Today in History - March 2
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871 Mar 2, Battle
at Marton (Maeretun): Ethelred van Wessex (d.871) beat the Danish
invasion army. Ethelred died in April and his brother Alfred (22) took
over. Alfred became Alfred the Great and ruled until 899.
(PCh, 1992, p.72)(SC, 3/2/02)
986 Mar 2, Lotharius (44), King of
France (954-86), died.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1121 Mar 2, Dirk VI became count
of Holland.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1122 Mar 2, Floris II, the fat
one, count of Holland, died.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1127 Mar 2, Charles the Good,
Count of Flanders, was murdered. Flemish towns (Ghent, Bruges and
Ypres) forced the selection of Thierry of Alsace as the new count
despite Louis VI’s choice of the son of Normandy’s Robert Curthose.
(PCh, 1992, p.92)(SC, 3/2/02)
1316 Mar 2, Robert II the Steward,
King of Scotland (1371-90), was born.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1333 Mar 2, Wladyslaw IV, the
Short One, Great, duke, king of Poland, died.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1402 Mar 2, In Marienburg
Svitrigaila crossed over to the Knights of the Cross and promised to
uphold the Salyn treaty that was broken by Vytautas.
(LHC, 3/1/03)
1458 Mar 2, Hussite George van
Podiebrad was chosen king of Bohemia.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1459 Mar 2, Adrian VI [Adriaan F
Boeyens], Netherlands, Pope (1522-23), was born.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1481 Mar 2, Franz von Sickingen,
German knight, was born.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1498 Mar 2, Vasco da Gama's fleet
visited Mozambique Island.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1629 Mar 2, English King Charles I
fleeced the house of commons.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1675 Mar 2, Prince William III was
installed as Governor of Overijssel.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1725 Mar 2, George F. Handel’s
opera "Giulio Cesare in Egitto" premiered in London.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1776 Mar 2, Americans began
shelling British troops in Boston. Henry Knox had managed to drag 58
canon and mortars from Fort Ticonderoga to the Dorchester Heights above
Boston.
(HN, 3/2/99)(WSJ, 5/20/05, p.W10)
1776 Mar 2, The American Secret
Committee of Correspondence appointed Connecticut lawyer Silas Deane as
a special envoy to negotiate with the French government for aid.
(AH, 2/06, p.59)
1789 Mar 2, Pennsylvania ended the
prohibition of theatrical performances.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1793 Mar 2, Sam Houston, the first
president of the Republic of Texas (1836-38, 1841-44), was born near
Lexington, Va. He fought for Texas' independence from Mexico; President
of Republic of Texas; U.S. Senator; Texas governor
(AP, 3/2/98)(HC, Internet, 2/3/98)(SC, 3/2/02)
1797 Mar 2, The Directory of Great
Britain authorized vessels of war to board and seize neutral vessels,
particularly if the ships were American.
(HN, 3/2/99)
1797 Mar 2, Horace [Horatio]
Walpole (79), British horror writer, died.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1799 Mar 2, Congress standardized
US weights and measures.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1807 Mar 2, Congress banned slave
trade effective January 1, 1808. The further importation of slaves was
abolished but an inter-American slave trade continued.
(V.D.-H.K.p.276)(WSJ, 12/16/97, p.A18)(WSJ,
10/19/98, p.A24)(SC, 3/2/02)
1810 Mar 2, Leo XIII (Vincenzo G
Pecci), 256th Catholic Pope (1878-1903), was born.
(HN, 3/2/99)(SC, 3/2/02)
1815 Mar 2, To put an end to
robberies by the Barbary pirates, the United States declared war on
Algiers.
(HN, 3/2/99)
1817 Mar 2, The 1st US Evangelical
church building was dedicated in New Berlin, PA.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1819 Mar 2, Territory of Arkansas
was organized. [see Jul 4]
(SC, 3/2/02)
1819 Mar 2, US passed its 1st
immigration law.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1824 Mar 2, Bedrich Friedrich
Smetana (1884), Czech, Bohemian composer (Bartered Bride, Moldau), was
born.
(WUD, 1994, p.1345)(WSJ, 10/4/96, p.A7)(SC,
3/2/02)
1824 Mar 2, In the Supreme Court
case of Gibbons v Ogden held that the power to regulate interstate
commerce was granted to Congress by the Commerce Clause of the
Constitution. The Court found that New York's licensing requirement for
out-of-state operators was inconsistent with a congressional act
regulating the coasting trade. Gibbons had hired Cornelius Vanderbilt
as captain of his boat, which operated under a federal license.
(http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761595569/gibbons_v_ogden.html)(Econ,
4/18/09,
p.90)
1825 Mar 2, The 1st grand opera in
US sung in English was in NYC.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1829 Mar 2, Carl Schurz, was born.
He was a Civil War general, political reformer and anti-imperialist.
(HN, 3/2/99)
1829 Mar 2, New England Asylum for
the Blind, 1st in US, was incorporated in Boston.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1831 Mar 2, John Frazee becomes
1st US sculptor to receive a federal commission.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1836 Mar 2, Texas declared its
independence from Mexico on Sam Houston's 43rd birthday. The first
vice-president was Lorenzo de Zavala. Mexico refused to recognize Texas
but diplomatic relations were established with the US, Britain and
France. Texas was an independent republic until 1845.
(WSJ, 11/21/95, p.A-12)(WP, 6/29/96, p.A15)(SFC,
4/28/97, p.A3)(AP, 3/2/98)(HN, 3/2/99)
1853 Mar 2, The Territory of
Washington was organized after separating from Oregon Territory.
(HN, 3/2/99)(SC, 3/2/02)
1858 Mar 2, Frederick Cook, New
Orleans, patented a cotton-bale metallic tie.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1861 Mar 2, The Territory of
Nevada was created by an act of Congress. The first elected governor of
the state was Henry G. Blasdel. US Congress created the Dakota &
Nevada Territories out of the Nebraska & Utah territories
(LVRJ, 11/1/97, p.1B)(SFEC, 7/9/00, DB p.67)(SC,
3/2/02)
1861 Mar 2, Government Printing
Office in Washington DC purchased its 1st printing plant.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1862 Mar 2, Gen’l. Frederick W.
Lander (b.1821), transcontinental engineer and Union General, died of
“congestion of the brain” at Paw Paw, Virginia. He was the chief
engineer of the Central Overland route. In 2000 Gary L. Ecalbarger
authored “Frederick W. Lander: The Great Natural American Soldier.”
(www.picturehistory.com/find/p/16832/mcms.html)(ACC,
2004)
1863 Mar 2, Congress authorized
track width of 4'-8½" for Union Pacific RR.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1864 Mar 2, Russian Czar
Alexander II upheld reforms in Poland that gave landholders ownership
of their lands.
(LHC,3/1/03)
1865 Mar 2, Freedman's Bureau was
founded for Black Education.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1865 Mar 2, General Lee proposed
peace to Grant. President Abraham Lincoln rejected Confederate General
Robert E. Lee's plea for peace talks, demanding unconditional surrender.
(HFA, ‘96, p.22)(HN, 3/2/99)
1865 Mar 2, General Early's army
was defeated at Waynesborough.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1865 Mar 2, British newspaper
"Morning Chronicle" began publishing.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1866 Mar 2, Excelsior Needle
Company of Wolcottville, Connecticut, began making sewing machine
needles, the 1st US company to make sewing needles.
(HC, Internet, 2/3/98)(SC, 3/2/02)
1867 Mar 2, The first
Reconstruction Act was passed by Congress.
(HN, 3/2/99)
1867 Mar 2, Congress abolished
peonage in New Mexico.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1867 Mar 2, US Congress created
the Department of Education.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1867 Mar 2, Howard University,
Washington DC, was incorporated. General Oliver Otis Howard, Union
Civil War commander, co-founded Howard Univ.
(http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/nov20.html)(ON,
4/07, p.8)
1867 Mar 2, Jesse James-gang
robbed a bank in Savannah MO, 1 dead.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1868 Mar 2, University of Illinois
opened.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1873 Mar 2, George Smith, British
Assyriologist, arrived at the ruins of Nineveh outside Mosul (Iraq).
Over the next few weeks he found tablets referring to more pieces of
the Gilgamesh story, a record of kings in the Babylionian dynasties, as
wellas lists of cuneiform symbols.
(ON, 11/07, p.5)
1874 Mar 2, Baseball batter's box
was officially adopted.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1876 Mar 2, Pius XII [Eugenio MGG
Pacelli], 260th Pope (1939-58), was born to an aristocratic Roman
family accustomed to serving the Catholic Church.
(SFEC, 9/26/99, BR p.3)(SC, 3/2/02)
1877 Mar 2, Republican Rutherford
B. Hayes was declared winner of the 1876 presidential election over
Democrat Samuel J. Tilden, even though Tilden had won the popular vote
50.1 to 47.95%. A special US congressional panel had awarded Florida’s
electors to Rutherford B. Hayes.
(PCh, 1992, p.542)(AP, 3/2/98)(WSJ, 12/11/00, p.A18)
http://condor.stcloudstate.edu/~brixr01/theTIMEMACHINE.html
1887 Mar 2, The American Trotting
Association was organized in Detroit, Mich., on this day.
(HC, Internet, 2/3/98)
1889 Mar 2, Congress passed the
Indian Appropriations Bill, proclaiming unassigned lands in the public
domain; the first step toward the famous Oklahoma Land Rush.
(HN, 3/2/99)
1889 Mar 2, Kansas passed 1st US
antitrust legislation.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1893 Mar 2, 1st federal railroad
legislation was passed; required safety features.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1895 Mar 2, Berthe Morisot
(b.1841) French impressionist painter, died of pneumonia.
(NMWA, 12/04, p.10)
1896 Mar 2, Bone Mizell, the famed
cowboy of Florida, was sentenced to two years of hard labor in the
state pen for cattle rustling. He would only serve a small portion of
the sentence.
(HN, 3/2/00)
1897 Mar 2, President Cleveland
vetoed legislation that would have required a literacy test for
immigrants.
(AP, 3/2/98)
1899 Mar 2, President McKinley
signed a measure creating the rank of Admiral of the Navy for Adm.
George Dewey.
(AP, 3/299)
1899 Mar 2, Congress established
Mount Rainier National Park in Washington state, the nation's 5th
national park.
(AP, 3/2/98)(SFC, 8/14/99, p.A6)
1900 Mar 2, Kurt Weill, composer
(The Threepenny Opera), Brecht collaborator, was born in Dessau,
Germany.
(HN, 3/2/01)(SC, 3/2/02)
1901 Mar 2, Congress passed the
Platt amendment, which limited Cuban autonomy as a condition for
withdrawal of U.S. troops.
(HN, 3/2/99)
1901 Mar 2, Hawaii's 1st telegraph
company opened.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1903 Mar 2, The Martha Washington
Hotel opened for business in New York City. The hotel featured 416
rooms and was the first hotel exclusively for women.
