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On This Date In 1776During
the American Revolution, and in advance of the Continental Army's
occupation of Dorchester Heights, Massachusetts, General George
Washington ordered American artillery forces to begin bombarding Boston
from their positions at Lechmere Point, northwest of the city center.On This Date In 1776The
Battle of the Rice Boats was a battle of the American Revolutionary War
that took place in the Savannah River on the border between the
Province of Georgia and the Province of South Carolina. The battle,
which pitted colonial militia successfully against the Royal Navy, took
place on March 2 and 3, 1776. It is sometimes referred to as the Battle
of Yamacraw Bluff.On This Date In 1780The
Battle of Fort Charlotte was a two-week siege from March 2 – March 14,
1780 conducted by Spanish General Bernardo de Gálvez against the British
fortifications guarding the port of Mobile (which was then in the
British province of West Florida, and now in Alabama) during the
American Revolutionary War. Fort Charlotte was the last remaining
British frontier post capable of threatening New Orleans in Spanish
Louisiana. Its fall drove the British from the western reaches of West
Florida and reduced the British military presence in West Florida to its
capital, Pensacola.On This Date In 1793Samuel
Houston (March 2, 1793 - July 26, 1863), nineteenth-century American
statesman, politician, and soldier, was born in Timber Ridge in the
Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, of Scots-Irish descent. Houston became a
key figure in the history of Texas and was elected as the first and
third President of the Republic of Texas, U.S. Senator for Texas after
it joined the United States, and finally as a governor of the state.On This Date In 1807The
U.S. Congress passes 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.” In abolishing the African slave
trade, note that the widespread trade of slaves within the South was
not prohibited, however, and children of slaves automatically became
slave themselves, thus ensuring a self-sustaining slave population in
the South.On This Date In 1836The
Texas Declaration of Independence was the formal declaration of
independence of the Republic of Texas from Mexico in the Texas
Revolution. It was adopted at the Convention of 1836 at
Washington-on-the-Brazos on March 2, 1836, and formally signed the
following day after errors were noted in the text.On This Date In 1865During
the American Civil War, and at the Battle of Waynesboro, Virginia,
Union General George Custer's troops routed Confederate General Jubal
Early's force, bringing an end to fighting in the Shenandoah Valley.On This Date In 1899President
William McKinley signed legislation creating Mount Rainier National
Park in central Washington. The nearly 365-square-mile area of pristine
forests and spectacular alpine scenery was the fifth national park
designated by Congress.http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/mar02.htmlOn This Date In 1904Theodor
Seuss Geisel (March 2, 1904– September 24, 1991) was born in
Springfield, Massachusetts to Henrietta Seuss and Theodor Robert Geisel.
His father, the son of German immigrants, inherited the family brewery
one month before the start of Prohibition and later supervised
Springfield's public park system and zoo. Geisel was raised in the
Lutheran faith and remained a member of the denomination his entire
life. Suess was an American writer, poet, and cartoonist most widely
known for his children's books written under the pen names Dr. Seuss,
Theo LeSieg and, in one case, Rosetta Stone.On This Date In 1917Barely
a month before the United States entered World War I, President Woodrow
Wilson signed the Jones-Shafroth act, under which Puerto Rico became a
U.S. territory and Puerto Ricans were granted statutory citizenship,
meaning that citizenship was granted by an act of Congress and not by
the Constitution (thus it was not guaranteed by the Constitution). The
act also created a bill of rights for the territory, separated its
government into executive, legislative and judicial branches, and
declared Puerto Rico's official language to be English. As citizens,
Puerto Ricans could now join the U.S. Army, but few chose to do so.
After Wilson signed a compulsory military service act two months later,
however, 20,000 Puerto Ricans were eventually drafted to serve during
World War I.On This Date In 1929The
Jones Act, the last gasp of the Prohibition, was passed by the U.S.
Congress. Since 1920 when the Eighteenth Amendment went into effect, the
United States had banned the production, importation and sale of
alcoholic beverages. But the laws were ineffective at actually stopping
the consumption of alcohol. The Jones Act strengthened the federal
penalties for bootlegging. Of course, within five years the country
ended up rejecting Prohibition and repealing the Eighteenth Amendment.On This Date In 1933“King
Kong,” a landmark black-and-white monster film about a gigantic gorilla
named “Kong” and how he is captured from a remote lost prehistoric
island and brought to civilization against his will, premiered in New
York City at Radio City Music Hall. The film was made by RKO and
originally written for the screen by Ruth Rose and James Ashmore
Creelman, based on a concept by Merian C. Cooper. The film was directed
by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, starred Fay Wray, Robert
Armstrong and Bruce Cabot, and is notable for Willis O'Brien's
ground-breaking stop-motion animation, Max Steiner's musical score and
Fay Wray's performance as the ape's love interest.On This Date In 1937“Lost
Horizon,” an American drama-fantasy film directed by Frank Capra
starring Ronald Colman, Jane Wyatt and Sam Jaffe, was released. It tells
the story of a group of travelers who find a utopian society in the
Himalaya Mountains. The film is based upon the James Hilton novel of the
same name and was adapted by Sidney Buchman (uncredited) and Robert
Riskin. The Streamline Moderne sets were designed by Stephen Goosson.On This Date In 1939The
Venerable Pope Pius XII, born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli
(March 2, 1876 – October 9, 1958), reigned as the 260th Pope, head of
the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City State, from March 2,
1939 until his death in 1958.On This Date In 1943During
World War II, the Battle of the Bismarck Sea (March 2 - 4, 1943) took
place in the South West Pacific Area (SWPA). In the course of the
battle, aircraft of the U.S. Fifth Air Force and the Royal Australian
Air Force (RAAF) attacked a Japanese convoy that was carrying troops to
Lae, New Guinea. Most of the task force was destroyed, and Japanese
troop losses were heavy.On This Date In 1944The
16th Academy Awards was the first Oscar ceremony held at a large public
venue, Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Los Angeles, California. Free
passes were given out to men and women in uniform. The more theatrical
approach makes it a forerunner of the contemporary Oscar telecast. For
the first time, supporting actors and actresses took home full-size
statuettes, instead of smaller-sized awards mounted on a plaque. This
was the last year until 2009 to have 10 nominations for best picture.
