TODAY IN WORLD HISTORY
Today is Saturday, March 4, the 63rd day of 2017. There are 302 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History On March 4, 1917, Republican Jeannette Rankin of Montana took her seat as the first woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, the same day President Woodrow Wilson took his oath of office for a second term (it being a Sunday, a private ceremony was held inside the U.S. Capitol; a second, public swearing-in took place the next day).
On this date • In 1789, the Constitution of the United States went into effect as the first Federal Congress met in New York. (The lawmakers then adjourned for lack of a quorum.)
• In 1797, John Adams was inaugurated the second president of the United States.
• In 1837, the Illinois town of Chicago was incorporated as a city with a population of 4,170.
• In 1925, President Calvin Coolidge’s inauguration was broadcast live on 21 radio stations coast-to-coast.
• In 1940, Kings Canyon National Park in California was established.
• In 1952, Ronald Reagan and Nancy Davis were married in San Fernando Valley, California.
• In 1987, President Ronald Reagan addressed the nation on the Iran-Contra affair, acknowledging that his overtures to Iran had “deteriorated” into an armsfor-hostages deal.
On March 5 • In 1770, the Boston Massacre took place as British soldiers who’d been taunted by a crowd of colonists opened fire, killing five people.
• In 1868, the U.S. Senate was organized into a Court of Impeachment to decide charges against President Andrew Johnson, who was later acquitted.
• In 1946, Winston Churchill delivered his “Iron Curtain” speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, in which he said: “From Stettin in the Baltic, to Trieste in the Adriatic, an ‘iron curtain’ has descended across the continent, allowing police governments to rule Eastern Europe.”
• In 1953, Soviet dictator Josef Stalin died after three decades in power. Composer Sergei Prokofiev died in Moscow at age 61.
• In 1963, country music performers Patsy Cline, Cowboy Copas and Hawkshaw Hawkins died in the crash of their plane, a Piper Comanche, near Camden, Tennessee, along with pilot Randy Hughes (Cline’s manager).
• In 1970, the Treaty on the NonProliferation of Nuclear Weapons went into effect after 43 nations ratified it.
• In 1982, comedian John Belushi was found dead of a drug overdose in a rented bungalow in Hollywood; he was 33.
On March 6 • In 1836, the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, fell to Mexican forces after a 13-day siege.
• In 1933, a national bank holiday declared by President Franklin D. Roosevelt aimed at calming panicked depositors went into effect. Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak, wounded in an attempt on Roosevelt’s life the previous month, died at a Miami hospital at age 59.
• In 1944, U.S. heavy bombers staged the first full-scale American raid on Berlin during World War II.
• In 1953, Georgy Malenkov was named premier of the Soviet Union a day after the death of Josef Stalin.
• In 1967, the daughter of Josef Stalin, Svetlana Alliluyeva (ahlee-loo-YAY’-vah), appeared at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi and declared her intention to defect to the West.
• In 1981, Walter Cronkite signed off for the last time as principal anchorman of “The CBS Evening News.”
• In 1997, a gunman stole a million-dollar Picasso portrait (”Tete de Femme”) from a London gallery. (The painting was recovered and two suspects arrested a week later.) Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II launched the first official royal website.