Today in History: March 1

By: Times-Dispatch Staff | Times-Dispatch
Published: March 01, 2011

March 1, 1961 President John F. Kennedy signed an executive order establishing the Peace Corps.

1790 President George Washington signed a measure authorizing the first U.S. Census.

1809 The Illinois Territory came into existence.

1811 In what became known as the Massacre of the Citadel, hundreds of warriors known as Mamluks were slain in Cairo by forces loyal to Ottoman governor Muhammad Ali.

1867 Nebraska became the 37th state.

1872 President Ulysses S. Grant signed an act creating Yellowstone National Park.

1931 Memphis, Tenn., held its first Cotton Carnival.

1932 Charles A. Lindbergh Jr., the 20-month-old son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh, was kidnapped from the family home near Hopewell, N.J. (Remains identified as those of the child were found the next May.)

1954 Nationalists from Puerto Rico opened fire from the gallery of the U.S. House of Representatives, wounding five congressmen.

1971 A bomb went off in a men's room at the U.S. Capitol; the radical group Weather Underground claimed responsibility for the pre-dawn blast.

1981 Irish Republican Army member Bobby Sands began a hunger strike at the Maze Prison in Northern Ireland; he died 65 days later.

Ten years ago Afghanistan's ruling Taliban, defying international protests, began destroying all statues in the country. Seven foreign oil workers (a Chilean, an Argentine, a New Zealander and four Americans) who had been kidnapped the previous October in Ecuador's jungle were freed after a ransom was reportedly paid.

Five years ago President George W. Bush, en route to India and Pakistan, made a surprise visit to Afghanistan to show U.S. support for the country's fledgling democracy.

One year ago Wartime Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, defending himself against charges of Europe's worst genocide since the Holocaust, told judges in his slow-moving trial that he was not the barbarian depicted by U.N. prosecutors but was protecting his people against a fundamentalist Muslim plot. Jay Leno returned as host of NBC's "The Tonight Show."

Today's birthdays Actor Robert Clary is 85. Singer Harry Belafonte is 84. Former U.S. Solicitor General Robert H. Bork is 84. Actor Robert Conrad is 76. Rock singer Mike D'Abo (Manfred Mann) is 67. Former Sen. John Breaux, D-La., is 67. Rock singer Roger Daltrey is 67. Actor Dirk Benedict is 66. Actor Alan Thicke is 64. Actor-director Ron Howard is 57. Actress Catherine Bach is 57. Country singer Janis Gill (aka Janis Oliver Cummins) (Sweethearts of the Rodeo) is 57. Actor Tim Daly is 55. Musician Jon Carroll is 54. Rock musician Bill Leen is 49. Actor Maurice Bernard is 48. Actor Russell Wong is 48. Actor John David Cullum is 45. Actor George Eads is 44. Actor Javier Bardem is 42. Actor Jack Davenport is 38. Rock musician Ryan Peake (Nickelback) is 38. Actor Mark-Paul Gosselaar is 37. Actor Jensen Ackles is 33. TV host Donovan Patton is 33. Rock musician Sean Woolstenhulme is 30. R&B singer Sammie is 24. Pop singer Justin Bieber is 17.