OOps

March 1

293 – Roman Emperors Diocletian and Maximian appoint Constantius Chlorus (later Constantine the 1st) and Galerius as Caesars. This is considered the beginning of the Tetrarchy, known as the Quattuor Principes Mundi  -Four Rulers of the World.

1633 – Samuel de Champlain reclaims his role as commander of New France, which covered most of central and northeastern North America, on behalf of Cardinal Richelieu.

1692 – Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne and Tituba are brought before local magistrates in Salem Village, Massachusetts, beginning the Salem witch trials.

1781 – The Articles of Confederation goes into effect forming the first national government of the United States.

1790 – The first United States census is authorized.

1805 – Justice Samuel Chase is acquitted at the end of his impeachment trial by the U.S. Senate.

1836 – A convention of delegates from 57 Texas communities convenes in Washington on the Brazos, Texas, to deliberate independence from Mexico.

1845 – President John Tyler signs a Joint Resolution of Congress authorizing the United States to annex the Republic of Texas which occurred at the end of the year.

1867 – Nebraska is admitted as the 37th U.S. state.

1872 – President Ulysses S. Grant signs the Yellowstone National Park Protection Act into law creating Yellowstone as the first ‘national park’.

1893 – Electrical engineer Nikola Tesla gives the first public demonstration of radio in St. Louis.

1896 – Henri Becquerel discovers radioactive decay.

1910 – The deadliest avalanche in United States history buries a Great Northern Railway train in northeastern King County, Washington, killing 96 people.

1912 – U.S. Army Captain Albert Berry performs the first static line type parachute jump from an airplane. No information is known about whether he knew the difference between a PLF and a PFL.

1917 – The Zimmermann Telegram is reprinted in newspapers across the United States after the U.S. government releases its unencrypted text.

1932 – Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr.,  the 20 month old son of aviators Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh, is kidnapped from his home.

1947 – The International Monetary Fund begins financial operations.

1950 – German born, allied atomic bomb scientist, Klaus Fuchs is convicted of spying for the Soviet Union for disclosing top secret atomic bomb data.

1954 – The U.S. Castle Bravo test detonates a thermonuclear hydrogen device on Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. An unforeseen nuclear reaction of the components results in a 15 megaton blast, 2 1/2 times the expected power, the most powerful nuclear device ever detonated by the U.S.

1954 – Armed Puerto Rican nationalists attack the United States Capitol building, wounding five Representatives.

1956 – The International Air Transport Association finalizes a draft of the Radiotelephony spelling alphabet for the International Civil Aviation Organization. NATO military allies quickly adopt the new phonetic alphabet.

1961–  President Kennedy establishes the Peace Corps.

1966 – The Venera 3 Soviet space probe crashes on Venus becoming the first spacecraft to land on another planet’s surface.

1974 – A Federal grand jury in Washington, D.C. indicts several former aides of President Nixon, known as the “Watergate Seven” for conspiring to hinder the Watergate burglary investigation. The grand jury also secretly names Nixon as an unindicted co-conspirator.

1991 – A popular insurgency against Saddam Hussein begins in Iraq but lacking international support, ultimately fails a month later.

1992 – Bosnia and Herzegovina declares its independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

2002 – In the Shahi-Kot Valley and Arma Mountains southeast of Zormat in eastern Afghanistan, U.S. forces begin an invasion –Operation Anaconda– to engage and destroy Taliban and Al Qaeda forces.

2003 – Management of the United States Customs Service and the United States Secret Service move to the United States Department of Homeland Security.

2005 – In the case of Roper v. Simmons, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that the execution of juveniles found guilty of murder is unconstitutional.

2007 – Tornadoes break out across the southern United States, killing at least 20 people, including 8 at Enterprise Alabama High School.