * 1703 - Robert Hooke, scientist
   * 1706 - Johann Pachelbel, composer
   * 1959 - Lou Costello, actor, comedian
   * 1961 - Paul Wittgenstein, pianist
   * 1966 - Maxfield Parrish, artist
   * 1983 - Hergˇ, Belgian comics creator
   * 1987 - Danny Kaye, actor, singer, comedian
   * 1988 - Sewall Wright, biologist
   * 1991 - Arthur Murray, dancer, dance instructor
   * 1999 - Walter LaGrand, German national, executed by the State of
     Arizona
   * 2003 - Horst Buchholz, German actor

Holidays and observances

   * Hinamatsuri - Japanese celebration day for girls.