Today in history

On March 2, 1836, Texas declared its independence from Mexico.

In 1877 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.

In 1897 President Grover Cleveland vetoed legislation that would have required a literacy test for immigrants.

In 1899 Mount Rainier National Park in Washington state was established.

In 1917 Puerto Ricans were granted U.S. citizenship.

In 1923 Time magazine made its debut.

In 1933 the motion picture “King Kong,” starring Fay Wray, had its world premiere in New York.

In 1939 Roman Catholic Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli was elected pope; he took the name Pius XII. Also in 1939, the Massachusetts legislature voted to ratify the Bill of Rights, 147 years after the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution had gone into effect.

In 1943 the World War II Battle of the Bismarck Sea began.

In 1949 an American B-50 Superfortress, the Lucky Lady II, landed at Fort Worth, Texas, after completing the first nonstop round-theworld flight.

In 1977 the U.S. House 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 1989 representatives from the 12 European Community nations at the time agreed to ban all production of chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, by the end of this century.

In 1991 Iraq released CBS newsman Bob Simon and his crew, held captive for nearly six weeks.

In 1992 a jury was seated in Simi Valley, Calif., in the assault trial of four Los Angeles police officers charged with beating motorist Rodney King. Also in 1992, the U.N. General Assembly welcomed eight former Soviet republics and San Marino as its newest members.

In 1995 the Mexican government and Zapatista rebels reached a tentative agreement to end the peasant uprising that the rebels launched two months before in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas.

In 2000 former Chilean dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet left Britain for his homeland, hours after he was ruled mentally unfit to stand trial on charges of human rights abuses.

In 2003 Iraq crushed another six Al-Samoud 2 missiles, as ordered by U.N. weapons inspectors.

In 2004 a series of coordinated blasts in Iraq killed 181 people at shrines in Karbala and Baghdad as thousands of Shiite Muslim pilgrims gathered for a religious festival. Also in 2004, former WorldCom CEO Bernard Ebbers was charged with falsifying the books at the long-distance company.