Also on this date
In 1781,
the Continental Congress declared the Articles of Confederation to be in force, following ratification by Maryland.
In 1954,
the United States detonated a dry-fuel hydrogen bomb, codenamed Castle Bravo, at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands.
In 1957,
“The Cat in the Hat” by Dr. Seuss was released to bookstores by Random House.
In 1961,
President John F. Kennedy signed an executive order establishing the Peace Corps.
In 1968,
Johnny Cash married June Carter at the First Methodist Church in Franklin, Kentucky.
In 1971,
a bomb went off inside a men’s room at the U.S. Capitol; the radical group Weather Underground claimed responsibility for the pre-dawn blast.
In 1974,
seven people, including former Nixon White House aides H.R. Haldeman and John D. Ehrlichman, former Attorney General John Mitchell and former assistant Attorney General Robert Mardian, were indicted on charges of conspiring to obstruct justice in connection with the Watergate breakin. (All four were convicted in January 1975; Mardian’s conviction was later reversed.)
In 2005,
Dennis Rader, accused of leading a double life as the BTK serial killer, was charged in Wichita, Kansas, with 10 counts of firstdegree murder. (Rader later pleaded guilty and received multiple life sentences.)
In 2005,
the Supreme Court outlawed the death penalty for juvenile criminals.
In 2010,
Jay Leno returned as host of NBC’s “The Tonight Show.”
Ten years ago:
Yemen’s embattled president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, accused the U.S., his closest ally, of instigating the mounting protests against him, but the gambit failed to slow the momentum of his ouster.
Five years ago:
In the Super Tuesday primaries and caucuses, Republican Donald Trump won Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Vermont and Virginia; Democrat Hillary Clinton won Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.
One year ago:
State officials said New York City had its first confirmed case of the coronavirus, a woman in her late 30s who had contracted the virus while traveling in Iran.