On This Day

On March 6, 1857, the Supreme Court ruled against Dred Scott, a slave who sued for freedom after spending time in free territory. The decision, which declared that slaves were not citizens and that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional, outraged Northerners and contributed to the start of the Civil War.

On March 6, 1957, British colony the Gold Coast united with neighboring territories to form Ghana, the first sub-Saharan country to escape colonialism.

On March 5, 1770, British soldiers stationed in Boston fired on a crowd of hecklers, killing five and wounding others.

On March 5, 1946, Winston Churchill coined the phrase the “Iron Curtain” at a speech in Missouri. The term came to define the divisions of the Cold War.

On March 4, 1461, Edward, Duke of York, was crowned king of England, ending 62 years of Lancastrian rule. The Yorkists would rule England for most of the next 24 years.

On March 3, 1991, a group of white Los Angeles police officers were videotaped severely beating black suspect Rodney King. The officers were later acquitted of excessive force, sparking riots in the city.

On March 2, 1970, Prime Minister Ian Smith severed Rhodesia’s remaining ties with Britain in an attempt to protect white minority rule. It would be another nine years before Smith would assent to open elections, which would usher in black rule and the renaming of the country to Zimbabwe.

On March 2, 1962, Philadelphia Warriors center Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points against the New York Knicks, setting the NBA single-game scoring record.

On March 1, 1932, Charles Lindbergh Jr., son of the famed aviator, was stolen from his crib. After a national search, the child was found dead.

On March 1, 1954, Puerto Rican nationalists opened fire on the House of Representatives, injuring five congressmen.

On Feb. 28, 1993, federal agents tried to arrest David Koresh at his Waco, Texas, compound. A gunfight ensued, killing 10 and beginning a 51-day standoff.

On Feb. 27, 1933, the Reichstag building in Berlin was burned down by a Dutch communist, possibly with the assistance of Nazi officials. The arson created a climate of fear that helped Adolf Hitler consolidate power.

On Feb. 26, 1993, Islamic terrorists detonated a car bomb in the World Trade Center’s basement garage, killing six and injuring more than 1,000.

On Feb. 25, 1964, 22-year-old Cassius Clay became the world heavyweight boxing champion, defeating Sonny Liston in an upset.

On Feb. 24, 1868, Andrew Johnson became the first U.S. president to be impeached; the Senate subsequently acquitted him by a single vote.

On Feb. 23, 1836, Mexican Gen. Santa Anna began a siege against nearly 200 Texan rebels stationed inside the Alamo. He launched an assault 12 days later, killing all the rebels but sustaining costly losses.

On Feb. 22, 1980, the underdog U.S. hockey team beat the powerful Soviet team in a thrilling upset at the Lake Placid Olympics.

On Feb. 21, 1965, Malcolm X, a former Nation of Islam leader, was assassinated by Black Muslims in New York.

On Feb. 20, 1839, Congress passed legislation barring the practice of dueling in the District of Columbia.

On Feb. 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which authorized the military to relocate Japanese-Americans from their homes to internment centers.

On Feb. 18, 1970, five members of the “Chicago Seven” were found guilty of inciting riots at the 1968 Democratic Convention.

On Feb. 17, 1972, President Richard Nixon embarked on a diplomatic mission to normalize relations with the People’s Republic of China.

On Feb. 16, 1923, King Tutankhamen’s tomb was unsealed and entered by an excavation team led by British archaeologist Howard Carter and financial backer Lord Carnarvon.

On Feb. 15, 1989, the Soviet Union pulled its remaining troops out of Afghanistan, ending the USSR’s nine-year occupation of the country.

On Feb. 14, 1974, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the Russian writer who revealed the horrors of the Soviet gulag, was charged with treason a day after being deported to West Germany.

On Feb. 13, 1633, Galileo arrived in Rome to be tried for promoting Copernican theories, such as the revolutionary idea that the Earth orbits the sun.

On Feb. 12, 2002, the war crimes trial of Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic began at The Hague. The defendant died before a sentence was passed.

On Feb. 11, 1990, South African President Frederik Willem de Klerk freed anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela. Mandela had spent 27 years in prison.

On Feb. 10, 1962, U-2 spy plane pilot Francis Gary Powers was returned to the U.S. in a prisoner exchange. Powers had been shot down in May 1960, creating an incident that destabilized U.S.-Soviet relations.

On Feb. 6, 1820, a ship of freed black slaves set sail from New York for the coast of West Africa, where they would found the nation of Liberia.