Today is Friday, March 2, 2018, the 61st day of the year with 304 days remaining.
- Sunrise: 6:40am
- Sunset: 6:04pm
...giving us 11 hours and 25 minutes of daylight. 99% of the just now waning moon will be visible, rising at 7:08pm.
Tides at the Golden Gate
- High: 12:00am/11:32pm
- Low: 5:17am/5:47pm
Special international celebrations today…
- Battle of Adowa - Ethiopia
- Peasants' Day - Myanmar (formerly Burma)
It’s also…
- Dress in Blue Day
- Dr. Seuss Day
- Employee Appreciation Day
- National Salesperson Day
- National Speech and Debate Education Day
- NEA's Read Across America Day
- National Banana Cream Pie Day
- Claudette Colvin Day
On this day in…
1807 - The U.S. Congress passed an act to "prohibit the importation of slaves into any port or place within the jurisdiction of the United States... from any foreign kingdom, place, or country."
1836 - Texas declared its independence from Mexico and an ad interim government was formed.
1861 - The U.S. Congress created the Territory of Nevada.
1866 - Excelsior Needle Company began making sewing machine needles.
1877 - In the U.S., Rutherford B. Hayes was declared the winner of the 1876 presidential election by the U.S. Congress. Samuel J. Tilden, however, had won the popular vote on November 7, 1876.
1887 - The American Trotting Association was organized in Detroit, MI.
1897 - U.S. President Cleveland vetoed legislation that would have required a literacy test for immigrants entering the country.
1899 - Mount Rainier National Park in Washington was established by the U.S. Congress.
1899 - U.S. President McKinley signed a measure that created the rank of Admiral for the U.S. Navy. The first admiral was George Dewey.
1900 - The U.S. Congress voted to give $2 million in aid to Puerto Rico.
1901 - The first telegraph company in Hawaii opened.
1901 - The U.S. Congress passed the Platt amendment, which limited Cuban autonomy as a condition for withdrawal of U.S. troops.
1903 - The Martha Washington Hotel opened for business in New York City. The hotel had 416 rooms and was the first hotel exclusively for women.
1906 - A tornado in Mississippi killed 33 and did $5 million in damage.
1907 - In Hamburg, Germany, dock workers went on strike after the end of the night shift. British strike breakers were brought in. The issue was settled on April 22, 1907.
1908 - In New York, the Committee of the Russian Republican Administration was founded.
1908 - In Paris, Gabriel Lippmann introduced three-dimensional color photography at the Academy of Sciences.
1911 - Maurice Maeterlinck's "The Bluebird" opened in Paris.
1917 - The Russian Revolution began with Czar Nicholas II abdicating.
1917 - Citizens of Puerto Rico were granted U.S. citizenship with the enactment of the Jones Act.
1925 - State and federal highway officials developed a nationwide route-numbering system and adopted the familiar U.S.shield-shaped, numbered marker.
1929 - The U.S. Court of Customs & Patent Appeals was created by the U.S. Congress.
1933 - The motion picture King Kong had its world premiere in New York.
1939 - The Massachusetts legislature voted to ratify the Bill of Rights to the U.S. Constitution. These first ten amendments had gone into effect 147 years before.
1946 - Ho Chi Minh was elected President of Vietnam.
1949 - The B-50 Superfortress Lucky Lady II landed in Fort Worth, TX. The American plane had completed the first non-stop around-the-world flight.
1955 - 15 year-old Claudette Colvin refused to sit in the back of a bus in give up her seat and was arrested for civil disobedience (preceding Rosa Parks by 9 months).
1962 - Wilt 'The Stilt' Chamberlain scored 100 points against the New York Knicks 169-147. Chamberlain broke several NBA records in the game.
1969 - In Toulouse, France, the supersonic transport Concorde made its first test flight.
1974 - Postage stamps jumped from 8 to 10 cents for first-class mail.
1983 - The U.S.S.R. performed an underground nuclear test.
1984 - The first McDonald's franchise was closed. A new location was opened across the street from the old location in Des Plaines, IL.
1985 - The U.S. government approved a screening test for AIDS that detected antibodies to the virus that allowed possibly contaminated blood to be kept out of the blood supply.
1986 - Corazon Aquino was sworn into office as president of the Philippines. Her first public declaration was to restore the civil rights of the citizens of her country.
1987 - The U.S. government reported that the median price for a new home had gone over $100,000 for the first time.
1989 - Representatives from the 12 European Community nations all agreed to ban all production of CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) by the end of the 20th century.
1995 - Russian anti-corruption journalist Vladislav Listyev was killed by a gunman in Moscow.
1995 - Nick Leeson was arrested for his role in the collapse of Britain's Barings Bank.
1998 - The U.N. Security Council endorsed U.N. chief Kofi Annan's deal to open Iraq's presidential palaces to arms inspectors.
1998 - Images from the American spacecraft Galileo indicated that the Jupiter moon Europa has a liquid ocean and a source of interior heat.
2000 - In Great Britain, Chile's former President Augusto Pinochet Ugarte was freed from house arrest and allowed to return to Chile. Britain's Home Secretary Jack Straw had concluded that Pinochet was mentally and physically unable to stand trial. Belgium, France, Spain and Switzerland had sought the former Chilean leader on human-rights violations.
2003 - Over the Sea of Japan, there was a confrontation between four armed North Korean fighter jets and a U.S. RC-135S Cobra Ball. No shots were fired in the encounter in international airspace about 150 miles off North Korea's coast. The U.S. Air Force announced that it would resume reconnaissance flights on March 12.
2004 - NASA announced that the Mars rover Opportunity had discovered evidence that water had existed on Mars in the past.
Today’s birthday celebrants include (or included)...
- Sam Houston 1793 - First President of the Republic of Texas
- Bedrich Smetana - 1824
- Sholem Aleichem 1859 - Author, playwright
- Kurt Weill - 1900
- Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel) 1904 - Writer, poet, and cartoonist
- Desi Arnaz 1917
- Jennifer Jones 1919 - Actress
- John Cullum 1930 - Actor ("Northern Exposure")
- Tom Wolfe 1931 - Author
- Mikhail Gorbachev 1931 - Former Soviet President
- Al Waxman 1934 - Actor
- Doug Watkins 1934 - Musician
- Paul Dino (Paul Dino Bertuccini) 1939 - Singer, musician
- Barbara Luna 1939 - Actress
- Jon Finch 1941 - Actor
- John Irving 1942 - Author
- Lou Reed 1942 - Musician (Velvet Underground)
- Karen Carpenter 1950 - Singer (The Carpenters)
- Cassie Yates 1951 - Actress
- Laraine Newman 1952 - Actress ("Saturday Night Live")
- Jay Osmond 1955 - Singer (The Osmond Brothers)
- Dale Bozzio 1955 - Musician (Missing Persons)
- Mark Evans 1956 - Musician (AC/DC)
- John Cowsill 1956 - Musician (The Cowsills)
- Kevin Curren 1958 - Tennis player
- Larry Stewart 1959 - Musician (Restless Heart)
- Jon Bon Jovi 1962 - Musician (Bon Jovi)
- Daniel Craig 1968 - Actor
- Casey 1976 - Musician (Jimmie's Chicken Shack)
- Heather McComb 1977 - Actress ("Party of Five")
- Chris Martin 1977 - Musician (Coldplay)
- Bryce Dallas Howard 1981 - Actress
- Ben Roethlisberger 1982 - Football player
- Robert Iler 1985 - Actor ("The Sopranos")
