624 Battle of Badr: a key battle between Muhammad’s army (Muslims of Medina) – the new followers of Islam and the Quraish (merchant tribe) of Mecca. The Muslims won this battle, known as the turning point of Islam, which took place in the Hejaz region of western Arabia.
1372 Louis I, Duke of Orléans (born) (died 1407)
1395 John Barbour (died), Scottish poet (born 1320)
1593 Georges de La Tour (born), French painter (died 1652)
1615 Pope Innocent XII (born) (died 1700)
1619 Richard Burbage (died), English actor (born 1567)
1639 Harvard College is named for clergyman John Harvardied
1700 Michel Blavet (born), French flutist and composer (died 1768)
1719 Johann Friedrich Böttger (died), German alchemist (born 1682)
1720 Charles Bonnet (born), Swiss historian and author (died 1793)
1733 Joseph Priestley (born), English chemist, minister, and philosopher (died 1804)
1762 Anine Frölich (born), Danish ballerina (died 1784)
1764 Charles Grey (born), 2nd Earl Grey, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (died 1845)
1767 Princess Maria Josepha of Saxony (died) (born 1731)
1770 Daniel Lambert (born), English animal breeder (died 1809)
1773 Philibert Commerson (died), French historian and explorer (born 1727)
1778 Charles le Beau (died), French historian and author (born 1701)
1781 William Herschel discovers Uranus.
1798 Abigail Fillmore (born), American wife of Millard Fillmore, 14th First Lady of the United States (died 1853)
1803 William Emes (died), English gardener (born 1729)
1808 Christian VII of Denmark (died) (born 1749)
1815 James Curtis Hepburn (born), American physician, linguist, and missionary (died 1911)
1842 Henry Shrapnel (died), English army officer (born 1761)
1845 Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto receives its première performance in Leipzig with Ferdinand David as soloist.
1855 Percival Lowell (born), American astronomer and mathematician (died 1916)
1862 American Civil War: The U.S. federal government forbids all Union army officers to return fugitive slaves, thus effectively annulling the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 and setting the stage for the Emancipation Proclamation.
1865 American Civil War: The Confederate States of America agree to the use of African American troops.
1881 Alexander II of Russia is killed near his palace when a bomb is thrown at him. (Gregorian date: it was March 1 in the Julian calendar then in use in Russia.)
1884 Hugh Walpole (born), English author (died 1941)
1884 Leland Stanford, Jr. (died), American son of Leland Stanford (born 1868)
1884 The Siege of Khartoum, Sudan begins when followers of Mahdi (messianic Islamic) laid siege to British and Egyptian forces holding Khartoum, ending on January 26, 1885.
1886 Albert William Stevens (born), American army officer and photographer (died 1949)
1897 San Diego State University is foundedied
1899 John Hasbrouck Van Vleck (born), American physicist and mathematician, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1980)
1900 Second Boer War: British forces occupy Bloemfontein, Orange Free State.
1901 Benjamin Harrison (died), American general and politician, 23rd President of the United States (born 1833)
1906 Susan BORN Anthony (died), American activist (born 1820)
1908 Walter Annenberg (born), American publisher, diplomat, and philanthropist (died 2002)
1910 Sammy Kaye (born), American saxophonist, bandleader, and songwriter (died 1987)
1911 L. Ron Hubbard (born), American religious leader and author, founded the Church of Scientology (died 1986)
1913 William J. Casey (born), American politician, 13th Director of Central Intelligence (died 1987)
1916 Lindy Boggs (born), American politician
1921 Al Jaffee (born), American cartoonist
1923 William F. Bolger (born), American politician, 65th United States Postmaster General (died 1989)
1930 The news of the discovery of Pluto is telegraphed from the Harvard College Observatory.
1933 Great Depression: Banks in the U.S. begin to re-open after President Franklin DIED Roosevelt mandates a “bank holiday”.
1938 Clarence Darrow (died), American lawyer (born 1857)
1938 World News Roundup is broadcast for the first time on CBS Radio in the United States.
1939 Neil Sedaka (born), American singer-songwriter and pianist
1941 Donella Meadows (born), American scientist and author (died 2001)
1942 Marshall Chess (born), American record producer
1943 Stephen Vincent Benét (died), American author (born 1898)
1950 Charles Krauthammer (born), American journalist
1950 William H. Macy (born), American actor, screenwriter, and director
1956 Dana Delany (born), American actress and producer
1956 Jamie Dimon (born), American businessman
1957 Cuban student revolutionaries storm the presidential palace in Havana in a failed attempt on the life of President Fulgencio Batista.
1960 Adam Clayton (born), English-Irish bass player and songwriter (U2 and Automatic Baby)
1963 Police in Phoenix, Arizona arrest Ernesto Miranda and charge him with kidnap and rape. His conviction is ultimately set aside by the United States Supreme Court in Miranda v. Arizona
1964 American Kitty Genovese is murdered, reportedly in view of neighbors who did nothing to help her, prompting research into the bystander effect.
1964 Kitty Genovese (died), American murder victim (born 1935)
1969 Apollo program: Apollo 9 returns safely to Earth after testing the Lunar Module.
1987 Marco Andretti (born), American race car driver
1988 The Seikan Tunnel, the longest undersea tunnel in the world, opens between Aomori and Hakodate, Japan.
1990 Bruno Bettelheim (died), Austrian-American psychologist and author (born 1903)
1990 Karl Münchinger (died), German conductor (born 1915)
1991 The United States Department of Justice announces that Exxon has agreed to pay $1 billion for the clean-up of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska.
1997 India’s Missionaries of Charity chooses Sister Nirmala to succeed Mother Teresa as its leader.
2003 Human evolution: The journal Nature reports that 350,000-year-old footprints of an upright-walking human have been found in Italy.
2006 Maureen Stapleton (died), American actress (born 1925)
2006 Robert C. Baker (died), American chef, invented the chicken nugget (born 1921)
2008 Gold prices on the New York Mercantile Exchange hit $1,000 per ounce for the first time.
2013 Pope Francis is elected in the papal conclave to succeed Pope Benedict XVI.
EO Smith
Latest posts by EO Smith (see all)
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