(HC, Internet, 2/3/98)
1904 Mar 2, Henry Dreyfuss,
industrial designer of everything from telephones to the interior of
the Boeing 707, was born.
(HN, 3/2/01)
1904 Mar 2, Theodor Seuss Geisel
[Dr. Seuss] was born in Springfield, Mass. He was the Pulitzer
Prize-winning author of "The Cat in the Hat," "Green Eggs and Ham,"
"The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" and other children's books.
(HC, Internet, 2/3/98)(HN, 3/2/99)(SSFC, 5/26/02,
Par p.8)
1904 Mar 2, "Official Playing
Rules of Professional Base Ball Clubs" was adopted.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1904 Mar 2, Gabriele d'Annunzio's
"La figlia di Iorio" premiered in Milan.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1907 Mar 2, Georges Feydeaus' "La
Puce à l'Oreille" premiered in Paris, France.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1907 Mar 2, General Louis Botha
was named premier of Transvaal.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1908 Mar 2, An international
conference on arms reduction opened in London.
(HN, 3/2/99)
1908 Mar 2, Gabriel Lippman
introduced the new three-dimensional color photography at the Academy
of Sciences.
(HN, 3/2/99)
1909 Mar 2, Great Britain, France,
Germany and Italy asked Serbia to set no territorial demands.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1915 Mar 2, British Vice Admiral
Carden began bombing of Dardanelles forts.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1915 Mar 2, Vladmir Jabotinsky
formed a Jewish military force to fight in Palestine.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1917 Mar 2, President Woodrow
Wilson signed the Jones-Shafroth Act giving Puerto Ricans US
citizenship. The Jones Act separated the Executive, Judicial, and
Legislative branches of Puerto Rican government, provided civil rights
to the individual, and created a locally elected bicameral legislature.
The two houses were a Senate consisting of 19 members and a 39-member
House of Representatives. However, the Governor and the President of
the US had the power to veto any law passed by the legislature. Also,
the US Congress had the power to stop any action taken by the
legislature in Puerto Rico.
(www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/1898/jonesact.html)(AP,
3/2/98)
1917 Mar 2, Desi Arnaz (Desiderio
Alberto Arnez y de Acha III) was born in Santiago, Cuba. His father was
the mayor of Santiago.
(www.youns.com/lucy/desiarnaz.asp)
1919 Mar 2, The 1st congress of
Communist Int’l. opened at the Kremlin.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1920 Mar 2, Karel Capek’s
"Loupeznik" premiered in Prague.
(www.enotes.com/peoples-chronology/year-1920/theater-film)
1923 Mar 2, Doc Watson, blue grass
singer and guitarist, was born.
(HN, 3/2/01)
1923 Mar 2, The first issue of the
weekly periodical, "TIME" appeared on newsstands. The first issue was
32 pages and featured a charcoal sketch of Congressman Joseph Gurney
Cannon on the cover. It was the United States’ first modern
newsmagazine. The worldwide Time Magazine was conceived by Henry Luce
and Briton Hadden (d.1929) in 1922. Luce and Hadden had just graduated
from Yale. In 2006 Isaiah Wilner authored “The Man Time Forgot,” a
biography of Hadden.
(AP, 3/2/98)(HC, Internet, 2/3/98)(WSJ, 1/11/00,
p.B1)
1923 Mar 2, In Italy, Mussolini
admitted that women have a right to vote, but declares that the time
was not right.
(HN, 3/2/99)
1925 Mar 2, State and federal
highway officials developed a nationwide route numbering system and
adopted the familiar U.S. shield-shaped, numbered marker. For instance,
in the east, there is U.S. 1 that runs from New England to Florida and
in the west, the corresponding highway, U.S. 101, from Tacoma, WA to
San Diego, CA.
(HC, Internet, 2/3/98)
1925 Mar 2, Japan's House of
Representatives recognized male suffrage.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1925 Mar 2, SDAP-Second-Faction
(Dutch Socialists) of parliament demanded drastic disarmament.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1927 Mar 2, Babe Ruth signed a
3-year contract with the New York Yankees for a guarantee of $70,000 a
year, thus becoming baseball's highest paid player.
(HC, Internet, 2/3/98)
1929 Mar 2, US Congress created
Court of Customs and Patent Appeals.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1929 Mar 2, The San Mateo-Hayward
Bridge, then called the San Francisco Bay Toll-Bridge, opened. The $7.5
million, 7.1-mile span was for the time the longest in the world. The
initial toll was 45 cents per car with an additional nickel for each
passenger. On hand were Gov. C.C. Young, SF Mayor James Rolph Jr., and
San Mateo Mayor Fred Beer. Pres. Coolidge pressed a button in the white
House that sparked the final connection.
(SFEC, 3/8/98, p.W31)(Ind, 3/30/02, 5A)
1930 Mar 2, Harry Kuchins made the
first indoor glider flight inside the St. Louis, MO, Terminal Building.
We laugh hysterically at this and we know you think we make this stuff
up, but we don't. It really happened.
(HC, Internet, 2/3/98)
1930 Mar 2, Novelist D.H. Lawrence
died of tuberculosis in a sanitarium in Vence, France, at the age of 45.
(HN, 3/2/01)
1931 Mar 2, Tom Wolfe, journalist,
author (Right Stuff), was born in Richmond, VA.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1931 Mar 2, Mikhail Gorbachev,
Soviet Secretary-General (1985-91), was born. He was responsible for
restructuring the Soviet economy (perestroika) and openness and
information (glasnost). Mikhail Gorbachev rose through the ranks of the
Communist Party as an expert in agricultural affairs. Born to a peasant
family, Gorbachev worked on a farm as a combine operator before going
to Moscow State University in 1950. He joined the party in 1952 and,
upon graduation with a law degree in 1955, he became a full-time party
official. In 1967 he graduated from the Stavropol Agricultural
Institute and was named to the party’s Central Committee in 1971. He
was promoted to the party Secretariat in 1978, earning a reputation as
an innovator as party secretary of agriculture.
(HN, 3/2/99)(HNQ, 6/17/99)(WSJ, 12/1/07, p.A8)
1933 Mar 2, Hollywood premiered
"King Kong" in New York featuring Fay Wray. The film, directed by
Meriam C. Cooper, used stop-motion photography and an 18-inch model for
Kong. The film saved RKO Studios from bankruptcy. It was re-released in
1938 with a scene excised of Kong ripping at Fay Wray’s dress and then
sniffing his finger. It was rated #43 by the Amer. Film Inst. in 1998.
In 2001 it was rated the #12 most thrilling film.
(SFC, 4/13/96, p.E5)(SFC,11/15/97, p.C6)(AP,
3/2/98)(WSJ, 3/19/98, p.R4)
1933 Mar 2, Most powerful
earthquake in 180 years hit Japan.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1934 Mar 2, Doug Watkins jazz
musician (bass: Pepper-Knepper Quintet, Hank Mobley Quartet, Horace
Silver and the Jazz Messengers), was born.
(HC, Internet, 2/3/98)
1934 Mar 2, Union Pacific tested a
light-weight high-speed passenger train in Omaha.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1937 Mar 6, Jose Pena Gomez
(d.1998 at 61), advocate for the poor and later mayor of Santo Domingo,
was born in Valverde, Dominican Republic, to Haitian immigrants.
According to Jose Pena Gomez, a Dominican massacre of Haitians forced
his parents to flee back to Haiti. Jose was adopted by a Dominican
family.
(SFC, 5/12/98, p.A21)
1937 Mar 6, Valentina
Nikolayeva-Tereshkova, Russian astronaut, was born. In 1963 she became
the first women to orbit the Earth on Vostok 6.
(HN, 3/6/99)(MC, 3/6/02)
1938 Mar 2, Landslides and floods
cause over 200 deaths in Los Angeles, CA.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1938 Mar 2, Trials of Soviet
leaders began in the Soviet Union.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1939 Mar 2, The Massachusetts
legislature voted to ratify the Bill of Rights, 147 years after the
first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution had gone into effect.
(AP, 3/2/98)
1939 Mar 2, Roman Catholic
Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli was elected Pope; he took the name Pius XII.
(WSJ, 4/25/97, p.A18)(WSJ, 5/8/97, p.A23)(AP, 3/2/98)
1939 Mar 2, Howard Carter,
archeologist, died in London at age 62. He led the discovery of the
Tomb of Tutankhamen in 1922.
(ON, 5/00, p.8)
1940 Mar 2, The first televised
intercollegiate track meet was seen by TV viewers in New York City as
W2XBS presented the action live from Madison Square Garden. New York
University won the meet.
(HC, Internet, 2/3/98)
1940 Mar 2, Soviet armies
conquered Tuppura Island, Finland.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1942 Mar 2, John Irving, novelist
(The World According to Garp), was born.
(HN, 3/2/01)
1942 Mar 2, Lou Reed [Louis
Firbank], vocalist, guitarist (Walk on the Wild Side, Velvet
Underground), was born in Freeport, NY.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1942 Mar 2, 14th Academy Awards:
"How Green was My Valley", Gary Cooper and Joan Fontaine won.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1942 Mar 2, Admiral Helfrich
departed Java for Ceylon.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1943 Mar 2, George Benson, jazz,
blues guitarist (Breezin', This Masquerade), was born.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1943 Mar 2, The battle of the
Bismarck Sea began. US and Australian warplanes were able to inflict
heavy damage on a Japanese convoy.
(AP, 3/2/07)
1943 Mar 2, The center of Berlin
was bombed by the RAF. Some 900 tons of bombs were dropped in a half
hour.
(HN, 3/2/99)
1943 Mar 2, 1st transport of Jews
from Westerbork, Netherlands, to Sobibor concentration camp.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1944 Mar 2, Lou Reed (Firbank) was
born. (singer, songwriter, guitarist: group: Velvet Underground; solo:
Walk on the Wild Side, Charley's Girl; I Love You Suzanne; appeared in
Paul Simon film: One Trick Pony)
(HC, Internet, 2/3/98)
1944 Mar 2, In the 16th Academy
Awards presentation moved from a banquet hall to Graumann's Chinese
Theatre in Los Angeles this night. Jennifer Jones (24) won an Oscar for
Best Actress in the film, "The Song of Bernadette". Jack Benny was the
host that year. Best film was "Casablanca," Paul Lukas won for best
actor.
(HC, Internet, 2/3/98)(SC, 3/2/02)
1944 Mar 2, In Salerno, Italy,
fumes from a locomotive stalled in a tunnel suffocated 521 people.
(SFC, 6/4/98, p.A15)(AP, 2/18/04)
1945 Mar 2, The American flag is
raised again over Corregidor, with General Douglas MacArthur and
members of his staff present. MacArthur, commander of U.S. Army Forces
in the Far East, reluctantly fled his headquarters on the rocky
Philippine island of Corregidor in March 1942 as the Japanese closed
in. MacArthur praised the gallant but futile defense of Corregidor as
“an inspiration to carry on the struggle until the Allies should fight
their way back” and vowed to return one day. On February 16, 1945,
elements of the U.S. Sixth Army began the assault on Corregidor, and
after furious fighting, MacArthur made good on his promise.
