General events on March 2nd

In 1824, interstate commerce comes under federal control as a result of the steamboat case, Gibbons v. Ogden.
In 1829, the New England Asylum for the Blind, now known as The Perkins School For The Blind, was the first such that opened in Boston, Mass by John Dix Fisher.
In 1863, Congress authorizes a track width of 4' 8 1/2" as the standard for the Union Pacific Railroad (becomes the accepted width for most of the world).
In 1866, Excelsior Needle Company of Wolcottville, Connecticut, began making sewing machine needles.
In 1903, The Martha Washington Hotel opened for business in New York City. The hotel featured 416 rooms and was the first hotel exclusively for women.
In 1949, the first automatic street light was installed in New Milford, CT.
In 1959, A NEW KIND OF TELEPHONE Connecticut-based Southern New England Telephone is testing an experimental push-button phone in the New Haven area, to see if customers dial fewer wrong numbers
In 1970, American Airlines had its first flight of a Boeing 747.
In 1976, Walt Disney World logged in its 50,000,000th guest.
In 1984, the first McDonald's franchise was closed in Des Plaines, IL on this day. After 30 years of selling burgers, Mickey D's opened a new drive-in restaurant right across the McStreet.
In 1987, 15 years ago, 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 -- beating the odds there, to be sure. Maybe both families will get together and play a game of hoops on Pay-Per-View in the next few years.
In 1990, more than 6,000 drivers and thousands of other employees went on strike against Greyhound, the only nationwide intercity bus line. (the company, later declaring an impasse in negotiations, fired the strikers).
In 1993, junk-bond swindler Michael Milken was released on probation.
In 1995, The last UN peacekeepers in Somalia were evacuated.
In 1995, British trader Nick Leeson, blamed for the collapse of Barings PLC, was detained in Germany.
In 1998, Microsoft revises browser promo deals with Internet Service providers. Providers that have deals with Microsoft will be allowed to promote browsers made by competitors. They still cannot promote a competitor more heavily than Microsoft's Internet Explorer.
In 1998, The Justice Department told an appeals court Monday Microsoft Corp. broke a promise and used monopoly power to force its Web browsing software on personal computer makers.
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Government and Politics on March 2nd

In 1793, the first president of the Republic of Texas, Sam Houston, was born near Lexington, Virginia. He was responsible for winning control of Texas from Mexico.
In 1799, Congress standardized U.S. weights & measures.
In 1807, an act of Congress making slave importation into the U.S. illegal is passed (effective 1/1/1808).
In 1819, the territory of Arkansas was organized.
In 1819, the U.S. passes its first immigration law.
In 1833, the Force Bill becomes law, giving the president the right to use federal troops to collect custom duties in North Carolina.
In 1836, Fifty-nine citizens of Mexico found the Republic of Texas.
In 1836, Texas declared its independence from Mexico.
In 1853, Washington Territory was organized after separation from the Oregon Territory.
In 1861, the Dakota & Nevada territories were carved by Congress out of Nebraska & Utah territories respectively.
In 1867, Congress passes the first Reconstruction Act over President Johnson's veto.
In 1867, U.S. Congress created the Department of Education.
In 1877, 125 years ago, Republican Rutherford B. Hayes was declared the winner of the 1876 presidential election over Democrat Samuel J. Tilden, even though Tilden had won the popular vote and was just one electoral vote shy of victory. (A special commission awarded 20 disputed electoral votes to Hayes, making him the winner.), after the most openly corrupt national election up to that time.
In 1889, the Kansas legislature passed the first antitrust law in the U.S.
In 1897, President Cleveland vetoed legislation that would have required a literacy test for immigrants.
In 1899, Congress established Mount Ranier National Park, the fifth such park in the U.S.
In 1917, the Jones Act passed and made Puerto Rico's citizens U.S. citizens by making Puerto Rico a U.S. territory.
In 1923, Italy, Mussolini admits that women have a right to vote, but declares that the time is not right.
In 1925, Japan's House of Delegates recognizes universal male rights.
In 1925, 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.
In 1929, the U.S. Court of Customs and Patent Appeals is created by Congress.
In 1937, Mexico nationalized oil.
In 1946, Ho Chi Minh is elected president of the Democratic Republic of (North) Vietnam.
In 1956, Morocco tears up the Treaty of Fez, declares independence from France.
In 1958, Yemen announces it would join the United Arab Republic.
In 1968, Lyndon B. Johnson watches as the Lockheed Galaxy, world's largest airplane, rolls off the assembly line in Georgia.
In 1970, Rhodesia becomes independent republic.
In 1970, Timothy Leary, former Harvard psychology professor and LSD advocate, is given 10 years for smuggling marijuana.
In 1974, A grand jury in Washington, D.C. concludes that President Nixon was indeed involved in the Watergate cover-up.
In 1974, First Class postage was raised to 10 cents from 8 cents. Guess eight wasn't enough after all.
In 1977, 25 years ago, the U.S. House of Representatives adopted a strict code of ethics that limited outside earnings and required detailed financial disclosures by its members.
In 1985, the government approved a screening test for AIDS that detected antibodies to the virus, allowing possibly contaminated blood to be excluded from the blood supply.
In 1988, the U.N. General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to order the U.S. to submit to binding arbitration its plan to close the observer mission of the Palestinian Liberation Organization. (A federal court later stopped the U.S. from closing the mission.).
In 1989, representatives from the 12 European Community nations agreed to ban all production of chlorofluorocarbons by the end of this century.
In 1992, 10 years ago, a jury was seated in Simi Valley, California, in the assault trial of four Los Angeles police officers charged with beating motorist Rodney King.
In 1992, 10 years ago, the U.N. General Assembly welcomed eight former Soviet republics and San Marino as its newest members.
In 1992, 10 years ago, President Bush vetoed a bill linking improvements in human rights to continued most-favored-nation trade status for China.
In 1994, six senoir White House officials appeared in court regarding Bill Clinton's involvement in an Arkansas land deal. Controversy is known as the Whitewater scandal.
In 1994, William Natcher, (Rep-D-Ky), casts his 18,401 & last consecutive vote.
In 1995, The Senate rejected the balanced-budget amendment, 65 in favor, 35 against, two votes shy of the two-thirds majority needed for passage.
In 1995, the balanced budget amendment failed in the Senate after passing the House of Representatives.
In 1996, Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole reignited his presidential campaign with an overwhelming victory in the South Carolina Republican primary.
In 1997, 5 years ago, 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.
In 1998, A New Jersey state appeals court ruled that the Boy Scouts of America discriminated against an assistant scoutmaster when it ousted him for being gay. The Superior Court appellate panel rejected arguments by the Boy Scouts the organization was protected by a constitutional right of free association and was exempt as a private, voluntary association from anti-discrimination laws.
In 1999, Conservative commentator Pat Buchanan launched a third White House bid. Texas Governor George W. Bush announced he was forming a presidential exploratory committee.
In 1999, Texas Governor George W. Bush announced he was forming a presidential exploratory committee.
In 2000, 2 years ago, 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.
In 2000, 2 years ago, 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.)
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War, Crime and Disaster events on March 2nd

