Today is Wednesday, March 1, the 60th day of 2017. There are 305 days left in the year. Today is Ash Wednesday.
Today's Highlight in History:
On March 1, 1867, Nebraska became the 37th state as President Andrew Johnson signed a proclamation.
On this date:
In 1565, the city of Rio de Janeiro was founded by Portuguese knight Estacio de Sa.
In 1792, Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II died; he was succeeded by his son, Francis II.
In 1815, Napoleon, having escaped exile in Elba, arrived in Cannes, France, and headed for Paris to begin his "Hundred Days" rule.
In 1932, Charles A. Lindbergh Jr., the 20-month-old son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh, was kidnapped from the family home near Hopewell, New Jersey. (Remains identified as those of the child were found the following May.)
In 1940, "Native Son" by Richard Wright was first published by Harper & Brothers.
In 1954, four Puerto Rican nationalists opened fire from the spectators' gallery of the U.S. House of Representatives, wounding five members of Congress. The United States detonated a dry-fuel hydrogen bomb, codenamed Castle Bravo, at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands.
In 1957, "The Cat in the Hat" by Dr. Seuss was released to bookstores by Random House.
In 1961, President John F. Kennedy signed an executive order establishing the Peace Corps.
In 1967, U.S. Rep. Adam Clayton Powell, D-N.Y., accused of misconduct, was denied his seat in the 90th Congress. (The Supreme Court ruled in 1969 that Powell had to be seated.)
In 1971, a bomb went off inside a men's room at the U.S. Capitol; the radical group Weather Underground claimed responsibility for the pre-dawn blast.
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 1997, severe storms hit Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi, and spawned tornadoes in Arkansas blamed for two dozen deaths.