(HN, 3/2/99)
1945 Mar 2, 8th Air Force bombed
Dresden.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1945 Mar 2, King Michael of
Romania gave in to Communist government.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1946 Mar 2, Kingman Douglass
became deputy director of CIA.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1946 Mar 2, Dutch troops landed on
East Bali.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1946 Mar 2, Ho Chi Minh was
elected president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
(HN, 3/2/99)
1949 Mar 2, The Lucky Lady II
(USAF B-50 Superfortress), landed at Fort Worth , Texas, after
completing the first non-stop, round-the-world flight: 23,452-mis in 94
hours.
(AP, 3/2/98)(SC, 3/2/02)
1949 Mar 2, 1st automatic street
light was in New Milford, CT.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1950 Mar 2, Karen Carpenter was
born. (drummer, singer: Grammy Award-winning group: The Carpenters:
Best New Artist, Group w/Vocal: Close to You [1970], We've Only Just
Begun, Top of the World, Please Mr. Postman)
(HC, Internet, 2/3/98)
1950 Mar 2, Silly Putty was
introduced to the public. Silly Putty was accidentally invented in 1943
by James Wright of General Electric.
(www.sillyputty.com/silly_science/silly_science.htm)(http://tinyurl.com/zwree)
1951 Mar 2, In the 1st NBA
All-Star Game: East beat West 111-94 at Boston.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1951 Mar 2, The U.S. Navy launched
the K-1, the first modern submarine designed to hunt enemy submarines.
(HN, 3/2/99)
1955 Mar 2, The William Inge play
“Bus Stop” opened at the Music Box Theatre in New York.
(AP, 3/2/02)
1955 Mar 2, Claudette Colvin
refuses to give up her seat in Montgomery, Alabama, nine months b Rosa
Parks' famous arrest for the same offense.
(HN, 3/2/00)
1955 Mar 2, King Norodom Sihanouk
of Cambodia put his father on the throne and assumed the position of
prime minister.
(SC, 3/2/02)(WSJ, 5/15/03, p.A8)
1956 Mar 2, Morocco tore up the
Treaty of Féz and declared independence from France. A protocol
on Moroccan independence was signed in Paris.
(HN, 3/2/99)(EWH, 1968, p.1244)(SC, 3/2/02)
1957 Mar 2, Boxer Carlos Ortiz won
a technical knockout against Lou Filippo (1925-2009). Filippo was
originally awarded a victory in the 1st bout against Ortiz after being
hit after the bell, but a Times reporter questioned a member of the
California State Athletic Commission about that ruling, and the
no-contest decision was invoked. Filippo lost the next fight to Ortiz
about a month later, and retired at 23-9-3 with 8 knockouts and one
no-contest. Both were later named to the Boxing Hall of Fame. Filippo
went on to play a role in all five of the “Rocky” movies.
(www.badlefthook.com/2009/11/5/1117708/lou-filippo-1925-2009)(SFC,
11/6/09, p.C5)
1958 Mar 2, Chart Toppers: Sweet
Little Sixteen, Chuck Berry; At the Hop, Danny & the Juniors; Oh
Julie, Crescendos; Don't, Elvis Presley.
(HC, Internet, 2/3/98)
1958 Mar 2, A multinational
expedition led by British geologist and explorer Vivian Fuchs (d.1999
at 91) completed the first overland crossing of Antarctica by way of
the South Pole in 99 days.
(SFC, 11/13/99, p.A22)(AP, 3/2/08)
1958 Mar 2, Yemen announced it
will join the United Arab Republic (Egypt and Syria).
(SC, 3/2/02)
1959 Mar 2, Miles Davis began
recording “Kind of Blue” with John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderly,
Philley Joe Jones, Paul Chambers and Bill Evans. Modes rather than
chords formed the basis for improvisation on “So What” and “Flamenco
Sketches.” In 2000 Ashley Kahn authored “Kind of Blue,” The Making of
the Miles Davis Masterpiece. Eric Nisenson authored “The Making of Kind
of Blue: Miles Davis and His Masterpiece.”
(SFC, 8/24/98, p.B1)(SFEC, 11/5/00, BR p.1)
1961 Mar 2, "13 Daughters" opened
at 54th St Theater NYC for 28 performances.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1962 Mar 2, Jon Bon Jovi (John
Bongiovi) was born. (singer, musician, songwriter: You Give Love a Bad
Name, Living on a Prayer)
(HC, Internet, 2/3/98)
1962 Mar 2, Wilt "The Stilt"
Chamberlain (d.1999 at 63) scored 100 points and broke an NBA record as
the Philadelphia Warriors beat the New York Knicks 169-147 in Hershey
Pa. before 4,124 fans. Chamberlain broke NBA marks for the most field
goal attempts (63), most field goals made (36), most free throws made
(28), most points in a half (59), most field goal attempts in a half
(37), most field goals made in a half (22), and most field goal
attempts in one quarter (21). The 316 total points scored tied an NBA
record. The basketball used for the game was stolen by Kerry Ryman (14)
after he shook Chamberlain’s hand. Ryman’s ball was auctioned in 2000
for $551,844.
(HC, Internet, 2/3/98)(SFC, 10/13/99, p.A13)(SFC,
4/29/00, p.A2)
1962 Mar 2, JFK announced US will
resume above ground nuclear testing.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1964 Mar 2, Beatles began filming
"A Hard Day's Night."
(SC, 3/2/02)
1965 Mar 2, The movie version of
Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical “The Sound of Music,” starring Julie
Andrews and Christopher Plummer, had its world premiere at New York’s
Rivoli Theater. The musical, about the Trapp Family, was a hit on the
Great White Way for 3-1/2 years and one of the most popular motion
pictures of all time. It remains a classic even today. The movie
brought instant stardom for Miss Andrews, who went on to star in other
singing roles in the theatre, on television, in movies and as a popular
recording artist.
(AP, 3/2/05)
1965 Mar 2, More than 150 U.S. and
South Vietnamese planes bombed two bases in North Vietnam in the first
of the "Rolling Thunder" raids.
(HN, 3/2/99)
1966 Mar 2, Milton Obote stage a
coup against Pres. Edward Mutesa (d.1969) and had himself declared
president of Uganda. Mutesa, the Baganda king and non-executive
president of Uganda, was burned out of his palace and exiled. Mutesa
fled Obote’s army and went to London where his son, Ronald Muwenda
Mutebi was enrolled in boarding school.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Obote)(WSJ,
12/19/94, A-1,6)(Econ, 7/26/08, p.58)
1966 Mar 2, There were some
215,000 US soldiers in Vietnam. Gen. Westmoreland called for 325,000 by
July and 410,000 by December.
(SC, 3/2/02)(Econ, 7/11/09, p.88)
1967 Mar 2, At the 9th Grammy
Awards: “Strangers in Night” by Frank Sinatra won Record of the Year
and “Michele” by the Beatles won Song of the Year.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammy_Awards_of_1967)
1967 Mar 2, The US performed a
nuclear test at its Nevada Test Site. The Rivet III test was part of
Operation Latchkey.
(www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Operation_Latchkey)
1968 Mar 2, The Poor Peoples'
March on Washington, envisioned by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as a
means of dramatizing the plight of the poor of all races, got under way.
{USA, Black History}
(www.project1968.com/in-the-news-may-2-1968.html)
1968 Mar 2, In Switzerland the
World Ice Pairs Figure Skating Championship in Geneva was won by
Lyudmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopov (USSR). The Ladies Figure
Skating Championship was won by Peggy Fleming (USA). The Men's Figure
Skating Championship was won by Emmerich Danzer (Austria).
(SC,
3/2/02)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Figure_Skating_Championships)
1968 Mar 17, The siege of Khe Sanh
was the longest and bloodiest battle of the Vietnam War. During the
siege Manny Babbit was wounded. Babbit in 1980 killed a 78-year-old
woman in Sacramento, Ca., and was convicted and sentenced to death. He
was awarded his Purple Heart while on death row in 1998.
(SFC, 3/20/98, p.A1)
1968 Mar 2, The USSR launched
space probe Zond 4. It failed to leave Earth orbit.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zond_4)
1969 Mar 2, Dmitri Shostakovich,
Russian composer, completed his 14th Symphony.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._14_(Shostakovich))(http://tinyurl.com/66tpar)
1969 Mar 2, Phil Esposito of the
Boston Bruins became the 1st NHL Player to score 100 points in a season.
(www.nhl.com/history/030269.html)
1969 Mar 2, The Concorde
jetliner's 1st test flight took place in Bristol, England.
(www.xent.com/pipermail/fork/Week-of-Mon-20031013/026200.html)
1969 Mar 2, Chinese and Russian
soldiers clashed on Damansky Island and approximately 70 died. The
Soviet and Chinese border troops had been skirmishing since 1959 along
the 2,500 mile border. Recent skirmishes were along the Ussuri River
border. The Soviets used a full scale tank assault to repulse a Chinese
attack on the island of Damansky. A border treaty in the 1990s gave the
island to China.
(www.jstor.org/pss/1957173)(WSJ, 11/19/96,
p.A1)(SFC, 12/28/96, p.A13)(WSJ, 12/16/05,
p.A1)(www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/aureview/1971/jul-aug/marks.html)
1970 Mar 2, The US Supreme Court
set age 23 as the cut-off for prosecuting men who fail to register for
the draft on their 18th birthday.
(http://tinyurl.com/4urpvk)
1972 Mar 2, Pioneer 10 was
launched from Cape Kennedy. It carried a plaque designed by Carl Sagan
and Frank Drake showing some details of human civilization on Earth.
The craft headed to Jupiter and then continued into deep space long
past expectations. In 2001 contact was re-established with the craft
7.29 billion miles distant and enroute toward the constellation Taurus.
Contact was again made in 2002. Pioneer was expected to reach the red
star Aldebaran in Taurus in about 2 million years.
(SFC, 3/4/96, p.A5)(SFEC, 9/28/97, p.A14)(SFC,
4/30/01, p.A7)
1972 Mar 2, Jean-Bédel
Bokassa appointed himself President for life of the Central African
Republic.
(www.etat.sciencespobordeaux.fr/_anglais/chronologie/centralafrican.html)
1972 Mar 2, In Jamaica Michael
Manley (1924-1997, Socialist and champion of the nonaligned movement,
was sworn in as prime minister.
(SFC, 3/8/96,
p.A21)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Manley)
1973 Mar 2, Federal forces
surrounded Wounded Knee, South Dakota, which was occupied by members of
the militant American Indian Movement who were holding at least 10
hostages.
(HN, 3/2/99)
1973 Mar 2, Arab commandos, "Black
September" terrorists, led by Abu Jihad executed 3 hostages: US
ambassador Cleo A. Noel (54), deputy George Curtis Moore (47) and
Belgian charge d’affaires Guy Eid (38), in Khartoum, Sudan. Pres. Nixon
refused their demands. The operation was later reported to have been
organized by Yasser Arafat.
