March 3
It’s I Want You to be Happy Day and If Pets Had Thumbs Day and National Anthem Day and Peach Blossom Day
ON THIS DAY…
1791 The US Congress passed a resolution that created the US Mint
1812 The US Congress passed the first foreign aid bill
1817 The Alabama Territory is created by splitting the Mississippi Territory
1820 The US Congress passes the Missouri Compromise, an agreement between the pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions in the US Congress, involving primarily the regulation of slavery in the western territories
1844 Congress appropriates $30,000 to introduce camels into the Southwest
1845 Florida becomes the 27th state to join the US when President John Tyler (on the last day of his administration) signs into law the act granting statehood to Florida’s 57,921 inhabitants
1845 The US Congress passed legislation overriding a U.S. Presidents veto; it was the first time the Congress had achieved this
1849 The US Department of the Interior was established
1849 The US Congress created the territory of Minnesota
1863 Free city delivery of mail was authorized by the US Postal Service
1863 The National Academy of Sciences was chartered in the US as President Abraham Lincoln approved the Act of Congress which established it
1873 The US Congress enacts the Comstock Law, making it illegal to send any “obscene, lewd, or lascivious” books through the mail
1875 The Georges Bizet opera Carmen premiered in Paris
1879 The office of director of the US Geological Survey was authorized by Congress
1883 The first steel vessels of the US Navy were authorized by Congress
1885 The US Post Office began offering special delivery for first-class mail
1887 Helen Keller first met her teacher Anne Sullivan
1892 The first tuberculosis test on cattle in the U.S. was made by Dr. Leonard Pearson with tuberculin that he had brought from Europe
1901 The office of Standards, Weights and Measures was created by an act of Congress
1903 In St. Louis, MO, Barney Gilmore was arrested for spitting
1903 The US imposed a $2.00 head tax on immigrants
1908 The US government declared open war on on US anarchists
1915 The Birth of a Nation is released in the US
1919 The first US international airmail service began
1923 The first issue of Timemagazine was published
1924 H.P. Lovecraft weds Sonia Haft Shifirkin Greene
1931 “The Star-Spangled Banner,” a British drinking song (“Defense of Fort McHenry”) with new lyrics by Francis Scott Key on the theme of resisting the Brits, becomes the national anthem of the United States
1933 The Fatal Glass of Beer starring W.C. Fields is released in the US
1933 The Mount Rushmore National Memorial is dedicated
1938 Oil is discovered in Saudi Arabia
1940 The first installment of the serial Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe starring Buster Crabbe is released in the US
1943 “The Milton Berle Show” premiered on radio
1945 Superman encountered Batman and Robin for the first time on the Mutual Broadcasting System
1959 The San Francisco Giants had their new stadium officially named Candlestick Park
1969 Apollo 9 was launched from Cape Kennedy on a mission to test the lunar module
1969 Sirhan Sirhan testified in a Los Angeles court that he killed Robert Kennedy
1978 Sextette starring Mae West, Timothy Dalton…and Regis Philbin…opens in the US
1985 The TV show Moonlighting premiered
BORN:
1709 Andreas Sigismund Marggraf, chemist whose discovery of beet sugar in 1747 led to the development of the modern sugar industry
1751 Pierre Prévost, philosopher and physicist who first showed that all bodies radiate heat, no matter how hot or cold they are
1831 George Pullman, industrialist and inventor of the Pullman sleeping car for use on railroads
1838 George William Hill, mathematical astronomer considered by many of his peers to be the greatest master of celestial mechanics of his time
1841 Sir John Murray, naturalist who, as one of its founders, coined the name oceanography
1847 Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone
1878 Elmer McCollum, biochemist who originated the letter system of naming vitamins
1911 Jean Harlow, actress (The Public Enemy, Red Dust, Dinner at Eight)
1920 James Doohan, actor (Star Trek, Jason of Star Command)
1937 Bobby Driscoll, actor (Treasure Island, Song of the South, Pecos Bill and his voice was used for Walt Disney’s feature Peter Pan)
1952 Dermot Morgan, comedian-actor (Father Ted)
1958 Marc Silvestri, comic book artist, creator and publisher (X-Men, Witchblade, The Darkness)
1958 Miranda Richardson, BAFTA Award-winning actress (Damage, Sleepy Hollow, Harry Potter, Blackadder II, Dance with a Stranger)
1974 David Faustino, actor (Married with Children)
1982 Jessica Biel, “actress” (7th Heaven, Blade: Trinity, The Illusionist)
DIED:
1959 Lou Costello, actor-comedian (The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock, The Abbott and Costello Show, Jack and the Beanstalk), dies at 52
1966 William Frawley, actor best remembered as Fred Mertz on TV’s I Love Lucy, dies at 79
1966 Alice Pearce, best remembered as nosy neighbor Gladys Kravitz on TVs Bewitched, dies at 49
1983 Hergé (Georges Prosper Remi), comics writer and artist whose best-known and most substantial work is The Adventures of Tintin, dies at 75
1987 Danny Kaye, actor-singer (The Court Jester, The Kid from Brooklyn, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty), dies at 74
1991 William Penney, nuclear physicist who led Britain’s development of the atomic bomb, dies at 81
1993 Albert Bruce Sabin, physician and microbiologist best known for developing the first oral polio vaccine, which was administered to millions of children in Europe, Africa, and the Americas beginning in the late 1950’s, dies at 86