Today, March 2

537 – The Ostrogoth army under King Vitiges begins the first siege of Rome.

1498 – Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama’s fleet lands at the Island of Mozambique, off north central Mozambique proper.

1776 – Patriot militia units arrest the Royal Governor of Georgia, James Wright, and attempt to prevent capture of supply ships in the ‘Battle of the Rice Boats’ up the Savannah river on the border between Georgia and South Carolina.
On the west side of British occupied Boston, at Lechmere’s Point and Cobble Hill, Continental troops under command of George Washington emplace cannon and begin shelling the city, using that as a diversion to begin construction of fortifications for more cannon on Dorchester Heights, during the nights of March 2 and 3.

1778 – Nathanael Greene is appointed Quartermaster General of the Continental Army under George Washington

1807 – Congress passes An Act to prohibit the importation of slaves…, disallowing the importation of new slaves into the country.

1836 – The Declaration of Independence of the Republic of Texas from Mexico is adopted by the delegates in convention at Washington on the Brazos, Texas.

1867 – The U.S. Congress passes the first Reconstruction Act.

1877 – Just 2 days before the mandated date of inauguration, Congress declares Rutherford B. Hayes the winner of the 1876 presidential election even though Samuel J. Tilden had won the popular vote.

1901 – Congress passes the Platt Amendment to the 1901 Army Appropriations Bill, limiting the autonomy of Cuba to conduct foreign affairs except under U.S. dominance, as a condition of the withdrawal of American troops from occupation since the end of the Spanish-American War.

1903 – In New York City the Martha Washington Hotel opens, becoming the first hotel exclusively for women.

1917 – President Wilson signs the Jones–Shafroth Act into law, granting U.S. citizenship to anyone born in Puerto Rico on or after April 11, 1899.

1919 – The Comintern – Communist International – meets in Moscow for the first time.

1949 – The U.S. Air Force having fitted the new aircraft for inflight refueling, Captain James Gallagher lands his B-50 Superfortress Lucky Lady II in Fort Worth, Texas, after completing the first nonstop around the world airplane flight in 94 hours and one minute, just short of 4 days of constant flight.

1965 – The US and Republic of Vietnam Air Force begin Operation Rolling Thunder, a sustained bombing campaign against North Vietnam.

1972 – Pioneer 10 is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida with a mission to explore the outer planets.

1983 – Compact discs and players are released for the first time in the United States and other markets.

1991 – Having been fired upon by retreating units of the Iraqi Republican Guards, units of the U.S. 24th Infantry division engage and nearly wipe out the Iraqi force near the Rumaila oil fields, in the Euphrates Valley of southern Iraq.

1995 – Using the Collider Detector and DZero detector devices for experiments with the Tevatron Collider at Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois, researchers announce the detection of the t ‘top’ quark subatomic particle.

1998 – Data sent from the Galileo spacecraft indicates that Jupiter’s moon Europa (Attempt No Landing There) has a liquid ocean under a thick crust of ice.

2012 – A tornado outbreak occurs over a large section of the Southern United States and into the Ohio Valley region, resulting in 40 fatalities.