(WSJ, 1/10/02,
p.A12)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khartoum_diplomatic_assassinations)
1974 Mar 2, In the 16th Grammy
Awards Roberta Flack won for the song “Killing Me Softly” & Bette
Midler won as Best New Artist. Stevie Wonder got five Grammy Awards for
his album, "Innervisions" and his hit songs, "You Are The Sunshine of
My Life" and "Superstition".
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammy_Awards_of_1974)
1974 Mar 2, US 1st class postage
stamps rose from 8 cents to 10 cents.
{Postage, USA}
(www.akdart.com/postrate.html)
1975 Mar 2, Linda McCartney
(1941-1998) was arrested in Los Angeles with possession of marijuana.
(www.philbrodieband.com/music_trivia-yesterdays_march.htm)
1975 Mar 2, Madeleine Vionnet
(b.1876), French dressmaker, died at age 98. In 1999 Betty Kirke
published the biography: "Madeleine Vionnet."
(SFEC, 5/16/99, BR
p.8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madeleine_Vionnet)
1976 Mar 2, The musical revue
Bubbling Brown Sugar" opened at ANTA Theater in NYC for 766
performances.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubbling_Brown_Sugar)
1976 Mar 2, Bob Lurie (b.1929),
real estate magnate, led a group to acquire ownership of the San
Francisco Giants baseball club.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Lurie)
1977 Mar 2, Bette Davis
(1908-1989) became the 1st woman to receive Life Achievement Award.
(www.worldofquotes.com/history/3_2/7/index.html)
1977 Mar 2, Future Tonight Show
host Jay Leno debuted with host Johnny Carson.
(www.lvol.com/bios/e136.html)
1977 Mar 2, The U.S. House of
Representatives adopted a strict code of ethics.
(AP, 3/2/00)
1977 Mar 2, Libya amended its
constitution and changed its name from The Libyan Arab Republic to The
Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahirya.
(http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/dr_ibrahim_ighneiwa/libyans.htm)
1978 Mar 2, Sam Shepard’s play
"Curse of the Starving Class" premiered at the New York Shakespeare
Festival.
(SFEC, 5/30/99, DB
p.37)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_the_Starving_Class)
1978 Mar 2, Soyuz 28 carried 2
cosmonauts to Salyut 6. Czech pilot Vladimir Remek became the first
non-Russian, non-American in space.
(HN, 3/2/99)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_28)
1980 Mar 2, Snow fell in Florida.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_snow_events_in_Florida)
1981 Mar 2, Howard Stern began
broadcasting on WWDC in Washington DC.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1981 Mar 2, The United States
planned to send 20 more advisors and $25 million in military aid to El
Salvador.
(HN, 3/2/99)
1981 Mar 2, A Pakistan Airways
Boeing 720 was hijacked by 3 Pakistani terrorists. The passengers and
crew were released March 15 in Syria.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/15/newsid_2818000/2818437.stm)
1982 Mar 2, Philip K. Dick (53),
science fiction writer, died. His work included dozens of novels and
over 100 short stories. His novel "Valis" (Vast Active Living
Intelligence System) was an autobiographical work. In 1989 Lawrence
Sutin wrote the biography: "Divine Invasions: A Life of Philip K.
Dick." The 1982 film Blade Runner was loosely based on his novel: "Do
Androids Dream of Electric Sheep." The 2003 film "Paycheck" was based
on his 1953 same name novel. In 2004 Emmanuel Carrere authored “I Am
Alive and You Are Dead: A Journey Into the Mind of Philip K. Dick.
(WSJ, 4/27/99, p.A20)(SFC, 6/25/02, p.D1)(SFC,
12/27/03, p.D1)(Econ, 4/17/04, p.83)
1982 Mar 2, In Peru over 50
Shining Path terrorists attack the prison of Ayacucho, releasing drug
traffickers and 54 terrorists held there. The leader of the attack,
Edith Lagos, was killed in the battle.
(www.larouchepub.com/other/1995/2246_sendero.html)
1983 Mar 2, The USSR launched
spacecraft "TKS-M" to "Salyut-7" space station, which was named
"Cosmos-1443".
(www.videocosmos.com/calendar-march0110.shtm)
1984 Mar 2, One of the first
McDonald's franchises was closed in Des Plaines, IL.
(http://tinyurl.com/28tp6z)
1985 Mar 2, Country singer, Gary
Morris hit #1 on the country charts for the first time with "Baby Bye
Bye" from his album, "Faded Blue". Other chart toppers included:
Careless Whisper, Wham! featuring George Michael; California Girls,
David Lee Roth; Can't Fight this Feeling, REO Speedwagon.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1985_in_country_music)(http://eightiesclub.tripod.com/id201.htm)
1985 Mar 2, The US government
approved a screening test for AIDS that detected antibodies to the
virus, allowing possibly contaminated blood to be excluded from the
blood supply.
(AP, 3/2/98)
1985 Mar 2, The Gordo cartoon
strip, one of the first in the US to celebrate Mexican culture, ended.
Gus Arriola (1917-2008) had begun the strip in 1941.
(SSFC, 2/3/08, p.B1)
1985 Mar 2, Three Assyrians were
executed by the Baath regime of Iraq for distributing literature
against the Arabization policies of the government.
(www.unpo.org/article.php?id=741)
1986 Mar 2, Protesters tried to
stop the sale of the Land Rover Motor Co. to a US owner.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1987 Mar 2, Two sets of
quintuplets were born on the same day in the USA as Rosalind Helms
delivered a basketball team of bouncing babies in Peoria, IL and Robin
Jenkins became the mother of five in Las Vegas, NV.
(HC, Internet, 2/3/98)
1987 Mar 2, US government
officials reported that the median price for a new home had topped
$100,000 for the first time. The new six-figure price of $110,700 was
up from $94,600.
(HC, Internet, 2/3/98)
1987 Mar 2, The Macintosh II
computer was introduced. The 1st color Mac had a CPU speed of 16 MHz
and sold for $3,898.
(SFC, 1/24/04,
p.A12)(www.applematters.com/index.php/section/history/2006/03/02/)
1988 Mar 2, In the 30th Grammy
Awards: Graceland, Joshua Tree, Jody Watley won.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1988 Mar 2, Dutch Liberal Party
merged with SDP.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1988 Mar 2, The U.N. General
Assembly voted overwhelmingly to order the United States to submit to
binding arbitration its plan to close the observer mission of the
Palestine Liberation Organization. A federal court later stopped the
U.S.
(AP, 3/2/98)
1989 Mar 2, Madonna's "Like a
Prayer" premiered on worldwide Pepsi commercial.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1989 Mar 2, Gloria Estefan
(b.1957) and the Miami Sound Machine received the 1st star on the Latin
Star Walk on Calle Ocho, the main street of Little Havana in Miami, Fl.
(http://tinyurl.com/czkup)
1989 Mar 2, Exxon Houston ran
aground in Hawaii and spilled 117,000 gallons of oil.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1989 Mar 2, Representatives from
the 12 European Community nations agreed to ban all production of CFCs
(chlorofluorocarbons) by the end of this century.
(AP, 3/299)
1989 Mar 2, A grenade attack in
downtown Panama killed a U.S. soldier and injured 28 other people at
the My Place discotheque on Via Espania and Calle 50. [AP posted this
event as 1990, the EW posted it as 1989]
(AP, 3/2/00)(EW)
1990 Mar 2, More than 6,000
drivers went on strike against Greyhound Lines Inc. The company, later
declaring an impasse in negotiations, fired the strikers.
(AP, 3/2/00)
1990 Mar 2, A grenade attack in
downtown Panama killed a U.S. soldier and injured 28 other people at
the My Place discotheque on Via Espania and Calle 50. [AP posted this
event as 1990, the EW posted it as 1989]
(AP, 3/2/00)(EW)
1991 Mar 2, "Aspects of Love"
closed at Broadhurst Theater in NYC after 377 performances.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1991 Mar 2, "La Bete" closed at
Eugene O'Neill Theater in NYC after 24 performances.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1991 Mar 2, Serge Gainsbourg
(b.1928), French singer-songwriter, actor and director, died of a heart
attack. His extremely varied musical style and individuality make him
difficult to categorize. His legacy has been firmly established, and he
is often regarded as one of the world's most influential popular
musicians.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serge_Gainsbourg)
1991 Mar 2, The UN Security
Council adopted a resolution dictating allied demands that Iraq had to
meet before a formal-cease fire was declared in the Persian Gulf War.
Iraq released CBS newsman Bob Simon and his crew, held captive for
nearly six weeks.
(AP, 3/2/01)
1991 Mar 2, Shiite Muslims in
southern Iraq and the Kurds rose up against Iraqi forces but were
crushed by Iraqi armor that killed 50,000 and forced more than a
million Kurds to flee to Turkey and Iran.
(SFC, 9/4/96, p.A7)(SFC, 9/4/96, p.A8)
1991 Mar 2, A Tiger car bomb in
Colombo, Sri Lanka, killed deputy defense minister Ranjan Wijeratne.
(SFC, 7/24/96, p.A9)
1992 Mar 2, A jury was seated in
Simi Valley, Calif., in the assault trial of four Los Angeles police
officers charged with beating motorist Rodney King.
(AP, 3/2/02)
1992 Mar 2, Actress Sandy Dennis
died in Westport, Conn., at age 54.
(AP, 3/2/02)
1992 Mar 2, The 47th session of
the UN General Assembly welcomed eight former Soviet republics and San
Marino as its newest members. Kazakhstan’s Pres. Nursultan Nazarbayev
proposed to the UN General Assembly an annual reduction of military
budgets by 1% and using the money to fund and strengthen UN peace
projects.
(AP, 3/2/02)(Econ, 12/16/06, p.81)
1993 Mar 2, In the third day of a
standoff between federal agents and Branch Davidians near Waco, Texas,
local radio stations broadcast a taped statement in which the group's
leader, David Koresh, promised to surrender; however, the standoff
continued.
(AP, 3/2/98)
1994 Mar 2, The government of
Mexico and Indian rebels reached a tentative accord on most insurgent
demands for the ending the rebellion, including sweeping political
reforms.
(AP, 3/299)
1995 Mar 2, The US Senate rejected
the balanced-budget amendment; the vote, 65-35, was two votes shy of
the two-thirds majority needed for passage.
(AP, 3/2/00)
1995 Mar 2, Ted Truman, a top
int’l. staffer at the Federal Reserve, reported to Alan Greenspan that
massive dollar sales were driving down the US currency. In response the
Fed and Treasury bought $600 million in marks and yen and repeated the
action next day joined by 13 central banks.
(WSJ, 1/18/05, p.A13)
1995 Mar 2, "Smokey Joe's
Café," previewed on Feb 9, opened at Virginia Theater in NYC.
