March 1

86 BC – Lucius Cornelius Sulla, at the head of a Roman Republic army, enters Athens, removing the tyrant Aristion who was supported by troops of Mithridates VI of Pontus ending the Siege of Athens and Piraeus.

1565 – The city of Rio de Janeiro is founded.

1642 – Georgeana, Massachusetts (now known as York, Maine), becomes the first incorporated city in the United States.

1692 – Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne and Tituba are brought before local magistrates in Salem Village, Massachusetts, beginning what would become known as the Salem witch trials.

1781 – The Continental Congress adopts the Articles of Confederation.

1790 – The first United States census is authorized.

1815 – Napoleon returns to France from his banishment on Elba, start of the Hundred Days.

1872 – Yellowstone National Park is established as the world’s first national park.

1873 – E. Remington and Sons in Ilion, New York begins production of the first practical typewriter.

1893 – Electrical engineer Nikola Tesla gives the first public demonstration of radio in St. Louis, Missouri.

1932 – Charles Lindbergh’s son is reportedly kidnapped.

1936 – The Hoover Dam is completed.

1950 – Cold War: Klaus Fuchs is convicted of spying for the Soviet Union by disclosing top secret atomic bomb data.

1953 – Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin suffers a stroke and collapses; he dies four days later.

1954 – Nuclear weapons testing: The Castle Bravo, a 15-megaton hydrogen bomb, is detonated on Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, resulting in the worst radioactive contamination ever caused by the United States.

1961 –  John F. Kennedy establishes the Peace Corps.

1974 – Watergate scandal: Seven are indicted for their role in the Watergate break-in and charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice.

2002 – U.S. invasion of Afghanistan: Operation Anaconda begins in eastern Afghanistan.

2002 – The Envisat environmental satellite successfully reaches an orbit 800 kilometers (500 mi) above the Earth on its 11th launch, carrying the heaviest payload to date at 8500 kilograms (8.5 tons).

Recently, Elon Musk’s SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy left the launch pad with 5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, equal to approximately 18 Boeing 747 aircraft and it would be able to carry 64 metric tons. Falcon Heavy  carried Musk’s beloved red Tesla Roadster sports car as a payload, complete with a mannequin at the wheel in a space suit and David Bowie’s classic Space Oddity will be playing on a loop in the roaster as it’s hurtled into orbit.

1810 – Frederic Chopin, Polish pianist and composer (d. 1849)

1914 – Ralph Ellison, American novelist and literary critic (d. 1994)

1917 – Robert Lowell, American poet (d. 1977)

1927 – Robert Bork, American lawyer United States Attorney General who followed Richard’s Nixon’s order to fire Archibald Cox, the special prosecutor investing Watergate (d. 2012) aka The Saturday Night Massacre