March 1 ...

In 1692 the Salem witch trials began in Salem Village, MA. In 1781 the Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation. In 1790 Congress authorized the first US Census. In 1803 Ohio became the 17th state. In 1837 realism novelist and literary critic William Dean Howells was born in Martins Ferry, OH. In 1845 President John Tyler signed the congressional resolution to annex the Republic of Texas. In 1864 Rebecca Lee became the first black woman to receive an American medical degree, from the New England Female Medical College in Boston. In 1867 Nebraska became the 37th state. In 1872 Congress authorized the creation of Yellowstone National Park. In 1904 bandleader Glenn Miller was born in Clarinda, IA. In 1932 20-month-old Charles A. Lindbergh Jr., the son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh, was kidnapped from the family home near Hopewell, NJ. (Remains identified as those of the child were found the following May.) In 1936 construction of the Hoover Dam was completed. In 1945 President Roosevelt, back from the Yalta Conference, proclaimed the meeting a success as he addressed a joint session of Congress. In 1953 Joseph Stalin suffered a stroke. He died four days later. In 1954 Puerto Rican nationalists opened fire from the gallery of the US House of Representatives, wounding five congressmen. In 1961 President John F. Kennedy established the Peace Corps. In 1966 the Soviet probe Venera 3 crashed on the planet Venus. It was the first unmanned spacecraft to land on the surface of another planet. In 1996 Afghanistan's ruling Taliban, defying international protests, began destroying all statues in the country.