(www.jimsdeli.com/theater/1997-before/smokey-joes-cafe.htm)
1995 Mar 2, The space shuttle
STS-67 (Endeavour 8) blasted off to study the far reaches of the
universe.
(AP, 3/2/00)
1995 Mar 2, Ferry boat sank off
Sumbe, Angola, and over 42 people were killed.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1995 Mar 2, British trader Nick
Leeson, blamed for the collapse of Barings PLC, was detained in
Germany.
(AP, 3/2/00)
1995 Mar 2, The last U.N.
peacekeepers in Somalia were evacuated.
(AP, 3/2/00)
1996 Mar 2, Senate Majority Leader
Bob Dole reignited his presidential campaign with an overwhelming
victory in the South Carolina Republican primary.
(AP, 3/2/01)
1996 Mar 2, In Australia the first
conservative government in 13 years was elected in a landslide victory.
John Howard with a pro-business coalition defeated the reformist labor
party of Paul Keating.
(WSJ, 3/4/96, p. A-1)(SFC, 11/27/98, p.A16)
1996 Mar 2, Jacobo Majluta (61),
President of Dominican Republic (1982), died.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1997 Mar 2, It was revealed that
Vice President Gore had raised millions of dollars for the 1996
campaign through direct telephone solicitations, and that some of the
calls were made on special phones installed in government buildings for
that purpose.
(AP, 3/2/98)
1997 Mar 2, Saudi Arab billionaire
Prince al-Waleed bin Talal acquired 5% of Apple.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1997 Mar 2, A storm hit Arkansas
with as many as 20 tornadoes and caused major flooding in the Ohio
Valley. At least 41 people were killed.
(SFEC, 3/3/97, p.A3)
1997 Mar 2, A state of emergency
was declared in Albania and at least 4 demonstrators were killed in
Vlora in clashes with police. The Adriatic town of Sarande was sacked
by rioters.
(SFEC, 3/3/97, p.A12)(WSJ, 3/3/97, p.A1)
1997 Mar 2, In China Premier Li
Peng asked the National People’s Congress for a 12.7% increase in the
defense budget for a total of $9.68 billion.
(WSJ, 3/3/97, p.A1)
1997 Mar 2, The Russian Soyuz
TM-24 returned to Earth.
(http://space.kursknet.ru/cosmos/english/machines/stm24.sht)
1997 Mar 2, In Spain matadors
across the country went on strike as the bullfighting season opened.
They favored a policy of shaving bull’s horns that was opposed by the
government.
(SFEC, 3/3/97, p.A12)
1997 cMar 2, In Turkey the
military submitted a 20-measure package to Prime Minister Erbakan that
called for some new laws and stricter application of existing laws to
protect secular principles.
(SFC, 3/5/97, p.A8)
1998 Mar 2, Henry Steele Commager
(b.1902), American historian and champion of the Constitution, died in
Amherst, Mass. He and R.B. Morris edited the 40-volume series "The Rise
of the American Nation."
(WSJ, 3/3/98, p.A1)(SFC, 3/3/98, p.D8)
1998 Mar 2, Natascha Kampusch (10)
vanished in Vienna, Austria, on her way to school, triggering a massive
search that extended into neighboring Hungary. In 2006 Kampusch, who
had been held captive in a cellar, managed to escape. Wolfgang
Priklopil (44), her alleged abductor, committed suicide by jumping in
front of a train. In 2007 Natascha’s mother, Brigitta Sirny authored:
"Desperate Years: My life Without Natascha." In 2008 Herwig Haidinger,
the former head of Austria's Federal Criminal Investigations Bureau,
accused authorities of ignoring a tip in April 1998 from a local
policeman that pointed to Priklopil. He also alleged that Interior
Ministry officials refused to look into that accusation once Kampusch
reappeared, so to avoid a scandal before parliamentary elections that
fall.
(AP, 8/24/06)(AP, 8/8/07)(AP, 2/11/08)
1998 Mar 2, U.N. Security Council
unanimously endorsed Secretary-General Kofi Annan's deal to open Iraq's
presidential palaces to arms inspectors.
(AP, 3/299)
1998 Mar 2, Serb police clashed
with 30,000 protesting Albanians in Kosovo.
(WSJ, 3/3/98, p.A1)
1999 Mar 2, Conservative
commentator Pat Buchanan launched a third presidential bid.
(AP, 3/2/00)
1999 Mar 2, Texas Governor George
W. Bush announced he was forming a presidential exploratory committee.
(AP, 3/2/00)
1999 Mar 2, Hewlett-Packard
announced that it would split its non-computer business into a separate
company.
(SFC, 3/3/99, p.A1)
1999 Mar 2, In England Dusty
Springfield (59), pop-soul singer, died from breast cancer. Her hits
included ""You Don't Have to Say You Love Me," "I Just Don't Know What
to Do With Myself" and "Son of a Preacher Man."
(SFC, 3/4/99, p.D2)
1999 Mar 2, Israeli leaders made
campaign promises to leave Lebanon within a year.
(SFC, 3/3/99, p.A10)
1999 Mar 2, In Atyrau, Kazakhstan,
26 inmates stabbed themselves in the stomach in an attempted mass
suicide to protest prison conditions. All survived.
(SFC, 3/5/99, p.D2)
1999 Mar 2, In Kosovo KLA leader
Adem Demaci announced that he would step down but would continue to
oppose the peace plan. Meanwhile Yugoslav tank and mortar fire pounded
rebel positions in the hillsides of the Macedonian border. Demaci was
replaced by Hashim Thaci (29).
(SFC, 3/3/99, p.A8)(SFC, 3/4/99, p.A12)
1999 Mar 2, In Sierra Leone the
Kamajors militia won the battle for Moyamba after 6 days of heavy
fighting. They reported that 200 rebels were killed.
(SFC, 3/3/99, p.A10)
1999 Mar 2, In Uganda Hutu rebels
killed 8 hostages and 4 Ugandans. Among the dead were Americans Robert
Haubner and Susan Miller of Hillsboro, Ore. They were there to track
the mountain gorillas. Uganda insisted that the 2 Americans, 4 Britons
and 2 New Zealanders died in a police rescue bid.
(SFC, 3/3/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 3/3/99, p.A1)(SFEC, 3/7/99,
p.T14)
2000 Mar 2, A federal jury in
Washington convicted Maria Hsia, a friend and political supporter of
Vice President Al Gore, for arranging more than $100,000 in illegal
donations during the 1996 presidential campaign. Hsia was later
sentenced to three months of home confinement.
(AP, 3/2/01)
2000 Mar 2, Merck pledged a $100
million donation of Hepatitis B vaccine to inoculate children in poor
nations.
(WSJ, 3/2/00, p.A1)
2000 Mar 2, Dr. Larry C. Ford
committed suicide just days after a botched assassination attempt on
his business partner at Biofem Inc., of Irvine, Calif. Ford had met
with scientists from South Africa's Project Coast in the 1980s to
discuss chemical and biological warfare under Wouter Basson, head of
the project. Project Coast, which has been accused of trying to create
deadly bacteria that would only affect blacks, poisoning opponents'
clothing and stockpiling cholera, HIV and anthrax, opened an offshore
bank account to pay Ford. In 2002 former FBI informant Peter
Fitzpatrick told "60 Minutes" that Ford passed a bag filled with
cholera, typhoid, botulism, anthrax and bubonic plague to a South
African military doctor during a meeting at the house of the South
African trade attache in California.
(AP, 11/3/02)
2000 Mar 2, In Chechnya rebels
ambushed Russian troops outside Grozny and killed at least 20 police
commandos.
(SFC, 3/4/00, p.A1)
2000 Mar 2, Former Chilean
dictator General Augusto Pinochet left Britain for his homeland, hours
after he was ruled mentally unfit to stand trial on charges of human
rights abuses.
(AP, 3/2/01)
2000 Mar 2, In Israel commandos
killed as many as 3-4 Palestinian Hamas militants at Taibeh. They said
that 4 simultaneous bombings were scheduled in crowded areas of major
cities.
(SFC, 3/3/00, p.A14)(WSJ, 3/3/00, p.A1)
2000 Mar 2, In Kosovo French
peacekeepers forced their way through Serb protestors to return 41
Albanians to their homes across the Ibar River.
(SFC, 3/4/00, p.A10)
2000 Mar 2, In the Philippines
some 40 rebels of the New People's Army killed 10 soldiers at Balilihan
in Bohol province.
(SFC, 3/3/00, p.D4)
2000 Mar 2, Zimbabwe ordered black
war veterans to quit white-owned farms.
(WSJ, 3/3/00, p.A1)
2001 Mar 2, In Afghanistan the
Taliban began the destruction of the giant Buddha of Bamiyan despite
int’l. protests. The United Nations tried in vain to persuade
Afghanistan's ruling Taliban to reverse its decision to destroy a pair
of giant, ancient statues of Buddha and other Buddhist relics that the
regime considered idolatrous.
(SSFC, 3/4/01, p.A1)(SFC, 12/30/01, p.D3)(AP, 3/2/02)
2001 Mar 2, In China 37 members of
the banned Falun Gong were sentenced to prison terms of 3-10 years.
Most had been convicted of “using a cult to obstruct the law.”
(SFC, 3/3/01, p.A12)
2001 Mar 2, In France Alois
Brunner, former deputy of Adolf Eichmann, was sentenced to life
imprisonment for war crimes against humanity. He was believed to be
still alive in Syria, where he fled in 1954.
(SFC, 3/3/01, p.A10)
2001 Mar 2, In Indonesian some
7,000 Madurese refugees escaped from Borneo while some 13,000 still
waited in camps for boats. The killing appeared to have stopped.
(SFC, 3/3/01, p.A12)
2001 Mar 2, In Israel the Labor
Party chose 8 members to serve in the Cabinet of Ariel Sharon. Shimon
Peres was named foreign minister and Benjamin Ben-Eliezer as defense
minister.
(SFC, 3/3/01, p.A10)
2001 Mar 2, In the Philippines the
Supreme Court affirmed the legitimacy of Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo
and denied immunity to former Pres. Estrada.
(SFC, 3/3/01, p.A12)
2001 Mar 2, In Thailand a bomb
blast gutted a Thai Airways Boeing 737-400 in Bangkok just before PM
Shinawatra was to board. One crew member was killed. It was later
reported that the empty center fuel tank of the plane had exploded.
(SFC, 3/5/01, p.A12)(WSJ, 6/26/08, p.A12)
2002 Mar 2, US and Afghan forces
attacked hundreds of suspected al Qaeda and Taliban fighters in eastern
Afghanistan. 1 US soldier was killed.
(SSFC, 3/3/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 2, From Brazil it was
reported that at least 23 people had died from dengue fever in Rio de
Janeiro and that officially some 52,000 had become ill.
(SFC, 3/2/02, p.A10)
2002 Mar 2, In Colombia the bodies
of Sen. Martha Catalina Daniels, her driver, Carlos Lozano, and Ana
Maria Medina, the wife of a local politician, were found outside
Zipacon, 35 miles north of Bogota. FARC was suspected.
