Today in History

Today is Sunday, March 1, the 61st day of 2020. There are 305 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On March 1, 1974, seven people, including former Nixon White House aides H.R. Haldeman and John D. Ehrlichman, former Attorney General John Mitchell and former assistant Attorney General Robert Mardian, were indicted on charges of conspiring to obstruct justice in connection with the Watergate break-in. (These four defendants were convicted in Jan. 1975, although Mardian's conviction was later reversed.)

On this date:

In 1781, the Continental Congress declared the Articles of Confederation to be in force, following ratification by Maryland.

In 1790, President George Washington signed a measure authorizing the first United States Census. (Census Day was Aug. 2, 1790.)

In 1893, inventor Nikola Tesla first publicly demonstrated radio during a meeting of the National Electric Light Association in St. Louis by transmitting electromagnetic energy without wires.

In 1914, National Baseball Hall of Fame announcer Harry Caray was born in St. Louis.

In 1932, Charles A. Lindbergh Jr., the 20-month-old son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh, was kidnapped from the family home near Hopewell, New Jersey. (Remains identified as those of the child were found the following May.)

In 1954, four Puerto Rican nationalists opened fire from the spectators' gallery of the U.S. House of Representatives, wounding five members of Congress. The United States detonated a dry-fuel hydrogen bomb, codenamed Castle Bravo, at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands.

In 1957, "The Cat in the Hat" by Dr. Seuss was released to bookstores by Random House.

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy signed an executive order establishing the Peace Corps.

In 1966, the Soviet space probe Venera 3 impacted the surface of Venus, becoming the first spacecraft to reach another planet; however, Venera was unable to transmit any data, its communications system having failed.

In 1971, a bomb went off inside a men's room at the U.S. Capitol; the radical group Weather Underground claimed responsibility for the pre-dawn blast.

In 1981, Irish Republican Army member Bobby Sands began a hunger strike at the Maze Prison in Northern Ireland; he died 65 days later.

In 1996, President Bill Clinton slapped economic sanctions on Colombia, concluding that Colombian authorities had not fully cooperated with the U.S. war on drugs. The Food and Drug Administration approved a powerful new AIDS drug, saying ritonavir could prolong slightly the lives of severely ill patients.

Ten years ago: Wartime Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, defending himself against charges of Europe's worst genocide since the Holocaust, told judges in his slow-moving trial that he was not the barbarian depicted by U.N. prosecutors, but was protecting his people against a fundamentalist Muslim plot. Jay Leno returned as host of NBC's "The Tonight Show."

Five years ago: Tens of thousands marched through Moscow in honor of slain Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, who had been shot to death on Feb. 27. Minnie Minoso, major league baseball's first black Latino star, died in Chicago. (There was some question about Minoso's age, but the medical examiner's office and the White Sox said he was 90.)

One year ago: In an effort to defuse a dramatic escalation between the nuclear-armed neighbors over the disputed region of Kashmir, Pakistan handed over a captured Indian air force pilot to Indian officials at a border crossing. The driver of a Tesla Model 3 was killed when the car drove beneath a semitrailer in Delray Beach, Florida; investigators determined that the driver had activated the company's semi-autonomous Autopilot system about 10 seconds before the crash.

Today's Birthdays: Actor Robert Clary is 94. Singer/actor Harry Belafonte is 93. Rock singer Mike D'Abo (Manfred Mann) is 76. Former Sen. John Breaux, D-La., is 76. Rock singer Roger Daltrey is 76. Actor Dirk Benedict is 75. Actor-director Ron Howard is 66. Country singer Janis Gill (aka Janis Oliver Cummins) (Sweethearts of the Rodeo) is 66. Actress Catherine Bach is 65. Actor Tim Daly is 64. Singer-musician Jon Carroll is 63. Rock musician Bill Leen is 58. Actor Bryan Batt is 57. Actor Maurice Bernard is 57. Actor Russell Wong is 57. Actor Chris Eigeman is 55. Actor John David Cullum is 54. Actor George Eads is 53. Actor Javier Bardem is 51. Actor Jack Davenport is 47. Rock musician Ryan Peake (Nickelback) is 47. Actor Mark-Paul Gosselaar is 46. Singer Tate Stevens is 45. Actor Jensen Ackles is 42. TV host Donovan Patton is 42. Rock musician Sean Woolstenhulme is 39. Actor Joe Tippett is 38. Actress Lupita Nyong'o is 37. Pop singer Kesha (formerly Ke$ha) is 33. Rhythm-and-blues singer Sammie is 33. Pop singer Justin Bieber is 26.

Thought for Today: "The only sense that is common in the long run, is the sense of change -- and we all instinctively avoid it." -- E.B. White, American writer (1899-1985).

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