Today is Wednesday, March 5, the 64th day of 2025
with 301 to follow.
It is Ash Wednesday.
The moon is waxing. Morning stars are Jupiter and Mars. Evening stars are Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Saturn, Uranus and Venus.
On this date in history:
In 1770, British troops killed five colonials in the so-called Boston Massacre, one of the events that led to the American Revolution. Crispus Attucks, who had escaped slavery, died in the incident and became hailed as the first martyr of the American cause. History buffs relived the event 232 years later with a re-enactment in downtown Boston.
In 1917, President Woodrow Wilson was publicly inaugurated for his second term. He had a private, official inauguration a day earlier.
In 1933, in German elections, Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party won nearly half the seats in the Reichstag (the Parliament).
In 1946, Winston Churchill, in a famous speech in Fulton, Mo., stated that a Soviet Union "Iron Curtain" had "descended across" Europe.
In 1953, the Soviet Union announced that dictator Joseph Stalin had died at age 73. Stalin had been in a coma after having a massive stroke four days earlier.
In 1963, Wham-O patented the hula hoop, which then became a fad across the country. The company's co-founders, Richard Knerr and Arthur "Spud" Melin died in 2008 and 2002, respectively.
In 1993, Canada's Ben Johnson, once called the world's fastest human, tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs and was banned for life from track competition.
In 2011, archaeologists renovating the Rio de Janeiro harbor for the 2016 Olympics reported uncovering the remains of a 19th-century port where thousands of people arrived from Africa and were sold into slavery.
In 2013, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez died at age 58 and Vice President Nicolas Maduro ascended to the presidency.
In 2018, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met with South Korean officials for the first time since becoming leader. The special envoys of South Korean President Moon Jae-in were on a mission to broker denuclearization talks between North Korea and the United States.
In 2021, Pope Francis arrived in Iraq for the first-ever papal visit to the Middle Eastern nation.
In 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky asked the United States to stop buying Russian oil during a Zoom meeting with members of the U.S. Congress.
