Updated March 1, 2012, 1:28 pm
On March 2, 1877, Republican Rutherford B. Hayes was declared the winner of the 1876 presidential election over Democrat Samuel J. Tilden, even though Tilden had won the popular vote.
On March 2, 1904, Theodor Seuss Geisel, who wrote and illustrated the popular ‘Dr. Seuss’ children’s books, was born. Following his death on Sept. 24, 1991, his obituary appeared in The Times.
Go to obituary » | Other birthdays »
On This Date
By The Associated Press
1807 Congress outlawed the importation of slaves to the United States, effective the following year. 1836 Texas declared its independence from Mexico. 1917 Puerto Ricans were granted U.S. citizenship. 1939 Roman Catholic Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli was elected pope and took the name Pius XII. 1959 Jazz trumpeter Miles Davis held the first of two recording sessions that yielded the album “Kind of Blue.” 1962 Wilt Chamberlain of the Philadelphia Warriors scored 100 points in a game against the New York Knicks, an NBA record that still stands. 1965 The movie version of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical “The Sound of Music” had its world premiere in New York. 1985 The federal government approved a screening test for AIDS that detected antibodies to the virus, allowing possibly contaminated blood to be excluded from the blood supply. 2004 A series of coordinated blasts in Iraq killed 181 people at shrines in Karbala and Baghdad as thousands of Shiite Muslim pilgrims gathered for a religious festival. 2008 Dmitry Medvedev, Vladimir Putin’s hand-picked successor, scored a crushing victory in Russia’s presidential election. 2011 The Supreme Court ruled 8-1 that members of the fundamentalist Westboro Baptist Church had a First Amendment right to picket the funeral of a Marine. Current Birthdays
By The Associated Press
Rock musician Jon Bon Jovi turns 50 years old today.
AP Photo/Evan Agostini
Rock musician Lou Reed turns 70 years old today.
AP Photo/Evan Agostini
1930 John Cullum, Actor (“Northern Exposure”), turns 82 1930 Tom Wolfe, Author, turns 82 1931 Mikhail Gorbachev, Former Soviet president, turns 81 1942 John Irving, Author, turns 70 1952 Laraine Newman, Actress, comedian (“Saturday Night Live”), turns 60 1953 Russ Feingold, Former U.S. senator, D-Wis., turns 59 1955 Jay Osmond, Singer, turns 57 1955 Ken Salazar, Secretary of the interior, turns 57 1956 John Cowsill, Pop musician (The Cowsills), turns 56 1968 Daniel Craig, Actor, turns 44 1977 Chris Martin, Rock singer (Coldplay), turns 35 1977 Heather McComb, Actress (“Party of Five”), turns 35 1981 Bryce Dallas Howard, Actress, turns 31 1982 Ben Roethlisberger, Football player, turns 30 1985 Reggie Bush, Football player, turns 27 1985 Robert Iler, Actor (“The Sopranos”), turns 27
Historic Birthdays
Theodor Seuss Geisel 3/2/1904 – 9/24/1991 American author and illustrator (Dr. Seuss).Go to obituary »
64 Adrian VI 3/2/1459 – 9/14/1523
Dutch – Elected Pope in 152258 DeWitt Clinton 3/2/1769 – 2/11/1828
American who presided over construction of the Erie Canal70 Sam Houston 3/2/1793 – 7/26/1863
American lawyer and politician60 Bedrich Smetana 3/2/1824 – 5/12/1884
Bohemian composer of operas and symphonic poems71 John Jay Chapman 3/2/1862 – 11/4/1933
American poet, dramatist, and critic82 Pius XII 3/2/1876 – 10/9/1958
Italian Pope (1939-58)50 Kurt Weill 3/2/1900 – 4/3/1950
German-bn. American composer72 Edward Condon 3/2/1902 – 3/26/1974
American physicist80 Geoffrey Grigson 3/2/1905 – 11/25/1985
English poet, editor, and literary critic65 Ernst Haas 3/2/1921 – 9/12/1986
Austrian-bn. photojournalist
