In 1565, the city of Rio de Janeiro was established.
In 1692, the notorious witch-hunt began in the Salem village of the Massachusetts Bay colony, eventually resulting in the executions of 19 innocent men
and women.
In 1780, Pennsylvania became the first state to abolish slavery.
In 1781, the American colonies adopted the Articles of Confederation, paving the way for a federal union.
In 1803, Ohio was admitted to the union as the 17th state.
In 1867, Nebraska was admitted to the union as the 37th state.
In 1872, Yellowstone National Park was established by an act of Congress. It was the first area in the world to be designated a national park.
In 1932, aviator Charles Lindbergh’s son was kidnapped. The boy’s body was found May 12 and Bruno Hauptmann was executed for the crime in 1936.
In 1954, Puerto Rican nationalists opened fire from the gallery of the U.S. House of Representatives, wounding five members of Congress.
In 1961, U.S. President John Kennedy formed the Peace Corps.
In 1971, a bomb exploded in a restroom in the Senate wing of the U.S. Capitol, causing $300,000 damage but no injuries. The Weather Underground, a leftist
radical group that opposed the Vietnam War, claimed responsibility.
In 1991, the United States reopened its embassy in newly liberated Kuwait.
Also in 1991, after 23 years of insurgency in Colombia, the Popular Liberation Army put down its arms in exchange for two seats in the national assembly.
In 1992, the collapse of a building housing a cafe in East Jerusalem killed 23 people.
In 1994, the Muslim-dominated government of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Bosnia’s Croats agreed to a federation embracing portions of their war-torn country
under their control.
In 1996, Dr. Jack Kevorkian, who reportedly had assisted more than two dozen suicides, was acquitted of murder for a third time.
In 1999, Rwandan rebels killed eight tourists, including two Americans, a Ugandan game warden and three rangers in a national forest in Uganda.
In 2000, in a rare unanimous vote, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill to allow most Social Security recipients to earn as much money as they
want without losing any benefits.
In 2003, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States was captured in Pakistan.
Also in 2003, as the possibility of war in Iraq grew, Turkey’s parliament refused to permit U.S. troops on Turkish soil.
In 2004, a new interim government took over in Haiti after a bloody, monthlong insurrection, one day after President Jean-Bertrand Aristide fled into exile.
In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that execution of juvenile offenders is unconstitutional.
In 2006, U.S. President George W. Bush made an unscheduled visit to Afghanistan to discuss security matters.
In 2007, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., announced that he would be a candidate for president in 2008.
Also in 2007, Arthur Schlesinger Jr., the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning historian who served as an adviser in the Kennedy Administration, died at age
89.
In 2008, the Dow Jones industrials fell 315.17 points and went into March at 12,266.39 after a fourth consecutive monthly drop. Crude oil prices topped
$101 a barrel.
Also in 2008, Israeli forces carried out more attacks in the Gaza Strip, killing at least 45 Palestinians, reports said. About 60 others were injured.
In 2009, longstanding rivalries between civilian and military leaders in the small West African nation of Guinea Bissau led to the assassinations of two
of the country’s top officials. President Joao Bernardo Vieira and Gen. Batista Tagme Na Waie, the army chief of staff, were slain in separate attacks
within a short time of each other.
