On March 1, 1871, the Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation.
In 1792 Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II died; he was succeeded by his son, Francis II.
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 1896 the Battle of Adowa began in Ethiopia between the forces of Emperor Menelik II and Italian troops. (The Italians suffered a crushing defeat.)
In 1922 William Gaines, the founding publisher of Mad magazine, was born in New York.
In 1927 singer-actor Harry Belafonte was born in New York.
In 1932 20-month-old Charles A. Lindbergh Jr., the 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 following May.)
In 1942 the cruiser USS Houston, flagship of the U.S. Asiatic Fleet, sank after a battle with a Japanese fleet in the Sunda Strait off Java island, killing 651 crew members.
In 1954 Puerto Rican nationalists opened fire from the gallery of the U.S. House of Representatives, wounding five congressmen.
In 1961 President John Kennedy established the Peace Corps.
In 1974 seven aides of President Richard Nixon were indicted by a federal grand jury in the Watergate scandal on charges of conspiring to obstruct justice.
In 1981 Irish Republican Army member Bobby Sands began a hunger strike at the Maze Prison in Northern Ireland; he died 65 days later.
In 1986 a directive signed by President Ronald Reagan went into effect, making possible the execution of military people convicted of espionage during peacetime.
In 1991 President George H.W. Bush said “We’ve kicked the Vietnam syndrome once and for all” following the allied victory in the gulf war.
In 2001 The ruling Taliban, defying international protests, began destroying all statues in Afghanistan.
In 2002 NASA said its Mars Odyssey spacecraft had found evidence that vast regions of Mars may abound in water.
In 2003 suspected Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was captured by CIA and Pakistani agents in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