In 1865, Gen Early's army is defeated at Waynesborough.
In 1899, President McKinley signed a measure creating the rank of'Admiral of the Navy for Admiral George Dewey.
In 1915, Vladmir Jabotinsky forms a Jewish military force to fight in Palestine.
In 1933, the most powerful earthquake in the last 180 years strikes Japan (8.9 on the Richter scale).
In 1943, the center of Berlin is bombed by the RAF. Some 900 tons of bombs are dropped in a half hour.
In 1943, the World War II Battle of the Bismarck Sea began as American and Australian warplanes intercepted a Japanese convoy that was enroute to Lae, New Guinea. Most of the 16-vessel convoy was destroyed and 3,000 men killed.
In 1944, Gen. MacArthur returns to his headquarters on Leyte.
In 1944, Fumes from locomotive stalled in a tunnel suffocated 521 people near Salerno, Italy.
In 1945, 8th Air Force bombs Dresden.
In 1945, MacArthur raises the U.S. flag on Corregidor in the Philippines.
In 1945, toward the close of World War II, units of the U.S. 9th Army reached the Rhine River opposite Dusseldorf, Germany.
In 1951, The U.S. Navy launches the K-1, the first modern submarine designed to hunt enemy submarines.
In 1970, the Supreme Court rules draft evaders can not be penalized after five years.
In 1981, the United States announced it was sending 20 military advisers and $25 million in equipment to El Salvador.
In 1984, Iran offensive against Iraq fails.
In 1989, Exxon Houston runs aground in Hawaii, spills 117,000 gallons of oil.
In 1990, a grenade attack on a discotheque in Panama claimed the life of a U.S. soldier and injured 28 other people.
In 1991, The U.N. 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.
In 1991, Iraq released CBS newsman Bob Simon and his crew, held captive for nearly six weeks.
In 1991, a four-man CBS News crew captured by Iraq during the Persian Gulf War was released.
In 1991, Yugoslavia's Federal Army was sent to Croatia to protect Serbs after violence erupted between Croatian security forces and villagers.
In 1993, 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.
In 1993, six youngsters were shot dead as gunmen opened fire at point-blank range on a truck transporting school children in South Africa's strife-torn Natal province.
In 1994, the government of Mexico and Indian rebels reached a tentative accord on most insurgent demands for the ending the rebellion, including sweeping political reforms.
In 1995, Ferry boat sinks off Sumbe Angola, 42+ killed.
In 1996, all five members of the hot Brazilian rock group Mamonas Assassinas were killed in a plane crash near Sao Paolo, Brazil.
In 1997, 5 years ago, a state of emergency was declared in Albania amid public unrest triggered by the collapse of pyramid funds in which many people had invested.
In 1998, The UN Security Council unanimously endorsed Secretary-General Kofi Annan's deal to open Iraq's presidential palaces to arms inspectors.
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