Also,The Ox-Bow Incidentwas the last film to be nominated for best picture and nothing else.On This Date In 1944In
the Balvano train disaster of March 2-3, 1944, some 520 of
approximately 650 people riding a steam-hauled freight train died of
carbon monoxide poisoning when the train stalled on a steep gradient in
the Armi tunnel. The accident occurred in southern Italy, near Balvano
(Basilicata).On This Date In 1962Wilt
Chamberlain’s 100-point game, named by the National Basketball
Association as one of its greatest games, took place between the
Philadelphia Warriors and the New York Knicks on March 2, 1962 at
Hersheypark Arena in Hershey, Pennsylvania. With 46 seconds left,
Chamberlin had 98 pointts. Chamberlain got free from the five Knicks,
jumped high and stuffed the ball through the hoop for an alley-oop slam
dunk to hit the century mark. The arena exploded in a frenzy. Over 200
spectators stormed the floor, wanting to touch the hero of the night.
Some confusion remains about whether the game’s last 46 seconds were
played. According to the NBA, play was halted and never resumed.http://listverse.com/2008/11/15/top-15-greatest-sports-moments-of-all-time/On This Date In 1965Operation
Rolling Thunder was the title of a gradual and sustained U.S. 2nd Air
Division (later Seventh Air Force), U.S. Navy, and Republic of Vietnam
Air Force (VNAF) aerial bombardment campaign conducted against the
Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) from March 2, 1965 until
November 1, 1968, during the Vietnam War. After one of the longest
aerial campaigns ever conducted by any nation, Rolling Thunder was
terminated as a strategic failure in late 1968 having achieved none of
its objectives.On This Date In 1965Rodgers
and Hammerstein's “The Sound of Music,” a musical film directed by
Robert Wise and starring Julie Andrews in the lead role, was released.
The film is based on the Broadway musicalThe Sound of Music,
with songs written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, and
with the musical book written by the writing team of Howard Lindsay and
Russel Crouse. Ernest Lehman wrote the screenplay. The movie version was
filmed on location in Salzburg, Austria; Bavaria in Southern Germany;
and at the 20th Century Fox Studios in California. It won a total of
five Academy Awards including Best Picture and displacedGone with the Windas
the highest-grossing film of all-time. The cast album was also
nominated for a Grammy Award for Album of the Year. In 2001, the United
States Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the
National Film Registry as it was deemed “culturally, historically, or
aesthetically significant”.On This Date In 1966In
Dearborn, Michigan, the Ford Motor Company celebrated the production of
its 1 millionth Mustang, a white convertible. The sporty, affordable
vehicle was officially launched two years earlier, on April 17, 1964, at
the World's Fair in Flushing Meadows, New York. That same day, the new
car debuted in Ford showrooms across America; almost immediately, buyers
snapped up nearly 22,000 of them. More than 400,000 Mustangs were sold
within that first year, exceeding sales expectations.On This Date In 1967Senator
Robert Kennedy (D-New York) proposed a three-point plan to help end the
Vietnam War. The plan included suspension of the U.S. bombing of North
Vietnam and the gradual withdrawal of U.S. and North Vietnamese troops
from South Vietnam with replacement by an international force. Secretary
of State Dean Rusk rejected Kennedy's proposal because he believed that
the North Vietnamese would never agree to withdraw their troops.On This Date In 1969In
a dramatic confirmation of the growing rift between the two most
powerful communist nations in the world, troops from the Soviet Union
and the People's Republic of China fired on each other at a border
outpost on the Ussuri River in the eastern region of the USSR, north of
Vladivostok. In the years following this incident, the United States
used the Soviet-Chinese schism to its advantage in its Cold War
diplomacy.On This Date In 1972Pioneer
10, the world's first outer-planetary probe, was launched from Cape
Canaveral, Florida, on a mission to Jupiter, the solar system's largest
planet. In December 1973, after successfully negotiating the asteroid
belt and a distance of 620 million miles, Pioneer 10 reached Jupiter and
sent back to Earth the first close-up images of the spectacular gas
giant. In June 1983, the NASA spacecraft left the solar system and the
next day radioed back the first scientific data on interstellar space.
