History Notes this week of March 1

1394 — Birth of Prince Henry the Navigator (d.1460). The Portuguese prince spent his life guiding and documenting voyages around the African coast, dying 32 years before the great Age of Discovery he helped launch.

1475 — Birth of Michelangelo (d.1564). The most prolific of the Renaissance Masters and arguably the greatest artist of all time, known to most of us simply by his first name.

1493 — Columbus Returns to Lisbon. Christopher Columbus arrives aboard his carrack Nina, completing his first voyage of discovery to the New World.

1496 — John Cabot Receives His Patent. England’s Henry VII authorizes Venetian captain Giovanni Caboto to explore westward, making him the first European to reach the North American continent since the Vikings.

1512 — Birth of Gerardus Mercator (d.1594). The Flemish cartographer solved one of navigation’s great problems — projecting a sphere onto flat paper — with the map projection that still bears his name.

1519 — Cortez Lands in Mexico. Hernando Cortez arrives on the Mexican coast looking for Aztec gold. He finds it.

1565 — Founding of Rio de Janeiro. The great Brazilian city is established.

1678 — Birth of Antonio Vivaldi (d.1741). The Venetian Baroque composer whose work, especially The Four Seasons, remains beloved centuries later.

1712 — Sweden Celebrates February 30th. Stockholm marks this unique calendar date, pulling Sweden back in line with the Julian system after a failed 40-year experiment to slowly adopt the Gregorian Calendar left them awkwardly one day off from everyone else.

1770 — The Boston Massacre. British troops fire on protesters, killing five — including Crispus Attucks — in an event that became a cultural rallying point for the American Revolution. Future president John Adams notably served as defense lawyer for the soldiers.

1776 — Marines Storm Nassau, Bahamas. Captain Samuel Nicholas leads the Continental Marines in their first amphibious assault, successfully occupying the island and loading British guns and powder onto the American fleet — while reportedly draining the governor’s liquor supply.

1776 — Washington Takes Dorchester Heights. Bolstered by artillery hauled from Fort Ticonderoga, George Washington fortifies the heights above Boston, forcing the British into a strategic withdrawal to New York.

1779 — Birth of Joel Roberts Poinsett (d.1851). Congressman, physician, botanist, and first U.S. Minister to Mexico, he’s best remembered today for bringing home the red-leafed “Christmas-Eve flower” that bears his name.

1781 — Articles of Confederation Adopted. The Continental Congress ratifies America’s first governing document — well-intentioned but fundamentally flawed, its weaknesses would ultimately lead to the Constitution.

1791 — France Builds Semaphore Towers. The French Republic constructs a network of “optical telegraphs” using articulated signal arms to rapidly relay messages between the coast and Paris in response to English naval threats.

1810 — Birth of Frédéric Chopin (d.1849). The Warsaw-born piano prodigy became an international celebrity, composing over 230 works — all for piano. He died in Paris at 39; his heart was returned to Warsaw per his final wish. (It’s “show-PAN,” not “chopstick.”)

1820 — The Missouri Compromise. President Monroe signs a law prohibiting slavery north of 36°30’N in the western territories, admitting Missouri as a slave state and Maine as free. Thomas Jefferson called it “the knell of the Union” — a reprieve, not a solution.

1831 — Birth of George Pullman (d.1897). The inventor of the pull-down sleeping berth transformed long-distance rail travel and created an entirely new class of railroad employee: the Pullman Porter.

1831 — Birth of Phil Sheridan (d.1888). The Union cavalry general became probably the second-most reviled Northern officer south of the Mason-Dixon line.

1836 — Texas Declares Independence. Even as the Alamo remained under siege, the Texas Convention of 1836 formally declared the Republic of Texas independent from Mexico.

1836 — The Fall of the Alamo. After 13 days of siege, William Travis, James Bowie, Davy Crockett, and 184 fellow defenders are killed by Mexican forces under Santa Anna. “Remember the Alamo!” became the rallying cry that swept Mexico out of Texas.

1844 — Explosion Aboard USS Princeton. During a VIP demonstration cruise on the Potomac, the experimental cannon “Peacemaker” explodes, killing seven — including two cabinet secretaries — and injuring 20. President Tyler, still below decks, escapes unharmed.

1845 — Texas Annexation Signed. President Tyler authorizes bringing the Republic of Texas into the Union — the only state annexed as a formerly sovereign nation rather than organized from federal territory.

1847 — Birth of Alexander Graham Bell (d.1922). The Scottish-American inventor whose signature creation would change the world forever.

1853 — Birth of Howard Pyle (d.1911). The American illustrator best known for his vivid depictions of the adventure stories of Robert Louis Stevenson.

