Today is Saturday, March 3, the 62nd day of 2018. There are 303 days left in the year.
Today's Highlight in History:
On March 3, 1931, "The Star-Spangled Banner" became the national anthem of the United States as President Herbert Hoover signed a congressional resolution.
On this date:
In 1791, Congress passed a measure taxing distilled spirits; it was the first internal revenue act in U.S. history.
In 1845, Florida became the 27th state.
In 1849, the U.S. Department of the Interior was established.
In 1918, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, the Ottoman Empire and Russia signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which ended Russian participation in World War I. (The treaty was rendered moot by the November 1918 armistice.)
In 1923, Time magazine, founded by Briton Hadden and Henry R. Luce, made its debut.
In 1943, in London's East End, 173 people died in a crush of bodies at the Bethnal Green tube station, which was being used as a wartime air raid shelter.
In 1959, the United States launched the Pioneer 4 spacecraft, which flew by the moon. Comedian Lou Costello died in East Los Angeles three days before his 53rd birthday.
In 1960, Lucille Ball filed for divorce from her husband, Desi Arnaz, a day after they had finished filming the last episode of "The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show" ("Lucy Meets the Mustache") on Arnaz's 43rd birthday.
In 1974, a Turkish Airlines DC-10 crashed shortly after takeoff from Orly Airport in Paris, killing all 346 people on board.
In 1985, coal miners in Britain voted to end a year-long strike that proved to be the longest and most violent walkout in British history.
In 1991, motorist Rodney King was severely beaten by Los Angeles police officers in a scene captured on amateur video. Twenty-five people were killed when a United Airlines Boeing 737-200 crashed while approaching the Colorado Springs airport.
In 2002, voters in Switzerland approved joining the United Nations, abandoning almost 200 years of formal neutrality.