NASA officially ended the Pioneer 10 project on March 31, 1997, with the
spacecraft having traveled a distance of some six billion miles.On This Date In 1979“Norma
Rae,” a drama film which tells the story of a factory worker from a
small town in the Southern United States who becomes involved in the
labor union activities at the textile factory where she works, was
released. It stars Sally Field, Beau Bridges, Ron Leibman, Pat Hingle,
Barbara Baxley, Gail Strickland and Noble Willingham. The movie was
written by Harriet Frank Jr. and Irving Ravetch, and was directed by
Martin Ritt. It is based on the true story of Crystal Lee Sutton which
was told in a 1975 book Crystal Lee, a woman of inheritance by New York
Times reporter Henry P Leifermann. It won Academy Awards for Best
Actress in a Leading Role (Sally Field) and Best Original Song (for
David Shire and Norman Gimbel for “It Goes Like It Goes”). It was also
nominated for Best Picture and for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on
Material from Another Medium.On This Date In 1984“This
Is Spinal Tap,” an American rock musical mockumentary directed by Rob
Reiner about the fictional heavy metal band Spinal Tap, was released.
Reiner and the three main stars played by American actors Michael McKean
and Harry Shearer, and English-American actor Christopher Guest,
respectively, are credited as the writers of the film, based on the fact
that much of the dialogue was ad libbed by them. In 2002,This Is Spinal Tapwas
deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” by the
Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in the United
States National Film Registry.On This Date In 1985The
controversial Prince-penned song “Sugar Walls” reached #9 on Billboard
magazine's R&B Singles chart, and made Sheena Easton the first and
still only recording artist to score top-10 singles on all five major
Billboard singles charts: Pop, Country, Dance, Adult Contemporary and
R&B.On This Date In 1999Mary
Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'Brien (April 16, 1939 – March 2, 1999),
known professionally as Dusty Springfield, died from breast cancer.
Dubbed The White Queen of Soul, she was a British pop singer whose
career extended from the late 1950s to the 1990s. With her distinctive
sensual sound, she was an important white soul singer, and at her peak
was one of the most successful British female performers, with 18
singles in the Billboard Hot 100 from 1964 to 1970. She is a member of
the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the U.K. Music Hall of Fame.
International polls have named Springfield among the best female rock
artists of all time.On This Date In 2004The
Ashura massacre in Iraq was a series of planned terrorist explosions
that killed at least 178 and injured at least 500 Iraqi Shi'a Muslims
commemorating the Day of Ashura. The bombings brought one of the
deadliest days in the Iraq occupation after the Iraq War to topple
Saddam Hussein.On This Date In 2005At
a White House ceremony, President George W. Bush congratulated the 2004
World Champion Boston Red Sox baseball team for winning their first
World Series since 1918. Massachusetts Senators Edward Kennedy and John
Kerry, and former Red Sox players were among those on hand for the
event. Before saluting the Red Sox, Bush also paid tribute to one of
baseball's greatest African-American players, Jackie Robinson.http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2005/03/images/20050302-17_w8n5418-515h.htmlOn This Date In 2006“The
Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II,” abbreviated BFME2
is a real-time strategy video game developed and published by Electronic
Arts. It is based on the fantasy novelThe Lord of the Ringsby J. R. R. Tolkien and its live-action film trilogy adaptation. The game is the sequel to Electronic Art's 2004 titleThe Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth.
The Windows version of the game was released on March 2, 2006 and the
Xbox 360 version was released on July 5, 2006. Along with the standard
edition, a Collector's Edition of the game was released, containing
bonus material and a documentary about the game's development.On This Date In 2010“Never
Let You Go” is a song performed by Canadian recording artist Justin
Bieber. The track was written by Bieber and also co-written and produced
by production duo Johnta Austin and Bryan-Michael Cox. It was
originally released as the first digital-only single from latter half of
Bieber's debut album,My World 2.0on
March 2, 2010. The accompanying music video features Bieber and Paige
Hurd at the Atlantis Resort in The Bahamas, including scenes at the
resort, an aquarium, and on the coast. Bieber performed the song a
number of times, including on BET'sSOS: Saving Ourselves - Help for Haiti Telethon, which benefited victims of the 2010 Haiti earthquake.On This Date In 2010The
Supreme Court heard oral arguments in McDonald v. City of Chicago, the
case challenging Chicago's handgun bans in Chicago and Oak Park. The
Question Presented by the Court asked if the bans should be considered
unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process clause, or
under the Privileges or Immunities clause. As expected, the arguments
focused on application of the Second Amendment to the states
(“incorporation”) and avoided the meaning of the Second Amendment (or
any related unenumerated right), except insofar as the meaning drives
the incorporation analysis.http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/conlaw/2010/03/oral-arguments-in-mcdonald.html
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