(SFC, 3/4/02, p.A3)
2002 Mar 2, Egypt’s Pres. Mubarek
(73) began a 4-day visit to the US.
(SSFC, 3/3/02, p.A19)
2002 Mar 2, Rioting spread as the
death toll in India's religious strife reached 408.
(AP, 3/2/07)
2002 Mar 2, In Jerusalem a suicide
bomber killed himself and 9 others including several children. In the
West Bank gunmen opened fire on Israeli motorists and killed 9 people.
(SSFC, 3/3/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 2-3, Macedonia police
killed 7 men who allegedly attempted an ambush near Butel, a suburb of
Skopje. Police said the attackers were probably Pakistanis. Foreign
officials later discounted these assertions and suspected that they
were illegal immigrants. A 2 year investigation followed in the
so-called "Rastanski Lozja" action, and revealed police staged the
killing to show they were participating in the U.S.-led campaign
against terrorism. A bomb blast at the Macedonia consulate in Karachi
on Dec 5, 2002, killed 3 people in apparent retaliation.
(SSFC, 3/3/02, p.A15)(WSJ, 3/8/02, p.A8)(SFC,
4/5/02, p.H1)(AP, 4/30/04)(SFC, 5/1/04, p.A7)
2003 Mar 2, Fidel Castro
offered to mediate with North Korea over its nuclear program, though he
acknowledged Cuba's ability to stem the growing crisis was limited.
(AP, 3/2/03)
2003 Mar 2, In Estonia a
center-left party depicting itself as a champion of the poor barely won
the popular vote in parliamentary elections, which could make it
difficult to form a coalition government.
(AP, 3/3/03)
2003 Mar 2, Israeli troops
backed by tanks and helicopters raided a Gaza Strip town, killing two
Palestinians in fierce fighting and demolishing an apartment building
and the exterior wall of a hospital.
(AP, 3/2/03)
2003 Mar 2, Netherlands,
the world's 4th largest poultry exporter, discovered a bird flu in some
its poultry for the 1st time in 30 years.
(WSJ, 3/6/03, p.A11)
2003 Mar 2, In Karachi,
Pakistan, religious coalitions joined tens of thousands of others in a
march to protest a possible U.S.-led war against Iraq.
(AP, 3/3/03)
2003 Mar 2, Iraq crushed another
six Al Samoud II missiles, as ordered by UN weapons inspectors.
(AP, 3/2/08)
2003 Mar 2, North Korea
deployed 4 MiGs to intercept a US RC-135S spy plane some 150 miles off
its coast.
(WSJ, 3/4/03, p.A1)
2003 Mar 2, Landlocked Switzerland
became the first European country to win the America's Cup as "Alinghi"
swept Team New Zealand in five races.
(AP, 3/2/04)
2003 Mar 2, Syria
reportedly finished pulling 4,000 troops out of Lebanon in an effort to
reduce tensions and keep radical Sunni groups from attacking Israel.
(SSFC, 3/2/03, A6)
2003 Mar 2, In northern
Uganda rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army fighting a 16-year war
called a cease-fire and asked to meet Pres. Yoweri Museveni.
(AP, 3/3/03)
2003 Mar 2, The United Arab
Emirates won support from Kuwait and Bahrain in its call for Saddam
Hussein to quit power to avert a war.
(AP, 3/3/03)
2004 Mar 2, Alan Greenspan said
interest rates are too low for long term economic stability, but did
not indicate when they would be raised. The DJIA closed at 10,592.
(WSJ, 3/3/04, p.A3)
2004 Mar 2, John Kerry won the
10-state Super Tuesday series and knocked the fight out of his spirited
rival, John Edwards.
(AP, 3/3/04)
2004 Mar 2, Californians voters
approved Proposition 57, Gov. Schwarzenegger's $15 billion bond
measure, to be repaid over the next 9 to 14 years. Prop 58 to prohibit
future deficit financing also passed.
(SFC, 3/03/04, p.A1)
2004 Mar 2, Residents of
Killington, Vermont, voted to join New Hampshire due to a dispute over
property taxes.
(ST, 3/2/04, p.A5)(AP, 3/2/04)
2004 Mar 2, Bernard Ebbers, former
WorldCom CEO, was indicted on federal charges in the
multibillion-dollar accounting scandal at the telecommunications giant.
Scott Sullivan, his top financial officer, pleaded guilty and agreed to
testify against him.
(AP, 3/2/04)(WSJ, 2/18/05, p.A1)
2004 Mar 2, NY state filed charges
against the mayor of New Paltz for marrying gay couples.
(WSJ, 3/3/04, p.A1)
2004 Mar 2, NASA scientists
reported that the Mars rover Opportunity had discovered evidence that
water was once present on the surface.
(SFC, 3/03/04, p.A2)
2004 Mar 2, Mercedes McCambridge
(85), Academy Award-winning actress, died in San Diego.
(AP, 3/2/05)
2004 Mar 2, Marge Schott (75), the
controversial former owner of the Cincinnati Reds, died.
(AP, 3/2/05)
2004 Mar 2, In Chechnya rebel
attacks and land mines killed five Russian soldiers.
(AP, 3/3/04)
2004 Mar 2, In China authorities
shut down water supplies after a combination of synthetic ammonia and
nitrogen from the Sichuan General Chemical Factory leaked into the Tuo
River. Nearly 1 million people were left without water for drinking and
bathing.
(AP, 3/5/04)
2004 Mar 2, Haiti rebel leader Guy
Philippe declared himself the new chief of Haiti's military, which had
been disbanded by ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
(AP, 3/2/04)
2004 Mar 2, Attacks on Shiite
Muslims in Pakistan and Iraq killed at least 193 people. 180 were
killed at the Khadimiya shrine in Karbala, where Shiites were
celebrating Ashura, the holiest day in their religious calendar. An
Iranian vice president blamed al-Qaida for the attacks.
(AP, 3/3/04)(SSFC, 2/20/05, p.A14)
2004 Mar 2, Khalil al-Zaben (59),
a close associate of Yasser Arafat, was assassinated in Gaza City by
unidentified gunmen. Separately Arafat agreed to a new system for
paying his security forces.
(SFC, 3/03/04, p.A8)
2004 Mar 2, Russian authorities
said they have confirmed that a man killed in the Dagestan region a few
days earlier was Ruslan Gelayev, one of the Chechnya's most powerful
rebel warlords.
(AP, 3/2/04)
2004 Mar 2, In Venezuela
demonstrators hurled rocks and gasoline bombs at soldiers as protests
intensified after the elections council ruled against an opposition
petition to force a presidential recall referendum.
(AP, 3/3/04)
2005 Mar 2, President Bush
demanded in blunt terms that Syria get out of Lebanon.
(AP, 3/2/05)
2005 Mar 2, The number of U.S.
military deaths in Iraq reached 1,500.
(AP, 3/2/06)
2005 Mar 2, Alan Greenspan warned
that US federal budget deficits are unsustainable and urged Congress to
cut spending.
(SFC, 3/3/05, p.A1)
2005 Mar 2, The US Treasury
proposed rules for a new Roth 401(k).
(SFC, 3/3/05, p.C1)
2005 Mar 2, The woman who accused
NBA star Kobe Bryant of rape settled her lawsuit against him, ending
the case.
(AP, 3/2/06)
2005 Mar 2, It was reported that
the Palm Beach, Fla., hedge fund KL Financial, with assets of $200
million, had run out of funds.
(WSJ, 3/2/05, p.C1)
2005 Mar 2, In Florida dozens of
dolphins beached on the Florida Keys. Sonar from a US submarine was
later suspected.
(SSFC, 3/6/05, p.A3)
2005 Mar 2, In Tennessee a school
bus driver was shot and killed by a 14-year old student, who was
recently disciplined by the driver for using snuff.
(WSJ, 3/3/05, p.A1)
2005 Mar 2, In Afghanistan Pres.
Karzai appointed Habiba Sarobi as governor of Bamiyan province, making
her Afghanistan’s 1st female governor.
(SFC, 3/3/05, p.A10)
2005 Mar 2, In eastern Afghanistan
a gunbattle between U.S.-led coalition forces and militants left three
militants and two civilians dead.
(AP, 3/5/05)
2005 Mar 2, Australia’s central
bank raised interest rates to 5.5% from 5.25%. The 2004 annual growth
rate was reported to be 1.5%.
(WSJ, 3/3/05, p.A11)
2005 Mar 2, In Azerbaijan Elmar
Huseinov, founder and editor of the opposition magazine Monitor, was
shot to death in the entryway of his Baku apartment building.
(AP, 3/3/05)
2005 Mar 2, Brazil's lower house
of Congress overwhelmingly approved a law creating a framework to
legalize biotech seed sales for genetically modified crops.
(AP, 3/3/05)
2005 Mar 2, In northern China a
cache of explosives at the home of a coal mine manager blew up in
Kecheng, killing him and at least 10 others including 2 children at a
nearby school.
(AP, 3/3/05)(SFC, 3/3/05, p.A6)
2005 Mar 2, Queen Elizabeth II
dubbed Bill Gates (49) an honorary noble.
(SFC, 3/3/05, p.A2)
2005 Mar 2, France's newly
appointed Finance Minister Thierry Breton pledged to keep a tight lid
on public spending in an effort to rein in the budget deficit.
(AP, 3/2/05)
2005 Mar 2, Two car bombs killed
at least 14 Iraqi soldiers in separate attacks, and the al-Qaida group
in Iraq claimed responsibility for one.
(SFC, 3/3/05, p.A6)(WSJ, 3/3/05, p.A1)
2005 Mar 2, Pakistani police
arrested a man wanted in the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter
Daniel Pearl and already sentenced to death in absentia for a hotel
bombing that killed 11 French engineers.
(AP, 3/2/05)
2005 Mar 2, Former Serbian army
chief Gen. Momcilo Perisic, a one-time ally of ex-president Slobodan
Milosevic, said that he has been indicted by the UN war crimes court
and will surrender next week.
(AP, 3/3/05)
2005 Mar 2, In a new book entitled
"Mari, the Metropolis of the Euphrates," Jean-Claude Margueron said the
third millennium BC city, in modern day Syria, was "one of the first
modern cities of humanity.
(AP, 3/2/05)
2005 Mar 2, It was reported that
the bodies of at least 34 men found in Venezuela's central Guarico
state in the past three years had burns, bruises and cuts suggesting
they were tortured before being executed.
(AP, 3/2/05)
2006 Mar 2, On his first trip to
India, President Bush and his Indian counterpart agreed on a landmark
nuclear energy agreement that deepens ties between the world's oldest
and largest democracies.
(AP, 3/2/06)
2006 Mar 2, The Senate voted to
renew the USA Patriot Act.
(AP, 3/2/07)
2006 Mar 2, "Killer nurse" Charles
Cullen, who'd killed at least 29 patients, was sentenced in Somerville,
N.J., to spend the rest of his life in prison.
