On this date...

Louis “Lepke” Buchalter, Head of Murder, Inc.

In 1628, the Massachusetts Bay Colony was granted a Royal charter.

In 1681, William Penn secured the colonial province of Pennsylvania in North America, where he hoped to provide a refuge in the New World for Quakers and other persecuted people and to build an ideal Christian commonwealth.

In 1766, the British Parliament repealed the Stamp Act, the cause of bitter and violent opposition in the colonies.

In 1776, the day had come. Washington issues orders in preparation for action. Flag signals are established. Hospitals are readied. Under the cover of night, American forces begin climbing Dorchester Heights, the high ground south of Boston that overlooks the town and its harbor. In a stunning feat, around 2,000 men and oxen-drawn wagons move artillery and preassembled ramparts up the steep slope—undetected by the British.

In 1789, the U.S. Constitution went into effect as the governing law of the United States, the date having been established by Congress. It served for many years as the day U.S. presidents were inaugurated.

In 1789, the first session of the U.S. Congress was held in New York City as the U.S. Constitution took effect.

In 1791, Vermont became the 14th state.

In 1794, the 11th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was passed by the U.S. Congress.

In 1801, Thomas Jefferson was the first President to be inaugurated in Washington, D.C. The Marine Band performed at a Presidential Inauguration for the first time.

In 1809, James Madison became 1st President to be inaugurated in American-made clothes.

In 1814, the Americans defeated British forces at the Battle of Longwoods between London, Ontario, and Thamesville, near present-day Wardsville, Ontario. The Battle of Longwoods took place during the War of 1812. A mounted American raiding party defeated an attempt by British regulars, volunteers from the Canadian militia, and Native Americans to intercept them near Wardsville, in present-day Southwest Middlesex, Ontario.

In 1822, Boston residents eligible to vote ratified the incorporation of the city and accepted the charter to convert their town into a city.

In 1826, the 1st US railroad was chartered, Granite Railway in Quincy, Massachusetts.

In 1829, Andrew Jackson upheld an inaugural tradition begun by Thomas Jefferson and hosted an open house at the White House.

In 1837, Chicago was incorporated as a city, with a population of about 4,200. The city is known for its creativity in the arts, architecture, and business, as well as its proximity to Lake Michigan.

In 1849, the US had no President. Polk’s term ended on a Sunday, and Taylor couldn’t be sworn in; Senator David Atchison (pres pro tem), whose term had ended on March 3rd.

In 1876, the US Congress decided to impeach Secretary of War (under Ulysses S. Grant) William Worth Belknap (1829 -1890) of malfeasance in office for accepting over $24,000 in bribes from a post trader seeking immunity from removal.

In 1902, the American Automobile Association (AAA) was founded in Chicago.

In 1908, a fire at Lakeview Elementary School in Collinwood, Ohio, killed 172 students and 2 teachers: a boiler room blaze trapped many victims in the building, prompting changes in school design and procedures nationwide.

In 1909, U.S. President William Taft used what became known as a Saxbe fix, a mechanism to avoid the restriction of the U.S. Constitution’s Ineligibility Clause, to appoint Philander C. Knox as U.S. Secretary of State.

In 1917, Jeannette Rankin became the first female member of the US House of Representatives.

In 1918, just before breakfast on the morning of March 4, Private Albert Gitchell of the U.S. Army reported to the hospital at Fort Riley, Kansas, complaining of the cold-like symptoms of sore throat, fever, and headache. Soon after, over 100 of his fellow soldiers had reported similar symptoms, marking what are believed to be the first cases in the historic influenza pandemic of 1918, later known as Spanish flu.

In 1925, President Calvin Coolidge’s inauguration was broadcast live on 21 radio stations coast to coast.

In 1930, the Coolidge Dam in Arizona was dedicated.

In 1933, Frances Perkins became Secretary of Labor, the first female member of the US Cabinet.

In 1933, in the midst of the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt became the last U.S. president to be inaugurated on March 4.

In 1933, Texas' John Nance "Cactus Jack" Garner became the Vice President of the United States.

In 1944, Louis “Lepke” Buchalter, the head of Murder, Inc., was executed at Sing Sing Prison in New York. Lepke was the leader of the country’s largest crime syndicate throughout the 1930s and was making nearly $50 million a year from his various enterprises. His downfall came when several members of his notorious killing squad turned into witnesses for the government.

In 1954, speaking before the 10th Inter-American Conference, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles warned that “international communism” was making inroads in the Western Hemisphere and asked the nations of Latin America to condemn this danger.

In 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. announced plans for the Poor People's Campaign.

In 1974, actress Mia Farrow from The Great Gatsby graced the cover of the inaugural issue of People, a weekly celebrity and human interest magazine spotlighting the personal lives of notable and intriguing people. People remains one of America’s best-selling weeklies.

In 1987, President Ronald Reagan addressed the nation on the Iran-Contra affair, acknowledging his overtures to Iran had "deteriorated" into an arms-for-hostages deal.

In 1989, Time Inc. and Warner Communications Inc. announced plans to merge.

In 1995, a blind teenage boy received a 'Bionic Eye' at a Washington Hospital

In 1997, President Bill Clinton barred spending federal money on human cloning.

In 1998, the US Supreme Court in Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services ruled that federal laws banning on-the-job sexual harassment also apply when both parties are of the same sex.

In 2015, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and his team of researchers found the Musashi, one of Japan’s biggest and most famous battleships, which was sunk by American forces in 1944, on the floor of the Sibuyan Sea.

In 2024, the US Supreme Court ruled that states can't bar federal candidates, including Donald Trump, from a ballot under the 14th Amendment clause prohibiting those who “engaged in insurrection” [1]