History of the Day for:
March 2
- 1793: The first president of the Republic of Texas, Sam Houston, was born near Lexington, Va.
- 1836: Texas declared its independence from Mexico.
- 1877: A U.S. electoral commission finally declared Republican Rutherford B. Hayes the winner of the 1876 presidential election over Democrat Samuel J. Tilden, even though Tilden had won the popular vote. The original result had been too close to call, with several disputed ballots.
- 1904: Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel) was born.
- 1917: The Jones Act, establishing Puerto Rico as an American territory, was passed by the U.S. Congress.
- 1923: Time magazine made its debut.
- 1925: State and federal highway officials developed a nationwide route numbering system and adopted the U.S. shield-shaped, numbered marker.
- 1933: "King Kong," starring Fay Wray, had its world premiere in New York at Radio City Music Hall and the RKO Roxy.
- 1941: World War II: First German military units enter Bulgaria after it joined the Axis Pact.
- 1943: World War II: Battle of the Bismarck Sea – United States and Australian forces sink Japanese convoy ships.
- 1944: "Casablanca" won best picture, best director, and best screenplay at the Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles. Jennifer Jones received the best actress award for "The Song of Bernadette," while Paul Lukas won best actor for "Watch on the Rhine."
- 1946: Ho Chi Minh was elected president of North Vietnam.
- 1949: Captain James Gallagher lands his B-50 Superfortress Lucky Lady II in Fort Worth, Texas after completing the first non-stop around the world flight.
- 1949: The first automatic street light is installed in New Milford, Conn.
- 1962: Wilt Chamberlain sets the single-game scoring record in the National Basketball Association by scoring 100 points.
- 1964: Filming began on the Beatles' first film, "A Hard Day's Night."
- 1969: In Toulouse, France the first test flight of the Anglo-French Concorde is conducted.
- 1969: Soviet and Chinese forces clash at a border outpost on the Ussuri River.
- 1970: Rhodesia declares itself a republic, breaking its last links with the British crown.
- 1972: The Pioneer 10 space probe is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida with a mission to explore the outer planets.
- 1978: Czech Vladimír Remek becomes the first non-Russian or non-American to go into space, when he is launched aboard Soyuz 28.
- 1989: Twelve European Community nations agree to ban the production of all chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) by the end of the century.
- 1990: Nelson Mandela elected deputy President of the African National Congress.
- 1991: Battle at Rumaila Oil Field brings an end to the 1991 Gulf War.
- 1992: Moldova joins the United Nations.
- 1998: Data sent from the Galileo spacecraft indicates that Jupiter's moon Europa has a liquid ocean under a thick crust of ice.
- 2002: U.S. invasion of Afghanistan: Operation Anaconda begins, (ending on March 19 after killing 500 Taliban and al Qaeda fighters, with 11 Western troop fatalities).
- 2003: The first International Symposium on Taiwan Sign Language Linguistics is held at Chung Cheng University.
- 2004: Voters in the U.S. state of Georgia vote on a referendum concerning its Confederacy-derived flag.
- 2004: War in Iraq: Al Qaeda carries out the Ashoura Massacre in Iraq, killing 170 and wounding over 500.
- 2008: Riots in Yerevan, Armenia concerning the Armenian presidential election, 2008 come to a fatal end, with police forces clashing with civilians in their peaceful protest, resulting in 8 deaths.