(AP, 3/2/07)
2006 Mar 2, LA prosecutors said 19
people, many of them former police officers or with police connections,
have been charged with staging home robberies in Southern California to
steal drugs, money and weapons.
(Reuters, 3/2/06)
2006 Mar 2, The US Federal Reserve
began shipping a new colorized $10 bill to commercial banks.
(WSJ, 3/3/06, p.C3)
2006 Mar 2, It was reported that
Thomas Monaghan, founder of Domino’s Pizza, hoped that the new town of
Ave Maria in southwestern Florida would be governed under strict Roman
Catholic principles. The town was being constructed around Ave Maria
Univ. east of Naples. The town and university, bankrolled by Monaghan
with $250 million, were set to open in 2007.
(SFC, 3/2/06, p.A2)
2006 Mar 2, General Motors Corp.
said it has made major steps in developing a commercially viable
hydrogen-powered vehicle and expects it can get the emission-free cars
into dealerships in the next four to nine years.
(AFP, 3/2/06)
2006 Mar 2, An oil spill in Alaska
curtailed Prudhoe Bay production. At least 265,000 gallons spilled onto
the tundra from a British Petroleum (BP) line handling 100,000 barrels
per day. The spill of 5,000 barrels was the largest in the field’s
29-year history.
(WSJ, 3/3/06, p.A1)(SFC, 3/11/06, p.A4)(SSFC,
8/13/06, p.A18)
2006 Mar 2, Garrett Scott (37),
documentary film maker, died in Coronado, Ca., of cardiac arrest. His
2005 film “Occupation: Dreamland” was based on footage shot with
co-director Ian Olds, while embedded with the 82nd Airborne in
Fallujah, Iraq.
(SFC, 3/7/06, p.B5)
2006 Mar 2, In Bangladesh Shaikh
Abdur Rahman, the fugitive leader of an Islamic militant group wanted
for a deadly wave of bombings. surrendered to police after a 33-hour
siege. Rahman, who fought in the Afghan war after graduating from
Medina University in Saudi Arabia, formed the Jamayetul Mujahideen in
the late 1990s.
(AFP, 3/2/06)
2006 Mar 2, Belarussian President
Alexander Lukashenko defiantly told his Western critics to stay out of
his country's affairs, while an opposition rival for the presidency was
beaten by security forces and detained.
(AP, 3/2/06)
2006 Mar 2, In Croatia 8 former
soldiers were convicted of torturing ethnic Serbs in a wartime prison,
four years after they were cleared of the same charges in a trial later
annulled as being flawed.
(AP, 3/2/06)
2006 Mar 2, It was reported that
Cuban academics hoping to attend a gathering of Latin America experts
in Puerto Rico had been denied visas by the American government,
marking the latest in the current US administration's trend of shutting
out Cubans.
(AP, 3/2/06)
2006 Mar 2, The European Central
Bank raised its key interest rate by a quarter percentage point to 2.5
percent amid worries about inflation.
(AP, 3/2/06)
2006 Mar 2, Haiti's newly elected
Pres. Rene Preval met with Dominican Republic President Leonel
Fernandez in Santo Domingo amid rising tensions between their countries
over immigration and security.
(AP, 3/3/06)
2006 Mar 2, A bomb ripped through
a vegetable market in a Shiite section of Baghdad killing 38 people. A
leading Sunni politician escaped an attack on his convoy as unrelenting
violence pushing Iraq toward civil war.
(AP, 3/2/06)(WSJ, 3/3/06, p.A1)
2006 Mar 2, John Pace, the former
UN human rights chief in Iraq said human rights abuses in Iraq are as
bad now as they were under Saddam Hussein. It was reported that
sectarian evictions by Sunnis and Shiites were growing in Baghdad
neighborhoods
(AP, 3/2/06)(SFC, 3/2/06, p.A12)
2006 Mar 2, Tommaso Onofri, a
17-month-old epileptic boy, was kidnapped from his home in
Casalbaroncolo, near Parma, Italy. His body was found April 1. He was
killed by blows to the head with a shovel. Suspects Mario Alessi, a
construction worker, and Salvatore Raimondi have been accusing each
other of killing the child shortly after the kidnapping. A woman was
accused of complicity in the kidnapping.
(AP, 3/7/06)(AP, 4/3/06)
2006 Mar 2, In Kenya masked gunmen
identifying themselves as police raided the country's oldest newspaper
and its sister television station, two days after three journalists
were detained for a story about Kenya's president. The closures of The
Standard and the Kenya Television Network, ordered by security minister
John Michuki, appeared to mark the first time a Kenyan government has
shut down the operations of a major media company.
(AP, 3/2/06)(Econ, 3/25/06, p.52)
2006 Mar 2, Kosovo's president,
Fatmir Sejdiu, issued a statement calling on Lt. Gen. Agim Ceku (44), a
former leader of the now disbanded Kosovo Liberation Army, to become
prime minister and form a new government.
(AP, 3/2/06)
2006 Mar 2, Libya released all 84
jailed members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood movement who had been
held since the late 1990s.
(AFP, 3/2/06)
2006 Mar 2, North and South Korea
opened high-level military talks for the first time in almost two
years, aiming to reduce tension along the world's most heavily
fortified border and prevent accidental naval skirmishes.
(AP, 3/2/06)
2006 Mar 2, In Pakistan a suicide
attacker rammed a car packed with explosives into a vehicle carrying an
American diplomat in Karachi, killing diplomat David Foy and 3 other
people before President Bush's visit to Pakistan. Fifty-two people were
wounded. An Uzbek national, arrested in Pakistan in July, told
interrogators that Al-Qaeda had organized the suicide attack.
(AFP, 7/26/06)(AP, 3/2/07)
2006 Mar 2, Palestinian leader
Mahmoud Abbas said in a published interview that the al-Qaida terror
network has infiltrated the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
(AP, 3/2/06)
2006 Mar 2, Puerto Rico's Gov.
Anibal Acevedo Vila signed into law a ban on smoking in enclosed public
places, the toughest anti-tobacco prohibition in the Caribbean.
(AP, 3/3/06)
2006 Mar 2, In South Africa early
results put the ruling African National Congress well ahead in local
elections, despite voter unhappiness with the rate of progress in
improving the lives of poor blacks.
(AP, 3/2/06)
2006 Mar 2, South Africa joined a
growing list of countries inviting Hamas leaders for talks, raising
Israeli concerns that the international front against the Islamic
militants is crumbling.
(AP, 3/2/06)
2006 Mar 2, Venezuela's VP Jose
Vicente Rangel said that the US was the world's biggest consumer of
illegal drugs and had no "moral authority" to criticize Venezuela for
failing to control narcotics.
(AP, 3/2/06)
2006 Mar 2, Vietnam announced it
has commuted the death sentence of Nguyen Van Chinh (45), a convicted
Australian drug trafficker, to life imprisonment after heavy lobbying
by the Australian government.
(AP, 3/2/06)
2007 Mar 2, US Defense Secretary
Robert Gates fired Army Secretary Francis Harvey as the Bush
administration scrambled to respond to an outcry over poor treatment
for veterans at the Army's top hospital.
(Reuters, 3/2/07)
2007 Mar 2, The US Energy and
Defense departments chose Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to
design the country’s first new nuclear warhead since the Cold War.
(SFC, 3/3/07, p.A1)
2007 Mar 2, A charter bus carrying
a college baseball team from Ohio’s Mennonite-affiliated Bluffton
University plunged off a highway ramp in Georgia and slammed into the
pavement below, killing six people, injuring 29 and scattering sports
equipment across the road. A 7th player died from his injuries on Mar 9.
(AP, 3/2/07)(AP, 3/9/07)
2007 Mar 2, Checkpoint Systems
Inc. said it will provide Reno GmbH with RFID (radio frequency
identification) tags and store tagging systems. Reno GmbH plans to
embed wireless chips in shoes sold at hundreds of stores across the
continent.
(http://tinyurl.com/2cpo45)
2007 Mar 2, Scientists scanning
the deep interior of Earth have found evidence of a vast water
reservoir beneath eastern Asia that is at least the volume of the
Arctic Ocean.
(www.livescience.com/environment/070228_beijing_anomoly.html)
2007 Mar 2, In western Afghanistan
insurgents attacked a police post, leaving one police officer dead and
two wounded. A mortar round landed on a US military outpost in the same
Herat province, wounding 12 civilian Afghan workers and two Afghan
soldiers.
(AP, 3/3/07)
2007 Mar 2, Brazilian police
arrested 18 people accused of allowing illegal logging in the Amazon
rain forest and were searching for 19 others, including environmental
protection agents.
(AP, 3/2/07)
2007 Mar 2, The British
Broadcasting Corp. said that it has signed a deal with Google Inc.'s
YouTube that will allow the popular Web site to show excerpts of the
broadcaster's news and entertainment programs.
(AP, 3/2/07)
2007 Mar 2, Bulgaria's
Socialist-led government survived a no-confidence on a motion filed by
the opposition, claiming that the government was unable to cope with a
health care crisis.
(AP, 3/2/07)
2007 Mar 2, Chechnya's parliament
approved Ramzan Kadyrov, a widely feared former security chief as
president of the war-battered Russian republic in a nearly unanimous
vote.
(AP, 3/2/07)
2007 Mar 2, China demanded the
United States scrap a planned sale of hundreds of missiles to Taiwan,
warning the deal would harm regional stability and bilateral ties.
(AFP, 3/2/07)
2007 Mar 2, In Colombia
prosecutors ordered the arrest of Alvaro Araujo Noguera, a prominent
political boss, for alleged involvement in a kidnapping at the heart of
a scandal tying the country’s political elite to right-wing
paramilitary groups.
(AP, 3/2/07)
2007 Mar 2, Henri Troyat (95),
French writer, died. He fled Russia's revolution as a child and went on
to become one of France's most prolific, popular and respected authors.
(AP, 3/5/07)
2007 Mar 2, An al-Qaida-linked
Sunni group said that it kidnapped 18 government workers and soldiers
in retaliation for the alleged rape of a Sunni woman by members of the
Shiite-dominated police force. Hours later, the government said the
bodies of 14 security officers had been found. In Baghdad, a pair of
car bombs killed 11 people in separate attacks.
(AP, 3/2/07)
2007 Mar 2, In Italy Premier
Romano Prodi won a confidence vote in the lower house of parliament,
formally ending Italy's political crisis.
(AP, 3/2/07)
2007 Mar 2, Moammar Gadhafi said
in an unusual debate that it was time for his long-isolated nation to
open up to the world and that one day Libya won't need him as leader.
Still, he insisted that the ruling ideology he has entrenched here for
three decades is superior to Western democracy.
(AP, 3/2/07)
2007 Mar 2, In Morocco 12 Islamic
militants were convicted of terrorism-related charges, including eight
with alleged ties to al-Qaida who had volunteered to fight in Iraq.
