Today in History

Today is Monday, March 1, the 60th day of 2021. There are 305 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On March 1, 1954, four Puerto Rican nationalists opened fire from the spectators' gallery of the U.S. House of Representatives, wounding five members of Congress.

On this date:

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

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 1954, 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 1968, Johnny Cash married June Carter at the First Methodist Church in Franklin, Kentucky.

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 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.)

In 2005, Dennis Rader, the churchgoing family man accused of leading a double life as the BTK serial killer, was charged in Wichita, Kansas, with 10 counts of first-degree murder. (Rader later pleaded guilty and received multiple life sentences.) A closely divided Supreme Court outlawed the death penalty for juvenile criminals.

In 2010, Jay Leno returned as host of NBC's "The Tonight Show."

In 2015, tens of thousands marched through Moscow in honor of slain Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, who had been shot to death on Feb. 27.

Ten years ago: Yemen's embattled president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, accused the U.S., his closest ally, of instigating the mounting protests against him, but the gambit failed to slow the momentum of his ouster. The GOP-controlled House handily passed legislation to cut the federal budget by $4 billion and avert a partial shutdown of the government for two weeks. (The Senate passed the stopgap funding bill the next day.)

Five years ago: In the Super Tuesday primaries and caucuses, Republican Donald Trump won Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Vermont and Virginia; Ted Cruz won Alaska, Oklahoma and his home state of Texas; Marco Rubio won Minnesota. On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton won Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia while Bernie Sanders prevailed in Colorado, Minnesota, Oklahoma and his home state of Vermont.

One year ago: Health officials in Washington state, announcing what was believed at the time to be the second U.S. death from the coronavirus, said the virus may have been circulating for weeks undetected in the Seattle area. (Earlier deaths in the Seattle area and in California were subsequently linked to the virus.) State officials said New York City had its first confirmed case of the coronavirus, a woman in her late 30s who had contracted the virus while traveling in Iran. The U.S. government advised Americans against any travel to regions in northern Italy that had been hard hit by the virus; the U.S. also banned travel to Iran, where the official death toll surged past 50. President Donald Trump said there was "no reason to panic" about the virus. The NBA told players not to high-five fans or take any items for autographs, in the league's latest response to the coronavirus. Pete Buttigieg ended his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination with a call for unity.

Today's Birthdays: Actor Robert Clary is 95. Singer/actor Harry Belafonte is 94. Rock singer Mike D'Abo (Manfred Mann) is 77. Former Sen. John Breaux, D-La., is 77. Rock singer Roger Daltrey is 77. Actor Dirk Benedict is 76. Actor-director Ron Howard is 67. Country singer Janis Gill (aka Janis Oliver Cummins) (Sweethearts of the Rodeo) is 67. Actor Catherine Bach is 66. Actor Tim Daly is 65. Singer-musician Jon Carroll is 64. Rock musician Bill Leen is 59. Actor Bryan Batt is 58. Actor Maurice Bernard is 58. Actor Russell Wong is 58. Actor Chris Eigeman is 56. Actor John David Cullum is 55. Actor George Eads is 54. Actor Javier Bardem is 52. Actor Jack Davenport is 48. Rock musician Ryan Peake (Nickelback) is 48. Actor Mark-Paul Gosselaar is 47. Singer Tate Stevens is 46. Actor Jensen Ackles is 43. TV host Donovan Patton is 43. Rock musician Sean Woolstenhulme is 40. Actor Joe Tippett is 39. Actor Lupita Nyong'o is 38. Pop singer Kesha (formerly Ke$ha) is 34. R&B singer Sammie is 34. Pop singer Justin Bieber is 27.