1854 — Republican Party Founded. Organized in Ripon, Wisconsin, the new party coalesced around anti-slavery activism under the motto “Free labor, free land, and free men.” John C. Frémont ran as its first presidential nominee in 1856; Abraham Lincoln followed in 1860.

1857 — The Dred Scott Decision. The Supreme Court rules that persons of African descent are not citizens, that Congress cannot ban slavery in the territories, and that the Fifth Amendment prohibits freeing slaves in federal territories — a ruling that inflamed the march toward civil war.

1861 — Serfdom Abolished in Russia. Tsar Alexander II ends the centuries-old institution. A good start, but the reforms left the revolutionary movement wanting far more.

1872 — Yellowstone National Park Established. America’s — and the world’s — first national park is created.

1875 — Premiere of Carmen. Georges Bizet’s iconic opera opens in Paris.

1890 — Forth Railway Bridge Opens. At 1,710 feet, Britain’s longest bridge is opened by the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) in Scotland.

1895 — Birth of General Matthew Ridgway (d.1993). Best remembered for revitalizing a demoralized Eighth Army in Korea and putting it back on the attack, he later succeeded MacArthur as Supreme Commander of UN forces.

1898 — Birth of Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty (d.1963). The Irish priest from Killarney became “The Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican,” sheltering over 6,500 Allied POWs from the Nazis in occupied Rome. He received both the OBE and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

1904 — Birth of Glenn Miller (d.1944). The trombonist and big band leader whose standards — In the Mood, Chattanooga Choo-Choo, Pennsylvania 6-5000 — defined the genre. He was lost over the English Channel during a USO tour in 1944.

1905 — Tsar Nicholas II Creates the Duma. Trying to placate unionists and communists after his predecessor’s assassination, Russia’s last Tsar agrees to a representative legislature.

1908 — Birth of Rex Harrison (d.1990). The British actor became immortal as the indomitable Henry Higgins of My Fair Lady.

1912 — The Oreo Cookie Debuts. The National Biscuit Company introduces what would become America’s best-selling cookie.

1918 — Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. Months after overthrowing the Tsar, Lenin’s new Soviet government sues for peace with the Central Powers, ending Russian participation in WWI — then turns its war machine on its own people.

1924 — Birth of Deke Slayton (d.1993). One of the original Mercury Seven astronauts, grounded by a heart murmur but ultimately vindicated — he flew as Docking Module Pilot on the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz mission after running NASA’s Astronaut Office for years.

1924 — Fascist Coup in Fiume. Italian Fascists overthrow the government of the contested Adriatic city-state and request Italian annexation, capping years of Balkan nationalist turmoil. The city eventually became Yugoslavia’s Rijeka.

1925 — Coolidge’s Inauguration Broadcast on Radio. Calvin Coolidge becomes the first president whose inauguration reaches the nation’s living rooms.

1933 — King Kong Premieres. Opening night of the iconic film. Fay Wray would never be the same.

1938 — Oil Discovered in Saudi Arabia. After five years of dry holes, Standard Oil of California strikes oil near Dhahran. The consortium that developed the find eventually became Aramco.

1946 — Ho Chi Minh Signs Agreement with France. The Vietnamese nationalist and communist leader confirms Vietnam as an autonomous state within the French Union — then immediately resumes guerrilla operations to expel France entirely.

1947 — Birth of Dick Fosbury (d.2023). The track and field innovator whose carefully engineered “Fosbury Flop” revolutionized the high jump and electrified the 1968 Olympics.

1949 — First Nonstop Flight Around the World. Captain James Gallagher lands a USAF B-50 Superfortress at Carswell AFB after a 94-hour circumnavigation with four aerial refuelings — over the Azores, Saudi Arabia, the Philippines, and Hawaii.

1950 — Birth of Karen Carpenter (d.1983). The singer-songwriter and drummer whose golden voice was tragically cut short by anorexia nervosa at age 32.

1951 — Rosenberg Trial Opens. Opening arguments begin in the treason case of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who passed atomic secrets to the Soviet Union.

1953 — Death of Joseph Stalin. One of the 20th century’s most blood-stained dictators dies — thirty years too late for the long-suffering people of Russia.

1954 — Castle Bravo Nuclear Test. The U.S. detonates “Shrimp,” its first deliverable hydrogen bomb, at Bikini Atoll. At 15 megatons — over twice the predicted yield — it became both the most powerful U.S. nuclear test and the worst American radiological disaster, irradiating over 7,000 square miles and contaminating the Japanese fishing vessel Lucky Dragon No. 5.

1981 — Cronkite Signs Off. Walter Cronkite delivers his final broadcast of the CBS Evening News, closing an era in American journalism.

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Wayne Creed

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