(AP, 3/3/07)
2007 Mar 2, In Nigeria 7 people
were shot dead and 10 others were seriously wounded when gunmen opened
fire in a crowded district of Port Harcourt.
(AP, 3/3/07)
2007 Mar 2, In eastern Pakistan a
bomb rigged to a bicycle exploded near a car carrying a judge,
seriously wounding him and killing at least three people in Multan.
(AP, 3/2/07)
2007 Mar 2, People caught smoking
in bars and restaurants in Puerto Rico faced fines as a ban on lighting
up in enclosed public spaces took effect.
(AP, 3/2/07)
2007 Mar 2, Ivan Safronov, a
Russian military affairs writer for the daily Kommersant, fell to his
death from a fifth-story window in Moscow. On Mar 6 his newspaper said
he had received threats while gathering material for a report claiming
Russia planned to provide sophisticated weapons to Syria and Iran.
(AP, 3/6/07)
2007 Mar 2, An explosion in a
Slovakian ammunition factory killed two people, left six missing and
injured 45, five seriously.
(AP, 3/2/07)
2007 Mar 2, In Somalia 4 mortar
explosions rocked Mogadishu, wounding six people, including two
children.
(AP, 3/2/07)
2007 Mar 2, South Korea delayed a
full resumption of aid shipments to North Korea until the communist
regime shuts down its main atomic reactor under an international
agreement to take steps toward abandoning its nuclear weapons program.
A South Korean activist said 80 North Korean refugees are hiding in
various Asian countries and preparing to seek asylum in the United
States. North and South Korea agreed to resume reunions of families
that have been separated by their divided border.
(AP, 3/2/07)
2007 Mar 2, In the jungles of
southern Thailand soldiers killed five suspected Muslim insurgents
during a raid on a weapons training camp.
(AP, 3/2/07)
2007 Mar 2, Venezuela accused US
anti-drug agents of collaborating with traffickers and rejected
Washington's allegations that rampant corruption has allowed illegal
drug smuggling to thrive in the South American country.
(AP, 3/3/07)
2008 Mar 2, Ayman al-Zawahri,
Al-Qaida's No. 2 leader, published "Exonerations," with al-Sahab,
al-Qaida's media wing, on militant Islamic Web sites. The book slams
radical militants who have disavowed armed struggle and turned their
backs on violence.
(AP, 3/2/08)
2008 Mar 2, Blind jazz guitarist
Jeff Healey (41), known for his blues-based rock and his distinctive
playing style, died in a Toronto hospital after a life-long battle with
cancer.
(Reuters, 3/3/08)
2008 Mar 2, Amaro da Costa, a
senior East Timorese rebel soldier, surrendered. He was accused of
being involved in last month's attacks on the country's president and
prime minister.
(Reuters, 3/2/08)
2008 Mar 2, In northern Honduras 8
people were shot dead at a billiards hall by gunmen disguised as
policemen in San Pedro Sula, a city plagued by violent gangs and drug
traffickers. Honduras last month began a nationwide effort to halt a
rising wave of violence and stem the flow of guns on the street.
(AP, 3/3/08)
2008 Mar 2, Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said his landmark visit to Iraq opened a new
chapter in "brotherly" relations between the two countries, which were
once bitter enemies. 13 gunmen were killed and eight were injured in
clashes with American and Iraqi forces in the town of Tal Afar. 2
police officers were also killed and four were injured. In two other
separate attacks in Diyala, police reported that five people were
killed when a roadside bomb hit a bus, while another assault killed a
patrolling police officer. The US military found a grave in Samarra
with 14 bodies, believed to be members of the Iraqi security forces
executed by al-Qaida in Iraq. A car bomb in Samarra had killed four
people, including one child. Police in Samarra, however, reported that
at least seven people were killed and 10 people were injured. In
central and northern Iraq US and Iraqi forces killed 9 suspected
insurgents and detained 44 others in raids targeting al-Qaida. 3 Iraqi
troops were killed in one of the operations. During the operation, the
SWAT teams found bomb-making materials, a rocket-propelled grenade
launcher, rifles, grenades, a landmine and ammunition.
(AP, 3/2/08)(AP, 3/3/08)(AP, 3/6/08)
2008 Mar 2, Israeli aircraft sent
missiles slamming into the office of the prime minister of Hamas-ruled
Gaza before dawn, pressing forward with an offensive that has killed
nearly 70 Palestinians in two days of fighting. A 21-month-old girl was
among the dead in new violence. The Israeli onslaught failed to stop
rockets from battering southern Israel. 9 were fired at southern Israel
by midday, including one that struck a house in Sderot.
(AP, 3/2/08)
2008 Mar 2, In northwestern
Pakistan a suicide bomber blew himself up at a large meeting called by
tribal elders pushing for peace, killing at least 40 people and
injuring more than 100 in Darra Adam Khel in North West Frontier
Province about 25 miles south of Peshawar.
(AP, 3/2/08)
2008 Mar 2, Russians voted for a
new president in an election likely to hand victory to First Deputy
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, President Vladimir Putin's chosen
successor, but criticized by the opposition for a lack of real
competition. With 99.45 percent of the votes counted, Medvedev had
70.23 percent.
(Reuters, 3/2/08)(AP, 3/3/08)
2008 Mar 2, In Sri Lanka artillery
exchanges left at least 25 Tamil rebels and two Sri Lankan soldiers
dead as Pres. Rajapakse vowed to destroy the separatist guerrillas.
(AFP, 3/3/08)
2008 Mar 2, Thais went to the
polls to vote in the country's first elections for the upper house of
Parliament since a 2006 military coup ousted elected PM Thaksin
Shinawatra.
(AP, 3/2/08)
2008 Mar 2, Venezuela and Ecuador
ordered troops to their borders with Colombia, sharply raising tensions
after Colombia killed a top rebel leader on Ecuadorean soil. Ecuadorean
troops recovered the seminude bodies of 15 rebels in their jungle camp.
Soldiers also found three wounded women at the camp, a Mexican
philosophy student injured by shrapnel and two Colombians, who were
evacuated by helicopter to be treated.
(AP, 3/3/08)
2009 Mar 2, The Obama
administration threw open the curtain on years of Bush-era secrets,
revealing anti-terror memos that claimed exceptional search-and-seizure
powers and divulging that the CIA destroyed nearly 100 videotapes of
interrogations and other treatment of terror suspects.
(AP, 3/2/09)
2009 Mar 2, The US government
unveiled a revamped rescue package to insurance giant American
International Group (AIG) and will provide the troubled company with
another $30 billion in taxpayer money on an "as needed" basis. The DJIA
fell 299.64 to close at 6763.29, falling below 7,000 for the first time
in 12 years.
(AP, 3/2/09)(WSJ, 3/3/09, p.A1)
2009 Mar 2, A massive late winter
snow storm roared out of the Southeast and into the Northeast
overnight, idling hundreds of flights and making the morning rush
treacherous as motorists contended with nearly a foot of snow in spots.
Some 950 flights were canceled at the three main New York area
airports, an almost 300 canceled in Philadelphia.
(AP, 3/2/09)(SFC, 3/3/09, p.A5)
2009 Mar 2, An asteroid named 2009
DD45, about the size of one that blasted Siberia a century ago, buzzed
by Earth. It measured between 69 feet and 154 feet in diameter and came
to 48,800 miles from Earth.
(AP, 3/4/09)
2009 Mar 2, A study by Oceana, a
worldwide environmental group, said food supplies for large ocean fish
were dwindling due to industrial fishing to supply fish farms. An
estimated 4 to 11 pounds of prey fish were being consumed to produce
one pound of farmed salmon.
(SFC, 3/3/09, p.B1)
2009 Mar 2, In southern Australia
rescuers used jet skis, backhoes and human muscle to save dozens of
whales and dolphins stranded on Naracoopa Beach on Tasmania state's
King Island. Rescuers refloated 54 whales and five bottlenose dolphins.
A total of 194 pilot whales and seven dolphins became stranded the
previous evening.
(AP, 3/2/09)(AP, 3/3/09)
2009 Mar 2, A Chinese man said he
was the mystery collector behind winning bids for two imperial bronzes
auctioned last week at Christie's over Beijing's objections, and that
he made the bogus offers to protest any sale of the looted relics. The
sculptures disappeared from the Summer Palace on the outskirts of
Beijing when French and British forces sacked and burned it at the end
of the second Opium War in 1860. The sculptures date to the early Qing
Dynasty, established by invading Manchu tribesmen in 1644. The
Christie's catalog said they were made for the Zodiac fountain at the
imperial palace.
(AP, 3/2/09)
2009 Mar 2, In China a top justice
official said courts will accept the cases of hundreds of families with
children sickened in last year's tainted milk scandal.
(AP, 3/3/09)
2009 Mar 2, Cuban President Raul
Castro's ousted powerful officials close to his brother Fidel in the
biggest government shakeup since he took power a year ago.
(AP, 3/3/09)
2009 Mar 2, At a donor’s
conference in Egypt Palestinian Pres. Mahmoud Abbas, seeking to shore
up his position against rival Hamas, asked international donors to
funnel millions of dollars through his government to rebuild the
devastated Gaza Strip. The gathering aimed to raise at least $2.8
billion from 80 donor nations and international organizations.
(AP, 3/2/09)
2009 Mar 2, In Guinea-Bissau
soldiers assassinated President Joao Bernardo "Nino" Vieira in his
palace hours after a bomb blast killed his rival. A pre-dawn gunfight
at the palace erupted hours after armed forces chief of staff Gen.
Batiste Tagme na Waie, a longtime rival of the president, was killed by
a bomb blast at his headquarters. The military insisted no coup was
taking place.
(AP, 3/2/09)
2009 Mar 2, Iran dismissed US
concerns about how much fissile material the country has produced,
saying it isn't developing a nuclear bomb and that any effort to make
weapons-grade uranium would be difficult under the eyes of
international inspectors.
(AP, 3/2/09)
2009 Mar 2, In Iraq Ali Hassan
al-Majid, aka “Chemical Ali,” was sentenced to death for a 3rd time,
following his conviction relating to the Feb 19, 1999, death of
ayatollah Mohammed Sadiq al-Sadr. Previous convictions related the
killing of Kurds in the late 1980s and the 1991 crackdown on Shiites in
southern Iraq.
(SFC, 3/3/09, p.A3)
2009 Mar 2, In Morocco Hassan Al
Haski (41), a Moroccan man already convicted over the 2004 Madrid
bombings, was sentenced on appeal to 10 years in jail for his role in
suicide attacks the year before in Casablanca that killed 45 people.
(AFP, 3/3/09)
2009 Mar 2, In Pakistan a suicide
bomber killed at least five people and wounded seven others at a
religious school in southwestern Kili Karbala village in Pishin
district.
(AFP, 3/2/09)
2009 Mar 2, In Peru's southern
province of Puno 10 people were killed dead and 16 left missing at a
remote mining camp buried by a mudslide.
(AP, 3/3/09)
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